Creativity Camp Is Coming!!
This is a passion project of mine - something that I have long wanted to do and FINALLY have the time, energy, and motivation to pursue. Thank goodness for being able to retire with my full pension after 30 years of working as a full-time music therapist!! So, here comes Creativity Camp!!
You may be wondering about this entire thing and why this is what I am doing right now, so here comes an explanation...
Growing up, my family was comfortable. My mom was a stay-at-home mom until I was 11. My dad was a plant manager for several plastics companies in the 70s and 80s. We had stable housing and enough to eat, wear, and do. We were not rich, but we were stable. As kids, we did not get everything that we wanted when we wanted it. We had less "things" than many of our friends, but again, our family was stable. Mom and Dad were together, and it was a safe upbringing.
My mother was raised by the daughter of a Methodist pastor and his wife. They never had enough, and my grandmother's way of life echoed that upbringing. My maternal grandparents were very frugal, and Mom echoed lots of that "money is a luxury" attitude in our lives. My father came from a more prosperous family, and it showed in his attitudes about money as well. Since Mom was at home, her attitudes about money were the primary influence in our lives, and we learned how to make things rather than buy things.
Since I was little, I made things. I started embroidering when I was a toddler, learned to sew on the machine in sixth grade, and wrote stories, poems, and other things in and out of school assignments. We drew on paper grocery bags because those were available. My mother made our clothing, baked bread, crocheted blankets, and did her own art projects. We all had creative practices that we completed both alone and with each other. Once music came into my life, most of my creativity went into performing - interestingly, not into songwriting.
Okay. All of this is just to give you a bit of background about why I am doing what I am doing.
As a baby music therapist, money was tight. I have made decisions about my financial priorities since I started my first professional job out of college. I do not want to live with a roommate, so having enough money for rent is important to me. That means that there wasn't always enough money to purchase materials for my music therapy practice. I learned how to make things to support my sessions.
I make file folder activities, I compose songs, I sew my own storage bags. There are many things around me that I have made over the years. I also have found ways to find instruments, materials, and manipulatives for less money than usual. I recycle and reuse things as much as I can.
I now live in music therapy abundance. I have more materials than any one therapist could ever use up. Now that I have time, I am going to share as much as I can with other music therapists. So, that's where the inspiration of Creativity Camp comes from.
This is the second camp that I have run. The first was back in 2015, and I had one camper. This time around, I have seven campers (and there is still time to join us!), and I am hoping to turn this into an annual event. I enjoy guiding others into creating things for themselves, and this combines making music therapy materials with building community with others. I am really looking forward to this next weekend, and I hope that the campers are getting excited as well...
Join us for as low as $20.00 for the packet and a CMTE option for $80.00. I hope that you will consider this as a way to make something to use with your clients while in the company of other music therapists.
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