Tuesday Theme: Emotions

It is time to revisit the idea of thematic music therapy programming in my blog. I don't always remember this particular theme for Tuesday posts, but I feel like I need the structure this morning, so here goes!

For today's theme, I am focusing on emotions.

The book packet that I am putting together is based on a book where emotions are displayed in inappropriate ways. I enjoy the book so much, especially the illustrations. I have all the TMEs planned out, but I haven't written them down yet. That's the next step.

One of the things that happens over and over in my sessions - often by well-intentioned adults rather than my clients - is that emotions are labeled as good or bad rather than just there. I stress, over and over again, that emotions are not the important thing - it is how we handle our emotions that make them good or bad. If we are feeling angry, then that is fine. If we are feeling angry and hit someone, that is a bad action that came through our emotional state. The anger is not the value criterion - it is what we did with that anger that has positive or negative connotations.

This is a difficult concept to teach the adults who work with me. My students seem to grasp the idea pretty quickly - all the counseling and therapy that they have gone through over the years. The adults who care for them, though...

So.

Emotions.

There are so many books, songs, and acting exercises that focus on emotions that making an entire book about it all is pretty easy. It just takes time, energy, and motivation.

I remembered that tomorrow evening is our Back to School/Open House night, so I will have some time to work on things like file folders and thinking about emotions. It will be a quiet night that has little to nothing to do with my job - no one really comes to the music therapy room. They usually just stick with the classroom teacher. We also do not get many visitors. We might have six or seven people show up for our 80 students. It is pretty sad when you think about it.

Oh, another emotion!

Time to collect all of my TMEs from all of my years as a music therapist as well as all of the ones that my interns have written (I don't publish those because they are not mine, but their ideas often supplement what I can do with my clients nicely). I bet I have over 200 TMEs ready to go!

For now, though, it is enough to feel what I feel and help my clients figure out that what they feel is just that - feelings.