Thoughtful Thursday: Who Comes Up With "Rules," Anyway?
I wonder who comes up with the "rules." Who out there decides that it is no longer appropriate to hit the spacebar twice? In my case, the American Psychiatric Association made that decision, and I went along with it because my professors required me to do so. What is going to happen if we ever move from a character-driven writing format to something else? All those who deride 2-spacers will become the derided.
Who came up with the rule that music therapists would primarily work within the medical model? (I actually know the answer to this question.) Who decides what form of music therapy is "right" and which forms are "wrong?" (I have some answers for those questions as well.) Is this something we should even consider? (In my opinion, no. All forms of music therapy are valid if they are appropriate for the persons we serve!) Why are the rest of us so eager to prove our worth by collecting letters to put behind our names? I know music therapists who attend EVERY continuing education situation that provides a title or designation. They may not practice within a GIM philosophy or construct, but they have the designation that says that they could, if they wanted. Who decided that this was the way that music therapists would interact with the world?
To be completely transparent here, I did take Neurologic Music Therapy training way back, but I decided not to use the designator that they suggested of NMT because the founder told me that the things I was learning were not appropriate for my client population. Point blank. In front of everyone. So, I decided that it was not something that I needed to continue. If the techniques were not "appropriate" for my clients, then why throw money at the situation for the opportunity to add letters to my signature? So, I didn't return for more training, and I did not use the designation.
I decided that I did not need additional letters to add to my professional signature pretty early on in my career. I admit that I have been tempted to take any and all training that I come across, but I have realized that no one can truly own any sort of music therapy treatment or technique, so why try to gatekeep these things?
If I was given the opportunity to make some rules, I would make many for the benefit of myself directly and then for others. Term limits for everyone! Abolish the Electoral College! Music therapists in every school, hospital, skilled nursing facility, rehabilitation center and wellness practice! State recognition everywhere! National recognition as well! Nationalizing health care for all!! The list would go on and on. May 21st is a national holiday for everyone! Paid internships for everyone!! Eek - I am starting to sound like a megalomaniac!
I think I would like to say that rules are something that someone out there decides upon and then enforces in one way or another. We then choose to follow or break those rules.
By the way, I haven't heard anything from AMTA since November. Any news that I missed??
This post went a different way than I thought. But I’ll make the same comment. What I learned in ethics was that every rule exists because somebody was misguided enough to do the thing that we had to prohibit. Something I think about a lot. The next is I type too fast to count how many spaces I use. I guess I only use one, so thank goodness I don’t have to adapt to that APA rule. I can’t believe their standards committee took that up. But then again, I suppose I can.
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