music, therapy, and me

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States where I live, and I woke up with a feeling of gratefulness and thankfulness that I haven't felt for some time.  As I have explained, this is not really my favorite holiday of the year - mainly because of the way our capitalistic society has taken it and turned it into a day of overindulgence and spending for the upcoming Christmas holiday - but I do like the original thoughts behind it all. I like having a day where the focus is supposed to be on thinking about the things that we have rather than the things we want to acquire. So, I woke up and felt good about today and the things that I have, the people I love and who have loved me, and for the future for myself and for others. I hope this Thanksgiving optimism lasts for the rest of this season. Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate.

Me in one of the formal portraits  Today is the last Thursday that I work in the month of November. Next week's Thursday is a day off, and I am looking forward to the break. My focus for my five-day weekend is to organize the music room with some of the things that I am bringing home from work. Other than that, I am expecting some extra napping and many different television shows. After this, there are only three more Thursdays before our winter break and the start of the new year. We have been doing our Musicians of the Month listening (music awareness) and leisure choice options (executive functioning and life-long leisure skill development). My other groups are getting an introduction to guitars and then some leisure choice options. My students do not know how to play. It is interesting to watch them just stare into space instead of trying something new or even get something familiar from the cabinets. I mean, I have just about everything. The most used materials are my hot whee...

Happy Thanksgiving, American Music Therapists! Happy Thursday, everyone else!! Today is a day that is set aside in this country to recognize the process that European settlers and the indigenous peoples of this part of the world took to get to know each other. Whether you think that this situation was right or wrong, it happened, so I choose this day to think about other things that I am thankful for in these times. I am not a person who enjoys the "traditional" foods of this holiday. I am not a person who gets all excited about spending time with other people. In fact, this Thanksgiving is pretty perfect for me - ham and cheese casserole, pecan pie, lots of alone time, and absolutely NO shopping outside of my home this weekend!! I mourn the loss of focus from a day to rejoice in what we already have and the new focus on getting stuff. I don't want to spend this day trying to fight my way to a "deal." So, I don't. I choose to spend this day contemplati...

Here in the States, it is the fourth Thursday of the month of November, so we are taking a day to be thankful. There is lots of controversy about how we celebrate, what we are celebrating, and why we celebrate the way we do, but I choose to focus on the idea behind the entire day - setting aside a day to be thankful for what I have. In August, I started posting Daily Happiness posts on Facebook. Every single day, I look for something in my lap that makes me feel happy. I did this because I tend to get mired in negative feelings, and focusing on the positive offers me a pleasant start to my mornings. Taking 30 seconds to think of something that is a privilege or a happy thought has helped me find my positivity and my creativity. It is a mindful practice, I guess. I engage in thinking about something that I am grateful for, and I tend to find more things to be grateful for in the process. It's a small little practice, but it has made a difference for me. Today, I will spend s...

Okay, I'm warning you, it's Thanksgiving, and I'm feeling a bit sick, so be prepared for sloppy writing... You've been warned. For some reason, Thanksgiving mornings tend to be the ones where my neighbors decide to have their domestic quarrels out where all of us can participate. Four years ago, it was a father throwing out a mother for her drug use with her four teenagers screaming just outside my door at 4 am. I called the police. This morning's altercation was significantly calmer than that one, but it woke me up none the less. One of the couples from upstairs was out on the lawn, fighting. I think they were fighting quietly - I couldn't really tell with the fans on - but something woke me, so I think there was some door slamming going on at one point. The situation ended when the woman walked off and the man left in his truck. I didn't have to call the police. Long story short, I think that this day has the potential to bring out the best and the wor...

In the past several sessions, I've been improvising a song entitled I Am Thankful For . This is a therapeutic music experience (TME) that I have used before and will use again. It's main goal (primary goal) is to encourage thankful thinking - something that can be very difficult for my clients as being grateful is an abstract concept. The concept itself is simple - write down or draw things you are thankful for and then craft them into a song. Some of my clients have really gotten into this TME - they've written or drawn things and then have sung them for their classroom groups. Others have used the concept of being thankful as an excuse to have a behavior so they could escape from the concept. Yet others have written things and then asked me to set it to music. Giving thanks for something that you have when you think that everything has been taken away is difficult. My clients are often taken away from family, family often relinquishes parental rights, and my clients...

