music, therapy, and me

One of the very best things about my job is that I can do what I want to do when I feel that something is going to be beneficial to my clients. Unfortunately for them, that also means that I can subject them to my favorite things every so often. This was one of those weeks. Today is May the Fourth! May the fourth be with you, always!! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, my apologies for taking you on this journey because I am a Stars Wars fan! (This is me in my Naboo Pilot's helmet that I got for free from someone who knows how much I love these movies and the continuing saga!) This week was the week where I get to show my constant devotion and fandom to this movie franchise to my students. Namely, I brought in my R2-D2 interactive toy and played with him all week. My sister asked, "What do you actually DO with him during music therapy?" Well...we play with him. (That's not good enough - come up with a therapeutic goal, QUICK!) We work on comm...

It is the end of my therapy week. I only have large group treatment on four days of the work week, so my Fridays are reserved for planning and preparation and a few individual and/or push-in sessions. This is because we move from a five day workweek during the school year to a four day workweek during the extended school year/summer sessions. It is too difficult to compress a five day group schedule into four days, so we just establish a four day group schedule and reserve Fridays for the required planning time that we are entitled to under our Master Contracts. It's complicated, but it works for us and that's what matters. ANYWAY... This week was not as full of creative ideas as I would have liked, but my students didn't really seem to miss the creativity. I have lots of ideas to develop, but it will take me some dedicated time to get the visual aids and the games together, so I'm not stressing about having everything absolutely perfect. What did we do this week?...

This has been a strange week for me. Yesterday, over half of the school went on a field trip so my usual pattern was interrupted. I only had two groups - one is one of my most favorite and the other is one of my least favorite. My Creative Arts teammate and I received recognition from the other clinicians for our work on the Super-Secret Special Event that happened last week. I settled my worker's compensation case yesterday - first time I've ever been sworn in - so, that's over. I've had moments of anxiety, joy, and absolute frustration this week. It's really worn my out. But... It is FINALLY FRIDAY! (I apologize for the strength of the text, but I am really happy to have made it to the end of this week and this month!) Today is my plan/preparation day. I have a classroom visit this morning and then the entire school tromps through my room to go shopping in the STARS store, so it is impossible to have therapy sessions while folks are walking in and out. So, I...

Today is Friday.  Is anyone else breathing a sigh of relief over this fact? I know I am. It has been a long, strange week, and I am very glad that it is coming to an end. It started with a headbutt and is ending with a series of sinus headaches and worship services, so it's been an up and down kind of week. I am close to completing one of my financial goals - that of a good cushion just in case. Today is payday, and I was able to put actual surplus money into my savings - I consider everything that is left over after a month's bills to be surplus money. I have been able to put something away every month for the past several months, but this was the most yet. Once that cushion is firm, I will spend the next bit on a brand new mattress. Today is going to be a work day. I only have one push-in session on Fridays, and the rest of my time is spent in planning and cleaning. I have an instrument hospital full of things to be sanitized and returned to the general instrument popul...

I am going to be moving to a large music therapy clinic pretty soon - don't know for sure when this is going to happen, but I'm assured that it's going to be soon - and I've been thinking about what types of things I want to do once I have the space to do them. The room I'm moving to has four times the size that I have now, so I can spread things out and use that entire space for therapy things. I will be able to split up large groups of students who should not be near each other into smaller groups. I will be able to take out my brand-new parachute pieces and make large parachutes that we can use to launch balls into the high ceilings without fear of knocking out ceiling tiles. I will be able to have certain areas of the room for certain TMEs - sensory, large instrument, group, listening stations, and other center ideas. I love using themes to organize my thought processes when I am thinking through sessions plans. My new space will lend itself very well to using...

It's the end of my work week, and I am reflecting on what happened in music therapy sessions this week. I am two weeks into the return of individual sessions and am pleased with how things have progressed. For the most part, students have transitioned with me willingly and have engaged in music making. We don't have any mutual goals or objectives at this point, but my goals have been to encourage interaction and exploration of the musical environment. I'm starting to identify the clients that I think will be best served through goal-oriented music therapy sessions and those that will be best served through crisis management music therapy sessions. In the Fall session, I will have 26 individual spots. Some of those will be taken by adaptive lessons (my title for these sessions? Play the instruments MJ won't let us play during group MT very loudly for 30 minutes!!) and by choir, but most will be able to be filled by individuals. I will try to have one crisis management ...

Today was another later type morning, but I had a good excuse...it was time to cuddle! My Bella doesn't usually get lap time in the early mornings unless it is a Saturday or Sunday. We usually start the day running, but this morning, she snuggled in, and I wanted the opportunity to listen to her purr. It's part of our self-care routine.  Now, because I am only one other cat away from being "Old Lady Landaker with all those cats," I am going to post a bunch of Bella pictures. This is partially for my friend, Kyle, who possibly only likes me because I have a cat and he has "Cat," and partially because I am still tired and want to have a post that has nothing to do with music therapy except for self-care.   Taking a couple of minutes to sit with a lap full of cat is one of life's pleasures. It's a luxury. If you don't like cats, that's fine. Find someone or something to spend some time with - don't talk, just be with each other. ...

