music, therapy, and me

It is the last regular day of the 24-25 school year, and I am ready to have two weeks away from work. All I have to do is get through a session with "that" client before I am finished with music therapy for a little bit. I don't want to dwell on that because it just makes me anxious and upset, so off I go into the world of music therapy. I have six days before my family members descend upon me to provide support for my medical procedure in eight days. The house looks a bit better, but not great yet. There is still lots of work to do. Sheets are washed and on the two beds for the mom and aunt. I bought new towels and pillows yesterday. I still have too much stuff around my home. That's always my problem. Too much stuff. For today, I have no idea what I am going to do with most of my groups. We did choice time for most groups last week, so I have to come up with something to do while planning for the next two days. We have graduation and an end of the year bash to set u...

Sorry about not publishing my writing for the past couple of days. I have been hot and crabby and nothing that I have written has been something I want out in the world right now. I have entered panic mode about the state of my home and the upcoming visit from my family, but I am also stuck working in a room without ventilation, a broken air conditioner, and clients who are unable to regulate their temperatures. I leave my job everyday absolutely knackered and cannot bear to work when I get home. I have finished the first half of my week and am now entering the second half. This week, we have been doing centers - they get kids close to the floor where it is a little bit cooler, and it offers opportunity for independence and leisure skill development. We have three stations, and I have "must do" and "may do" things at some of the centers. We have a music symbol matching game and a stack of performer pictures to peruse at one center. The second center is a fine motor ...

Usually, on Fridays, I write a bit about the systems that I have set up so I can work smarter rather than harder, but I am at a loss right now for something to write about. I've covered color-coding, visual aid boxes, organization, bullet journaling, time blocking, session strategizing, therapeutic music experience development, super-sticky post-it notes, and all of the other things I can think of, but I think I am at the end of my systems. Maybe it is time to start another series. I want to write something that will help other people find and keep their way into and through this profession. I do my best writing (in my opinion, anyway) when I am writing about the peripheral things that music therapists have to do in their roles - the stuff that we don't really talk about during our coursework. These are the things, that during internships, we call "administrative duties." These are the things that have to happen for a successful music therapy practice to happen - the ...

My favorite day of the week is Saturday because it is usually the only day of the week where my time is mostly my own. I do not have to go out (most Saturdays - there are exceptions), I have limited work responsibilities (the occasional OCMT board meeting happens on Saturday mornings), and I can stay in my pajamas all day if I want! I will not be staying in my pajamas today because I need to go and take my confidential shredding to the shredding place. While I am out, I will probably get my groceries as well. Saturday is my day to relax as much as possible. I have been trying to have little to no goal demands as a way of existing these days. I have found that my goals have been unsuccessful because I am not interested in them. I am trying a different type of mindset, and it is one that seems a bit more positive for me. I am getting some things done that I haven't accomplished during goal times. Today's goals are to get my groceries, take the shredding, make some animal choice b...

Here it is, Monday morning at 5:04 am, and I am sitting down to write a blog post. I am getting ready to head back to work after my mid-summer break to a facility where we are significantly understaffed and changing how things are happening for the fourth time in the past four months. My state has one of the largest increases in COVID-19 reporting/positive results, and my caseload is being reduced to our residents only AGAIN after two weeks of including everyone. I feel like I am constantly having to react to things happening around me and around us all, and I am engaged in fear responses more than others. This last week was a good one. I interacted with about five people through checkout lines and one food delivery person. I received lots of packages (I had to get a new computer and all the auxiliary stuff that goes with it, of course), but other than a knock on the door, I did not have any type of human interaction live and in person. I slept when I wanted, I arranged things, I craft...

I'm so very tired at the moment, trying to figure out how to break a stubborn fever along with pneumonia of some sort as well as not sleeping since I started my medications. I've spent more time at home than at work this week, so I'm getting pretty tired of my own company as well. The cat leaves rooms when I enter them, so my interpretation of her behavior is that she is tired of my presence as well. When this happens, I tend to binge-watch crime shows and sit with an idea book nearby. I felt some ideas coming, so I scrounged up an old spiral notebook and watched NCIS (LOVE MARK HARMON!). I did some drawing earlier this week and later, I just let my mind wander all over the paper. I fixated on the word "jumpy" for a time. The cat seemed pretty jumpy, so I doodled the word over and over using different fonts. I enjoy lettering so I just focused on that for a bit of time. As I was sitting there, my mind started to wander towards music therapy things. I was ref...