I feel sorry for the American holiday known as Thanksgiving. It comes in the increasingly commercial period of time between Halloween (the candy holiday) and Christmas (the "spend all your money on those you love" holiday). Hidden in the middle is small little Thanksgiving - a day dedicated to remembering the gifts we have because we live where we live. I am NOT a fan of traditional Thanksgiving foods, but I am a fan of the thoughts and ideas behind the holiday itself. There will be no turkey, cranberry sauce, or (shudder) stuffing at my Thanksgiving meal, but there will be thoughts for those near to me and far away.  I am usually far away from my loved ones on the holiday, so I can spend it however I want. Most of the time, I just cook a special meal for me and then spend the rest of the time doing my usual routines. I don't go shopping at all (unless I REALLY have to), and I talk to everyone in my near family. There will be dishes to do and laundry to wash. There wi...

It is the beginning of Thanksgiving break for me, and the beginning of my preparations for my upcoming medical procedure. I have (gulp) six days before I finally get my ACL repaired. I am simultaneously looking forward to and dreading the upcoming weeks. I am ready to get my knee fixed to a point where I can bend it, walk normally, and even jog a bit. Before next Tuesday, however, there are things to do. Some of these things are easy to accomplish. For example, I need to get the car service finished. That's happening in about an hour. I have the easy role to play in that scenario - I just take the car in. They are going to tell me that my tires are shot, but I refuse to pay for tires from the dealer, so I will need to get tires very soon. The rest of the to-do list is on me. It is necessary that I spend some time cleaning my home so I can navigate with crutches next week. I also have some cooking on tap so all I will have to do is reheat instead of cook from scratch. Cooking an...

The original kit One of the goodies that I received this month from Music Therapy Mailings was a turkey kit. Here is a picture of the pieces in their original package. I saw this and started to think about the things I could do with more than one of these kits. Instead of searching for another kit, I traced the pieces of the kit onto the cardboard inset in the kit, and now I have the makings of my own file folder activity! I am always on the lookout for things that I can use in many different ways. I am working on a folder activity that includes Todd and Tammy Turkey, dressing for Thanksgiving. Right now, the therapeutic purposes for this song/TME are kinda vague as I haven't completely fleshed it out, but most of the composition is finished, so the rest will come along as I use it with kids. The pattern pieces That's the really nice thing about visual aids (or supplementals, as some call them). One visual aid can prompt many different therapeutic music expe...

Thanksgiving is one of my least favorite food holidays. There may be many different reasons for this - lots of pressure around the holiday celebration, getting the stomach flu in a spectacular manner at Thanksgiving time, my grandmother's need to parade us around in her birthday celebration/Thanksgiving open house every year, the insistence upon formal portraits taken every year, and my own inherent stubbornness when it came to anything she asked me to do (I inherited my stubbornness from her, and she didn't really like it when I refused to do what she told me to do!). Long story short, the things that most people love about Thanksgiving literally turn my stomach. I cannot stand the smells, the food, the hoop-la, so I opt to have Thanksgiving in my own way. I make a delectable dish called Crepes Ensenadas. It is a gooey, cheesy concoction of ham, green chiles, monterey jack cheese, tortillas, and cheddar cheese roux that makes me feel very thankful. It takes me about 2 hour...

So, my friend Janice posted a song about Super Turkey and I thought I would post my one cool Turkey song as well. This is not my song - it's one of those songs that it is difficult to find source material on... if anyone knows who can prove that they were the first to write these words, please let me know ASAP! I've used it for so many years that I can't even remember which of these verses are the original ones that I learned and which ones came from my Dad (who loves punny songs) and which ones came from my various clients over the years (who also love punny songs!). My sister is the one who actually first taught me the song, and she lives to regret it to this day. Happy November!

This morning, I awoke at my usual time (translation - very, VERY early) and spent some time trying to deny that I was awake and spent some time listening to my mind wander. It's my own kind of mindfulness , I guess. I spent some time paying attention to where my brain was going. It started with, "I don't have to wake up this early. I don't have to go to work today," and then went down the road of "I need to get green chiles for dinner tomorrow." That morphed into "Thanksgiving is on Thursday," to "Mama Icie would have been 103 last week. Thanksgiving was her favorite holiday. I remember all the years of having to toe the Mama Icie celebration line..." Remembering my grandmother, Mama Icie, led me into some of the conflicting feelings that I have about this holiday. I love the idea of a day of giving thanks, but I don't think that I can only be thankful when I'm faced with green bean casserole, turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin p...

This is the time of year to be thankful (here in the States it's almost Thanksgiving), so I think I'm going to post the things that make me thankful about being a music therapist. I am thankful for my clients . Without them, I would not have found this wonderful profession. My clients challenge me, learn from me, and teach me every single second of therapy. Their engagement with and through music makes my life rich. They laugh with me, cry with me, get angry with me, and teach me about the importance of being authentic and human. I am thankful for music . I love that there are no "wrong ways" to make music. I can make music however I want or need to during the moment. I can find a song to match the mood that I have at any time. If there isn't a song already out there, then I can make one up... and I do! I am thankful for employers who recognize the benefits of providing music therapy to their consumers with the services of a trained music therapy clinician . I...