I have a time-directed deadline coming up. It is one I imposed upon myself, but it is coming, nevertheless. For this deadline, I am writing a bunch of original songs based on a winter (not holiday) theme. For me, the writing of music comes easily, but the transcription takes significantly more time. I have a rhythm notation problem that is greatly assisted by notation software. I can hear when a rhythm isn't exactly right, but I can't really see it. So, my lifesaver over the years has been a program called Cakewalk. Cakewalk Home Studio (2002! Can you believe it? 2002!!) has always been my go-to program. I've never tried the others that people have used and continue to use. I got the Cakewalk program and have been able to use it ever since. It is familiar to me, so I am able to do every and anything that I need to do...except guitar tabulature...I had another program that did that, but it stopped working three computers ago. Anyway, it is time to sit down and knock ou...

I write lots about how I love working with interns. I enjoy being a part of their internship experience (even when it's just through a computer screen), and I feel that there are lots of opportunities for interns to network, learn, and grow during that very intense educational capstone. One of the things I don't write about very often is how much I also love to work with internship directors and supervisors. Yesterday, I got to do just that. The AMTA Association Internship Approval Committee (otherwise known as the AIAC) ran their FREE CMTE course called "Supervising the National Roster Intern." The room was not full, but it is rarely full when there are 300 seats present. There were many, MANY attendees, though. I think there were more people in that room than we have had in many years. There were 80 people preregistered and we sent out information to more people who just arrived and attended. We talked about topics that are near and dear to our hearts, about thi...

You know how there are times when you are feeling unappreciated and then a series of things happens that makes you realize that you are appreciated? This week has had several little moments that made me feel both sides of this situation. Some of my clients were downright rude. They put me down in an attempt to make themselves feel cool, but it was not the way they usually respond to me, so it deflated my mood. Then, there was another group of clients where one client has really started to respond to me. He smiles, he interacts (still on the periphery, but it is still interaction), he initiates conversations with me outside of the music therapy room. Another staff member watched him smiling and talking to me and said, "What is your secret? I have never seen him smile before." His classroom staff agreed that he is typically somber and sullen. I didn't know that. He's not that way in music therapy AT ALL! I only see the happy version of that client. I was feeling a ...

For the past several months, I've been writing about things in my life that I enjoy or that make my therapy life easier. I've basically run out of new things to write about, so Friday posts are going back to general posts again... at least, until I get into a theme-type of mood again or come up with a catchy, alliterative title for Friday writings! (If you are interested in what types of things I have used as my Favorites, then click on the Favorite Things label on the left side of this blog.) How's your week been? My week became intensely more interesting yesterday when I was given a new task - that of data coordinator for IEPs. It is now my job to assist teachers and therapists in writing appropriate, measurable goals and set up data collection techniques. Apparently, we (at my facility for sure, and probably throughout society) have some difficulty saying what we mean when it comes to making goals. So, I get the challenge of helping my co-workers figure out and th...

Yesterday, I found out that my surgery has to be postponed since I am still symptomatic with pneumonia, so I am facing an entire year of light duty. I am unable to do individual sessions because I cannot guarantee that I can do what I need to do to keep my clients safe. So, I am doing three hours of music therapy per day, Monday through Thursday, and no therapy on Fridays. I am basically spending much of my time actively seeking something to do. You can only rearrange your cabinets so much before the ennui sets in. I can tell you, my ennui is not only set in, but taking over everything! I spoke to the Assistant Principal yesterday about the change in my surgery dates and my need for something to do. She started to give me some projects. She's very good at having tasks that need to be done that she cannot do because she's doing all that assistant principaling. I now have two new tasks. I am providing support to the STARS store (a place where students can purchase things usin...

I'd like you to meet Mildred. Mildred is the newest member of my personal circle, and she provides me with "gentle strength." This cage of bars, neoprene pads, hinges, and velcro has supported my knee for the past month, and has at least 10 more days to go before Mildred is set aside (for at least a short time) in favor of Arnold, my immobilizer. Isn't it amazing that we have devices and things like this available to us when we need them? I just marvel on this fact. In the old days, an injury like the one I have would have pretty much been a permanent thing. I would be limping and on crutches (at least) for the rest of my life. These days, I go in for a 6-hour surgery and voila! I start working that new ligament so it can work properly. One of the interesting things about Mildred is that she is an attention-getter. When I'm not working, I go out in my shorts because pants are just too hot and skirts are too fluffy for Walmart. I am amazed at how many peopl...

