music, therapy, and me

I am currently about 900 miles away from home, sitting in a hotel room, and waiting for enough time to pass so I can get the complementary breakfast that is offered. Why? You may ask? Well, my mother wants to see her best friend, my sister wants me to visit, and I have little to no time constraints at the moment. So, I am hurtling towards my family at speeds of up to 85 mph in order to get there, get on a plane, fly back across the country, and visit someone that has been my mother's best friend since kindergarten. That's why, This is definitely a nostalgia break, for sure. My mother's friend is impressed at how I put together our itinerary. (For gracious' sake, Aunt M, I am 56 and have done this a time or two before!) We are going to fly across the country (over my house) and visit. After that, I have about a week before my friend arrives at where I will be staying. I am trying to set up some music therapy meetings to ask questions and see what my future might hold for...

Nothing seems to be working right now, and I'm starting to take it personally! Do you ever have times when every technology thing that you touch just goes kaput? My sister and I tried twice to talk this morning and got cut off. Threads is struggling. Instagram is struggling. Facebook is struggling. Coincidence? I doubt it, but still, I wonder what is going on in the cyber world. My AC stopped cooling things earlier this week, and I spent about 4 hours with the HVAC specialist who gave it a tune up and wash and then did not charge me anything. My website will not update with the new PayPal buttons that I need to get things working again - I think that is a way for my hosting company to squeeze more money out of me. I can't seem to figure out what is going on with the electronic things around me, but I am hoping that it will sort itself out pretty soon. Things are starting to sort themselves out on my Meta apps. That's good because I use those often. I can't figure out wh...

It is Friday, right? That's what the calendar says at least, so I bet it is actually Friday. My day started the way most of my working days started - early but rested. It was a nice change from the way things have been going lately. I am getting ready for a trip. I will travel across the entire country twice and across half of the country twice as well. There is lots of travel in my future, and I love that, but it brings some additional tasks and things to prepare that do not usually come up. My desk is littered with reminders and things to move into my various planners. I tried to do some work in my next planner yesterday. I wanted to decorate my personal planner and get started with the new year. I messed up every page that I tried to complete. After fixing some of the mistakes, I just gave up because nothing was working the way I wanted. At all. I was very frustrated with myself. Frustration is one of those emotions that can color your entire day. I experienced this over and ove...

Yesterday, when I woke up, my house was sitting at 80 degrees F. For someone who has hot flashes and asthma and heat related health issues, this is WAY too hot for sleeping. So, I did what I usually do, tinker a bit and then call for an HVAC specialist to come out and see what was going to happen. I had visions of AC replacement and the draining of my already strapped funds. My sister offered a loan from the Bank of Sister which helped a bit, but I hate having to get money from other people. Fortunately, I ended up just needing a tune up on my unit, so I ended up not having to pay anything! My bank account is breathing a sigh of relief right now. I spent some time talking to my HVAC technician, and I found out that he has a daughter on the spectrum who loves music and talking. We also talked about the knowledge that he has that I do not have about HVAC systems and repairs, and it got me thinking about a current project that I am working on - interpreting the AMTA Revised Competencies t...

 Gotta Gonna Go On a Trip Purpose : To develop concepts of life-long leisure planning; to reminisce about travel; to assess group members’ ability to sequence, plan, and act in logical manner; social interaction; geography awareness; travel; abstract thought development Source : Original Song. © 2009 by Mary Jane Landaker, MME, MT-BC Materials : Accompanying Instrument; pictures of objects people pack for a variety of trips (for example: keys, money, wallet, shoes, coats, others as appropriate for the types of trips to focus on. Some trips might be long vacations. Others may be errands to run around the town.); OPTIONAL: suitcase; actual items (rather than pictures); map or globe   Environment : Group members need to be able to hear and see the therapist   Song/Chant/Words : See sheet music attached. i                           ...