Over the past four weeks, I have leading a Therapeutic Music Experience (TME) with my students. We are talking, singing, and rapping about the things that we are thankful for. Now, these kids have developmental/intellectual disabilities and concurrent psychiatric issues, so most folks don't expect too much from them - wrongly so! We made Thankful Turkeys and then sang about what we put on our Turkeys. Most of the responses were to be expected from kids - my family, turkey, an X-box, pumpkin pie. Some of them were profound. "I am thankful that I have shelter." "I am thankful that this is a good place." "I am thankful that I can eat everything I want." "I am thankful for being away from my family." TMEs like this always challenge me on a personal and professional level. Professionally, I need to be reminded that my clients do not always know what I knew as a child - consistency, shelter, food, security. I need the reminder that I am a person ...

I was part of a domestic disturbance yesterday morning. I did not start the disturbance, nor was I a big part of the situation, but I called the police and got things going. The girls next door started screaming. Apparently their mother was under the influence of something and attacked her boyfriend. When I saw them, he was trying to throw her out of the apartment, she was scratching him, and the girls were screaming! I called 9-1-1 and reported the disturbance. In the end, the mother was taken away in the back of a cruiser. When the police arrived, she didn't show any emotional affect and simply asked for a chance to smoke a cigarette. The kids were picked up by their dad, and the police informed the man that the woman was not allowed back at the apartment without a police escort. Great! As I was sitting in my apartment somewhere between panic and hysteria, I started thinking about my clients. I work with kids with psychiatric diagnoses in addition to developmental and int...

It is that time of year, here in the United States, for all of us to stop and think about the things that are in our lives. For several years, I listed something that I was thankful for every day on Facebook, but since that is now the popular thing to do, I refuse to follow a trend! So, here are all of the things that I am thankful for in one fell swoop!! I am thankful for this sweet face that yells at me, frisks around our home, sleeps on top of me, hogs the covers, bites me when I'm trying to play, and is obsessed with white plastic bags! There are lots of things that pets bring into our lives. Bella definitely enriches my life in many ways. Her purr (especially the monster purr) makes my bad days a bit more bearable! This is a mandala that I drew in 2011 for one of my family members. I don't know which one yet. I kind of matches my sister's decor, but it seems more like my mom's type of thing. Anyway, I am thankful for the creativity that my mother and fathe...

Over the past two weeks, I have enjoyed working with my kids around giving thanks for what we have in our lives. I have started a piggyback song to the tune of Soon It's Gonna Rain (from the musical The Fantasticks , Music by Harvey Schmidt, and lyrics by Tom Jones) which allows my kids to fill in their own thankful things. Here is my current version... I am thankful for my patient family. I am thankful for Bella-cat as well. I am thankful for the end of each workday too. I am thankful for each student in my class. I am thankful for making music. I am thankful for the time we spend together too. My students have made some very interesting statements about what they give thanks for this season. One person stated, "Barbies." Another stated, "Shelter." Yet another said, "God." Their written products are more involved and more positive about their current situation.  As you probably know, my students attend a school contained with...

Have you noticed a trend in my posts lately?? Here is a conscious effort to change all that! Typically, my Novembers are fast - there is AMTA conference followed by two days of work and then the Thanksgiving holiday. I do not often have time to engage in Thankful themed TMEs with my clients. This year is very different. With the AMTA conference already over, this year I have the entire month of November to work with my kids. We are starting to focus on being thankful for what we have - whatever that is. Last Monday I placed the words, "Thankful Things" on my large bank of cabinets. I made two half sheets - one for narratives and one for drawing - and got out the markers and pencils. Kids came in, we did our opening TME, and I then asked them to write or draw about the things for which they were thankful. The response was wonderful!! This week we will be singing or rapping about our thankful things. I am enjoying the opportunity to spend some time thinking about bein...

Yesterday was the American holiday of Thanksgiving, and many folks posted about things they were thankful for. I decided to wait until today for the completely practical reason that I was not around my computer all day yesterday. Today I am thankful for the community of music therapists that I spent some time with a week ago. The American Music Therapy Association national conference in Atlanta last week was a wonderful experience for me. I do not always come away from the conference as refreshed and invigorated as I did with this one, but I always go to the conference looking for inspiration. I am thankful for my clients. Those children have gone through experiences that many of us would have nightmares about, and yet they still manage to play, sing, learn, and find good things in life. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to help them in their journey through life. I am always thankful for my family. I am thankful that I am a music therapist - someone who has the responsib...