Thoughtful Thursday: A Reintroduction Might Be in Order
I am a long-term music therapist. I started my music therapy studies back in the last century, and I have been employed as a music therapist for 32 of my 34 years as a professional. For the other two years, I had job descriptions that were not specifically music therapist but in related fields. I have spent 29 years at my current job, working with children, adolescents, and young adults with developmental, intellectual, and psychiatric diagnoses. I work in a school associated with both local school districts and the psychiatric residential treatment facility where the school is housed. In that time, I have been through many policy changes, changes in the types of kids that we serve, and four principals.
I have a masters degree in music education with emphasis in music therapy, and I started a Ph.D. program but left it when I realized that I really wasn't all that interested in the hoops and political nature of both the program I was part of and the greater world of music therapy higher education. I was told, by an associated professor in the music education program, that the only reason to ever pursue a Ph.D. was to go into teaching at the university level. It was rich coming from that professor because he was a lousy teacher who appeared to have gone into his own Ph.D. so he could give shoulder massages to students during his lectures. He tried that with me - once. I reacted the way I react to my clients - not the way most people react. It took me lots of time, energy, and money before I realized that I did not want to be part of the only world that would be available to me after getting the degree. Also, I don't want to have to take a $30K cut in pay to be a university professor. I get paid way more than the folks that I know in higher education positions.
So, I remain a happy clinician rather than a miserable professor. Now, I am not saying that all professors are miserable - they are not. They love teaching and being part of the university matrix. It was just not for me.
I occasionally get invited to apply for clinical professor positions. I always apply because you never know if things will work out, but I am not currently in a position where a salary does not matter. In about a year, I will be retired from my current position and will have access to my pension payments. At that point, being a professor would be financially doable, but I am not really wanting to go that route.
When I sit down to write this blog, I am usually writing early in the morning before I drive to work. I live in a college town in Kansas which is 50 miles away from where I work - this is on purpose because the attitude of my college town aligns more with my own attitudes than the town where my facility is located. I also like having the physical distance and the long drive to decompress from the mental rigors of working with students who are traumatized, aggressive, and bring so much into the therapy space.
I am only doing groups at my work right now. Every student comes to music therapy for 60 minutes a week. Some come for an hour-long session while others come for two 30 minute sessions per week. After I get a bit further from the surgery I had earlier, I will be able to start some individual sessions again, but I want another week of groups only before I get into that part.
I have grown older in this job that I have done for more than half of my lifetime. I am looking forward to my next iteration as a music therapist - I am not sure what that will be, but I do want to focus more on creation and providing materials and support to other music therapy professionals as part of that future. I also enjoy making non-music therapy things, so I might be doing a bit of it all. I will need to have some sort of income and benefits, so who knows. My dream (non-music therapy job) is working in a little bookstore. I would love to be paid to read. My dream (music therapy job) is running a community creative arts therapy center somewhere. I waver between wanting to be involved with as many people as possible and being completely isolated and away from others. My mind changes based on my moods and the things that happened in music therapy during the day.
As a vintage music therapist (a term coined by two music therapy professors from TWU), I have a perspective of our profession that includes history as well as lived experiences as a professional. I try my best not to dwell in the history of our association and the path that I took to come here to 2025, but I also feel that we have to acknowledge the role that historical figures in our profession continue to have in shaping how and what we do.
What else?
i have little interest in research. I find that most of what is published is irrelevant to the clinical work that I do, but I also feel like I need to read more of the research that is out there. I have a full library of journals that I delve into occasionally, but I am not a member of AMTA at the moment, so I do not have access to current publications. Most of what I have seen being published seems less client focused and more music therapy focused - does that make sense? It seems that we are promoting articles and projects that have more to do with how we do our job than the persons we serve in doing our job. I tend to go more into the psychology of music literature to find out what music does to help or hinder our clients' responses to therapy than the music therapy journals. Again, this is my opinion rather than facts, but it is time to let you know.
It is getting close to time to leave for work, so I will stop the reintroduction here. Feel free to comment, challenge, and offer your own opinions about things. As a music therapist who craves meaningful music therapy interactions, I enjoy learning about others.
Happy Thursday.
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