It is difficult to figure out what to write about at this time for several reasons. First of all, I've been home sick all week with a tricky bit of pneumonia, so my usual immersion in the music therapy world is not happening. Second, my brain seems to be atrophying with all of the staying home and avoiding other people and their germs. Third, I've exhausted all of my most obvious Favorite Things, so I'm grasping for a topic for today. Additionally, I'm just plain old bored with my own company, so nothing seems to be interesting to me. Rough life, hunh? - Ultra sarcasm here. My life is not rough, just different from the usual right now, so I'm wallowing a bit. Sorry about that. I'll stop now. So, something that I like that makes my music therapy life a bit easier... hmmm... Mashed potatoes - hmm. Doesn't really have anything to do with music therapy, but significant influence on my sense of well-being... nope, move on. Cat snuggles - again, not much t...

It's Friday and time to talk about something I have purchased over and over again - Scrapbooking Boxes! Why is this something I love? Let me tell you... (but first, let me tell you that I do not get any financial or material compensation for anything I talk about on this blog). These boxes come in many different colors. I have them in pinkish red, blue, purple, green, and clear. For a color-coder like me, this means that I can use a different color for every type of group that I lead as a therapist. Right now, the blue box contains long-term projects for my older clients and the red boxes contain songbooks. When I was doing itinerant therapy, the clear boxes were mine, the red boxes belonged to Intern #22 and the blue boxes belonged to Intern #23. We could easily keep track of who had what and how to get our own materials off the cart quickly. When I talk to others about using these boxes (or bags), I recommend having a color for each type of population or type of session. ...

I am a fan-girl of Jenny Lawson, AKA the Bloggess. She is an irreverent, interesting, and profane writer who focuses on writing memoirs about her life in Texas as well as in the world. She's written two books, Let's Pretend This Never Happened and the brand-new, not quite released Furiously Happy . I can't explain why I like her so much, so I'll just link you to her blog. BEFORE I DO THAT, THOUGH... Please be aware that she uses profanity lots and lots. If that's not your particular brand of entertainment (it's not usually mine), then you may not want to click on the link. She talks lots about depression, anxiety disorders, and many other social issues. You may not agree with everything you read... make your own decisions about what you want to read about and what you don't. She likes pets and has several - she's a cat person, but has recently added a dog to her family. She also likes really bad taxidermy. Through the writing of Jenny Lawson...

FRIDAY (need I say more?) Recently, I've waxed rhapsodical about things like Post-Its and other mundane little things that are very important to my sense of doing things. Today, I am going to talk about the fact that it is Friday. Friday is my favorite day of the work week for several reasons. At my job, Friday has always been a day where the responsibility and requirements of group therapy have been non-existent. We provide therapy treatment, Mondays through Thursdays, for the simple reason that we try to sustain a schedule during the summer months when we do not work on Fridays. It is difficult to cram all of the Friday treatment sessions into a 4-day workweek when those 4 days are already full. So, we plan all of our treatment into the Monday-Thursday week. Fridays have always been a day for additional support or treatment, but not related to group coverage and teacher preparation time. Right now, Fridays are long and boring for me. With the prohibition of doing thi...

I am an unabashed fan of Post-It Notes. My favorite are the Super Sticky version, and I use them for just about everything! I have about five pads of notes in my car that I shuffle through when I have ideas or things that I need to remember to do - those ideas always strike me in the car when there isn't something that I could do about it, hence the Post-Its! Post-Its are my most efficient study aid. When I am writing a paper, I use those notes to indicate quotations, paraphrased information, and references. There is something cool about seeing multi-hued pieces of paper turning into coherent sentences and into finished products. How else can I wax rhapsodical about these miracles of modern (or not so modern) living? I recently found a stash of Post-Its buried under a bunch of old papers, and I was thrilled! (It's the small things around here!!) To finish up, check out this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4wrdax73VM Romy and Michelle - need I say more??

This may seem strange to you, since I have spoken about my medical related anxiety disorder, but I really enjoy Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI tests). I have one today, but I'm not anxious about it all. I am actually looking forward to this test, believe it or not. I had my first MRI when I was 16. It was a horrible situation that ended up completely different than the initial diagnosis (thank goodness) but I became fascinated with the entire process once I was in the device.  Way back in those days, MRI machines were brand spanking new and extremely expensive! The hospital where I went for my test was part of a group of hospitals who had pooled together their monies so they could buy an MRI suite that traveled from hospital to hospital. When my doctor thought I had a brain tumor (long story, but I didn't), my hospital had the suite, so we went from appointment to hospital pretty much immediately. When we got there, I checked in and asked the lady at reception if my mom ...

You know how you go through a day with a certain plan? You start off thinking that things are going to progress in a specific manner. You're going to drive to work, get kids of their buses, do some music therapy, put kids back on their buses, and then go home again to start your weekend? Yep. That was the plan for yesterday. Then there were plans for today, tomorrow, and Sunday. Good plans. The plan didn't work out as planned at all. First of all, it ended kind of abruptly when I got pushed during a safety assist with a client and something in my knee just popped. Second, I never plan on spending time in an emergency room, but there wasn't really any other choice. Third, I never planned on almost forgetting the interns who were waiting for me to start a webinar about Time Management and Organization that completely slipped my mind as I was hobbling about on my non-operational knee feeling sorry for myself. Once I finally remembered that it was Thursday night, I had t...