I am going to update you about what I'm doing/feeling/thinking right now... (This happens when I've tried several blog posts that just haven't really worked. Here's a glimpse into what's happening in my part of the music therapy world right now.) Currently, I'm   wearing - my work t-shirt and matching pants watching - Death in Paradise wanting - to get breakfast started (let me go do that...) reading for music therapy - Music Therapy In Context: Music, Meaning and Relationship by Mercedes Pavlicevic reading for entertainment (not that music therapy reading isn't entertaining - but it's work-related and requires thought. This doesn't require much thought at all.) - Wicked Deeds by Heather Graham contemplating - how to get disparate clients engaged in the same therapeutic music experience, especially when several of them are determined to cause problems... hoping - that all the tax reform brouhaha settles into actual facts that will allow...

I am searching for deep thoughts this week, but everything just skips into the more trivial parts of my life. I am feeling really happy about getting to wear my t-shirts to work again. Over the past several years, I've been wearing the hated polo shirts in a weekly rotation - Wednesday has ALWAYS been my red polo day - and now I am free. Interestingly, one staff member remarked that I wasn't wearing red yesterday - the only person who seems to realize that I rotated through my shirts in a set pattern. The brain just keeps going into places that aren't very deep. It is possible that this is what I need this week - something that doesn't take too much time or effort to decide. Meanwhile, the dishes are piling up. Cooking has pretty much gone by the wayside. I haven't hooked the computer up to the external drives for almost a week now - everything has been done from my bedroom. I've spent lots of time watching 30 Rock . I'm not sure if this is a good thing or...

This is Day 2 of my 11 day Fall Break. I have nothing that I have to do outside of my house. There are no phone calls to make, no tasks that HAVE to be done, and no trips scheduled for today. It is an unusual event, but does happen to me occasionally. Since there is nothing that I HAVE to do, my to-do list is sparse. I like it that way. I can get other things finished. Right now, I have three things on the list - none of which MUST be done today, but that won't keep me from doing other things as well. I spoke to a bunch of music therapy folks about self-care last night. I always talk about the importance of finding your own pattern of self-care activities and awareness in order to help stave off things like compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, and burnout. It is important to be pro-active when it comes to self-care so you don't have to be as reactive if something happens. For me, at least two days of "nothing to do," plays a big part in my self-care pattern. Th...

I know it's TME Tuesday and all, but I have no motivation or interest in writing about TMEs today. I have no new ideas, no interest in coming up with a new one, and very little interest in much of anything today. So, there is no TME to share on TME Tuesday. What types of therapeutic music experiences are you doing these days? Please share them in the comments section below. This is a week of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) presentations to the staff at my facility. I have four presentations to give about how to intervene and prevent situations. I'm presenting with someone else, and I'm a bit apprehensive, but I am sure that we will find our presentation groove halfway through today's presentation. At least, I hope so since we have to give FOUR this week. I have to stay late two different times this week and start early on another day! It is a week full of training. I have a new nephew. He arrived yesterday and is healthy. I am finding it diff...

So, it's the early afternoon, and I am just now starting to write my post for this blog. I actually tried to start a post earlier, but it just ended up being one rant after another and then I had to go to an Online Conference for Music Therapy executive board meeting, and then I had to arrange a presentation for this evening, and then I just was not interested in writing anything, so I read for a time trying to take a nap! Well, the nap didn't work, but now I have something to say...I think. Who knows if this will be successful - I've already deleted a paragraph that was starting to feel like a rant... hmmm. Here is a simple truth. Music therapy is important. You, music therapist, out there in the world, using music to assist others towards their own personal goals, are important. Please don't ever forget that fact. That's it. Thank you for sharing this profession with me.  

Today is a "Nothing" day. I don't have anything on my calendar, so I have designated today as a "Nothing Day." I have nothing that I have to do, just things that I could do if I want to. We will see what happens. This is part of my self-care routine, and something that I have to schedule every so often. A day without responsibility. This is a treat. I think I've finished my committee work for the moment, I have no pressing needs to compose anything, or meetings to attend during the day. This is a treat. Time for napping, laundry, maybe even vacuuming. Even blogging today is something, so I'm going to leave it here and move into my day of "Nothing." I promise I'll think up something good for TME Tuesday while doing nothing else.