TME Tuesday: Thinking About February in November

I write therapeutic music experience (TME) collections. I compose music to go with specific months and for specific themes. Right now, I am preparing resources for February to share in December with folks who want to make visual supports for clients.

I enjoy making visual supports, and I enjoy seeing what other people do with my ideas to make them unique to themselves and their practice. I find, though, that the visual support is not the only thing that music therapists want from my resources. They also want the music to go with the visual supports. I try to include a song with many of my digital files, but I don't always do that when I post files in my TPT shop. 

For me, thinking about how I can use visuals in sessions with clients is the best part of it all! Since I do not have any clients at the moment, I am thinking about how I could use these things with hypothetical clients. I am thinking about how to use things with clients with other goals and objectives than the ones that I am familiar working with in the music therapy session.

I find that this is a good exercise when I am writing TMEs. I think about whether the concept/goal/objective/theme would work with little kids and adolescents and older adults. I think about adaptations and extensions for a variety of human needs and abilities.  I try to figure out how I would change things to accommodate different sensory needs and differences. All of these considerations go into my books and TME collections and visual supports. This is the fun part of this job for me. I love thinking things through deeply.

So, at the moment, I am thinking about TMEs for February and the visual supports that I can make to support these TMEs.

"February in November?" You may ask.

Yes, indeed. I do this type of development three months in advance so I can learn songs, make the visuals, and get familiar enough with the TME to be able to facilitate it and make changes as needed during the moment. I also feel that others would be more likely to be looking for Valentine's themed TMEs in February, so I want to have those files ready in advance!

Right now, I am making a game and TME about chocolate for Valentine's Day, a visual support and TME for I Just Called to Say, "I Love You," and a set of instrument choice cards for clients to use to communicate instrument choices and/or preferences. These three visuals will be part of our December Make It! Budget-Minded Music Therapist Creation Group on December 5th - details here. Anyone can join us for the group, but only CMTE folks will get copies of the visual supports.

This three month advance planning system offers me a way to get materials into the hands of other music therapists in enough time for them to make the materials, practice the songs, and then adapt the TMEs to work with their particular clientele. It is a system that works for me, and it gives me some direction to my creative process.

So, I am off to make some February-themed visual supports! Enjoy your day here in November wherever you are.

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