music, therapy, and me

I spent my Friday afternoon commute thinking about philosophy statements. Not my usual way of thinking on the way home after an extremely challenging week in the music therapy spaces that I inhibit, but I embraced it anyway. My current way of being includes going where my interests lead me, so I thought about philosophy all the way home. I did not come to ONE decision or a SET philosophy, but I explored a bit about what having a philosophy meant to me. That's what I am going to talk about in this post - the importance of finding your philosophy and then basing your professional practice and demeanor on that philosophy. I also thought about how a philosophy can and should change over the years and experiences that you gather, so there will be a bit about that as well in the ensuing sentences. If you haven't written a personal, professional philosophy, then you might consider doing something like this. It is interesting to sit down and really think about what you believe and what...

Does anyone have "typical" days in this job? One of the reasons that I am still a proud, fulfilled music therapist after 26 years in the profession is that it is rarely completely planned or routine. I like that because I have an idea of how the day is going to go, but that idea is never set in stone - at best, it is set in half-set cement. I wonder if there is any music therapist out there who plans their day and it goes exactly as planned - no surprises, no clients changing the way music is used, no power outages or missing materials or crabby moods or things like that. Is it just me? Or does this happen to you all as well? I'm curious. I think the fact that my days are somewhat random is affected by me as a person and as a therapist as well as my clients, but I think that there has to be some part of us music therapists that is able to recognize the unexpected and then go with it. Maybe. I'm not exactly sure, but I think that this type of ability is something...