Let's dive into the archives for this week's post. Here we go in our way back machine... There are so many ways that we, as music therapists, can adapt and apply music and different elements to support our clients' journeys towards their therapeutic goals. I find that writing things down helps me remember the options available to me when singing and playing a song in sessions, so this is how I think of music. This particular format is not something that everyone relates to, but it fits my brain very well. Each of the elements of music that I know about is on this chart, and I think through my options. When I am using songs in therapy sessions, I can think through the work I've already done, and that thinking helps me be a more effective music therapist (in my opinion!). So, this song, Old Friends , performed by Simon and Garfunkel, is one that is not familiar to many of my clients. If using it in a session, I would first need to introduce the song to them. I do this by ...

If you are a long-time reader, then welcome back. If you are new to this blog, I want to take some time to reestablish my "why" for this blog, for my role in the profession, and for myself. Welcome. My name is MJ, and I am a board certified music therapist who has been in professional practice for 33 and a half years (yes, I will ALWAYS celebrate the half year!). I have recently left a full-time position as a school based music therapist because 30 years means a pension and an opportunity to do something new. I am trying to figure out what the "something new" part means to me, so many of my recent writings have been targeted towards what I want to do next. I started my career in the last century, and I intend on continuing my journey as a music therapist through the next couple of decades.  I started this blog back in 2006 when there were no things like TikTok or Instagram. I am not entirely sure why I named it what I did, but it was probably because my website name...

I spent some time talking to other people this week which was wonderful. Of course, all of the interactions were via Zoom or Meet, but it was good to see faces and hear voices of different people. The first meeting was a focus group that I am part of - for therapist who work with people with I/DD diagnoses. We discussed ideas for sessions and behavior management tips. It was a good discussion that left me with several ideas to pursue. The second meeting was with friends from elementary, junior high, and senior high. We get together every so often to check in with each other. We were all band geeks and had that in common, so they are friends who have been through many of the same things I've been through. Three of us are "retired" but only one of us is actually retired and not thinking about the next steps in our professional life. (It is not me, by the by.) It was good to meet with people who have known me for many decades. They have a way of grounding me which is somethi...

This post is a bit later than my usual early morning thoughts because my brain was in complete overwhelm stage and I couldn't think well. So, after a shower, a trip to the library, and some food - both good for me and not good for me - I am here... writing... something.  I attended a support group last night for therapists who work with people with I/DD diagnoses across the lifespan. I try not to push my products during things like this, but I am getting interested in starting to design things that people out there want and will use. I got a couple of good ideas for some files to put together, so I will be working on that project. I am also working on a competency-based evaluation based on the new AMTA Professional Competencies, the intern webinar series, and other elements of my professional interests. The problem? I'm not sure if any of this work is actually going to do anything for me. I don't want to spin my wheels, so to speak, when it comes to making things or spendin...

This is my favorite Dolly Parton song. I'm going to be crying over here in my corner.  

It was move-in week in my college town, so I know that classes are getting started and students are getting back into the routine of school and all the things that come with being a music therapy student. So, if you are a teacher or a music therapy student, check out this format for thinking through how you can develop ideas for use in pre-internship, internship, and professional clinical interactions with clients. Here is the format along with an explanation. Please note that this was directed towards interns working at my former workplace, so things might not work for every population served. I think it is a good way to think through the process of doing things in the clinic, and the credit for this goes partially to me and mostly to my supervisors over the years who made me do most of these processes and thought exercises over the years. Here goes... (By the way, comments, questions, and criticism are welcome here. Let me know what I am missing, what you have never had to do, and wh...

I didn't actually make anything this weekend of note other than some Canva visuals. The rest of my weekend was spent watching K-dramas and thinking. I got an old course reapproved so I am working on marketing materials for that but there isn't much else happening right now. I have decided to start up my intern webinars again. These were things that I did quite a bit ago, and I found them interesting and fun. I am hoping that the next round will be valuable to me and to the interns who take the time to spend with me. I asked current IDs for some topics, and they echoed the things that I had observed with my last several interns.  We, as a society, have gone through a significant change in how we learn, act, and observe. Attention spans have shortened. Initiative is not what it was 10 years ago. The way we educate ourselves and others has changed and evolved into something that is not focused on problem solving and is more focused on following protocols and procedures. Critical t...