Thoughtful Thursday: Things I Don't Miss

Happy Thursday, all. It is time to think a bit about stuff going on in the music therapy world - well, at least stuff that I know about.

I am no longer a member of the American Music Therapy Association. This is my second year of not paying membership dues, but I still get all the emails and announcements. I was thinking about my separation from this organization yesterday because a job that I felt I would be good at but ultimately decided not to apply for was filled and announced. I have a little bit of jealousy about someone else getting this position, but I am also relieved that I did not apply.

I left the organization because it was feeling less like a professional advocacy organization promoting music therapy for persons we serve and more like a political action organization demanding socio-political changes in the greater world. I do not feel like a professional organization should be making political statements about situations that are not directly related to the profession.

Now, before you decide to make comments about my opinions shared here, please know that I am not a conservative person when it comes to my politics. Many of the statements that have been released are ones that I agree with, but I do not want to be automatically aligned with an organization that I am a member of - does that make sense? The Board of Directors of the American Music Therapy Association do not get to tell me what to think about anything. So, when statements of support come out, people assume that I agree with everything. That's fine when the statements of support align with my thoughts, but it is really not fine when those statements do not.

I don't really miss it. The organization has changed so much in the past 10 years - some good changes and some that I do not agree with. As a result, I decided to stop my membership at the start of 2025 because I was no longer an internship director. I wanted to see if there was any advantage to spending the money. It didn't seem like it. I do not really find the research that is being published is appropriate for my life as a music therapist - does anyone else find that most of the articles are more about how we are educating future music therapists than what we are doing for the benefit of our clients?? Perhaps there are more articles than what I see being marketed to the music therapy world. Perhaps.

So, I've decided that I really don't need to be part of this group to be a good music therapist. I really don't miss the drama or the bullying, and that's my opinion about it all...

I have to leave now to go to work. Only four groups today, so I am ready to head out into the world to finish up the week. Tomorrow evening is my craft night, so I will get some socialization in before the weekend happens! I don't think I will be there for the entire eight hours, but I will strive to do so. I have a couple of projects to take with me, all of my allowance, and a moratorium on my no-buy to celebrate my upcoming birthday and the opening of the new location of the craft store in my town! Let's go!!

Thanks for reading.

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