Therapy Technique Tuesday: Taking Time to Navigate My Emotions

This has been a rough couple of weeks at my place. We have had more assists in music therapy than in months and months of time. I have had to initiate an assist in the past seven days which ALWAYS makes me hesitant to return in a therapeutic relationship with clients. I really hate putting hands on clients who are in crisis and hurting self, others, and are creating significant property damage, but it is part of my job as music therapist at my facility.

As a result, my own emotions have been out of control. We are all in a place of exhaustion and emotional lability, so it becomes more important for me to utilize my rational brain rather than my emotional brain when I am in the role of therapist. When there are emotional outbursts that lead to aggression and assists in my area, I tend to go into my own crisis cycle - my thinking becomes limited, my body braces for flight/fight/freeze responses, and I get into a tizzy. This has become more difficult to navigate lately - so many reasons why this could be happening, but I won't go into them here.

So, how do I navigate this situation (and this ENTIRE month of April)? 

I decrease my demands on my clients. At my job, music therapy is a place where we do not have to work on IEP goals, so music therapy can be a place where we throw balls, we play with electronic toys, and we try our best to ignore other people.

I remind myself, over and over, that most of what is happening is not because of me. Yesterday's angst came from a young man who just wanted to scream about something, and I happened to be the place where he chose to escalate. It was an entire drama about a water bottle and not getting to get the toy he wanted (which I did not keep from him, he just decided that I had done so).

I acknowledge that I am tired and hyper emotional. When I think about my own emotions, I am able to handle the emotions of others better.

Part of my difficulties with this month is that it is the start of allergy season which makes me more focused on my internal processes rather than those around me. I am trying really hard to navigate a world of stormy weather, high emotions around me, and my internal ick all at the same time.

Here are my techniques for navigating my emotions (in no particular order):

• journaling
• reading books - escapism at its best!
• watching novel television shows
• scrolling through my playlists to find something that resonates with me
• making small journals and books
• crying in my car during my commutes

You might notice that music is not all that prevalent on my list. I am not currently making any music outside of my music therapy sessions. It seems like too much work at the moment, so I am not sitting down with my keyboard(s) to play music after work these days. Soon, though.

Time to go upstairs, get dressed in work clothes, and then clean out the car. I brought lots of stuff home this weekend and then did not do anything to move things around upstairs. I did lots of rearranging downstairs this weekend, but not nearly enough!

Take care of your emotions, folks. It is important to be in control of yourself when working with others who have their own emotions.