Thoughtful Thursday: Glad To Be Staying Home

Two years ago, the plan for this summer was to be going to Italy for the World Congress of Music Therapy. Those plans fell through, so the plan shifted a bit to a trip to the East Coast of this country to see my mother's family and friends, but those plans also fell through. So, the plan for this summer is to stay home and figure out home things for the moment. Rest. Reset the brain and the body to figure out what comes next.

I am thankful that I am not having to go anywhere this month.

While going to the World Congress would be nice, I am happy not to go. I find that music therapy conferences are more geared towards academics these days than clinicians. I am fully a clinician, so having to choose between this one's dissertation and this one's is not relevant to my role in the music therapy world. I am afraid that the professional organizations in the world are becoming too research-focused at the expense of those of us who are in the day-to-day process of actually doing the clinical work of the profession. Of course, I am no longer in that day-to-day process, but it has only been a week since I finished my full-time clinical job, so I am going to continue to claim the title of "clinician."

I have always felt like clinically focused music therapists are often ignored in our profession. Conferences are skewed towards research rather than clinical applications for the clients that actually keep the profession going. As a clinical therapist, I want ideas and discussion about what I do with my clients. I want to collaborate with others to make new experiences available for the people who trust me to be part of their therapeutic journey.

Okay, now I am not going to completely discount the research that is happening, but I find that most of it has no application to what I do as a music therapist. It is interesting to see what types of research is making it to publication these days - most of the topics that I have seen lately has more to do with education of future music therapists than what is going on within music therapy interactions with clients.

So, I am not all that upset about staying here, in my little house, surrounded by my clinical materials, and not heading to another country to hear about yet another dissertation that has nothing to do with what I want to do as a music therapist.

Perhaps I will get back into the idea of going to music therapy conferences again, but I don't really miss them. Maybe what I am looking for is found more in the regional conferences, but I'm not sure those are the place either. So, I am looking for these types of opportunities...

When I cannot get what I need from the big organizations, then I tend to find ways to get what I need. I make opportunities, and one of those projects is a conference focused on working with adolescents. Keep an eye out for more information as soon as I get the CBMT application in and approved...

Make what you need.

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