music, therapy, and me

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I like to purchase things for my music therapy clinic that work well, and that I don't mind having to buy once they get destroyed. My clients are not easy on things. Most of my clients have been shown that the only way to get attention from others is to destroy things, so they do. It makes it difficult to provide them with things that they need - fidgets, sensory boxes, alternative seating - because they immediately either throw them, rip them, or dismantle them. I have to monitor all use of every thing that I provide for clients, and it gets difficult when there are eight clients in the session.  Having said all of this about my chosen population, I want you to know that I am constantly looking for my white whale - materials that are durable and that aren't too expensive. I like Oriental Trading Company. (Please remember that I do not do affiliate links or get any sort of financial benefit from recommending anything on this ...

A couple of months ago, I decided that I needed to be more money conscious about my extraneous spending, so I started an envelope system. I started with five envelopes - fast food, books, crafts, home, and miscellaneous. In the past four months, I have used this system to help me make decisions about spending in these categories. Let's do a little bit of an update on how this is working for me. Overall, I think it is going pretty well. I have spent my fast food envelope more than the other four, with the books envelope coming in second. I have spent a bit from the other three envelopes but have not come to end of the cash there. I have done less spontaneous shopping, and that is making a difference in my budget. Today is payday which means I am currently flush with money. That will only be sustained for a couple of days as bills will be paid, but I have enough money to get my envelope allowance to replenish my envelopes. Since I spent some of my account money on books and food this...

What can I tell you? How to be thrifty as a music therapist - Perhaps an update on my own financial systems? Perhaps a recommendation for how to be a bit more budget-minded as a music therapist? Perhaps a dialogue about savings that are accessible to music therapists with school id cards? These would all be great topics, but they need a bit more preparation to be fully realized. There is so much to consider when you are a music therapist - financial things, self-awareness things, professional advocacy things, personal advocacy things, fun things, administrative task things, and client things. When you are your own boss, then there are other things that crowd the calendar and the list of daily tasks (I'm not there yet...). One of the best things that you, fellow music therapist, can do to maximize your financial status is to ensure that you get everything else done. I am a strong advocate for the phrase, "Work smarter, NOT harder." For me, this phrase encapsulates the thin...

I am really bad at self-promotion. I mean, REALLY bad! I have had a music therapy website based business for the past 29 years, and no one knows about it. I write books of therapeutic music experiences (TMEs), books for interns, forms for music therapists in all sorts of roles. I blog, I do some YouTube content, and I work full and part-time as a music therapist. When it comes to letting people know what I do and what I love to share, it is nearly impossible for me to promote and market to my targeted audience. I wanted to do an exhibit this year, but I did not get organized enough (or produce enough things) to get that done. I am not all that disappointed by this particular situation - after all, I could have done it, but I just wasn't all that interested in working on the project. I still have that on my quest map, but I might wait until next year to get things going. I am getting better at sending people the link to my TPT store which is where I am putting all of my products. So...

I am a library person. Now, I haven't been as dedicated to going to the library as I would have liked in the past several decades, but I am back now. When I was a kid, going to the library was a great adventure. I had no restrictions on what I could check out, so I would get novels by Frank Herbert and Nancy Drew stories in the same trip. I roamed the young adult books and the adult fiction sections to get as many books as I could hold. I loved the library in the towns where I grew up, but I only remember the last hometown's building. In 2024, I made going to the library in my current hometown a priority for myself. I finally remembered how much fun it was to be surrounded by books and to select some to borrow. I got a new library card and then joined the summer reading program. We had to read 10 books to qualify for the prize - I read over 50 in three months. Since the summer reading program, I have been going to the library as often as possible. I have only really gone into t...

It is almost payday, so it is time to look at my current entertainment budget which I am monitoring through the use of envelopes. If you are not sure what I'm talking about, here is the link where I started my discussion. It is the first time for looking at my spending and getting things back to full envelopes. I spent all my fast food money and more than what was there this past pay period. I had two large food orders (one was benefiting the region's music therapy student association) which cleaned me out and cleared out much of my miscellaneous envelope as well. I just made a Thriftbooks order, so money has to come out of that envelope as well. The cash that is there will be put into my replenishment fund because I used my card for those purchases. I will take out less money from this paycheck to get me back to the amount that I keep for entertainment. I did not spend money on crafts this month. I did not spend money on my home this month. I did not spend money on the other ...

I am a packrat. If you are unfamiliar with the term, it means that I am more likely to keep something based on its potential to become something else than I am to throw it away. That means that my home is never neat and minimalistic - no matter how much I try to make it so. I picked up some free magazines at the library the other day - Elle Decor and Veranda publications. I looked through them this weekend after I was finished with the Online Conference for Music Therapy stuff that happened, and I had to laugh out loud. The decor and examples shared in those two publications were SO not what I like, do, or want to achieve in my home. I laughed out loud at the featured furniture selections which were not under $12,000 dollars. I will NEVER have a chair that costs $12,000 dollars! EVER!! There are so many things that I could get for that same amount of money. I quickly decided that subscriptions to these magazines will not suit me at all, but the pictures are nice. I might cut the magazi...

It is Tuesday, and I thought I would share my thriftiest way to get visual aids for my therapy sessions. If you are someone who reads this blog on a regular basis, then you know that I love the resource TPT - formerly known as Teachers Pay Teachers . The link shared here goes to my shop, because why not? The thing that you have to know about TPT is that there are so many different resources on that site that are absolutely free. Also, you have to set up an account, but again, signing up is free. Every creator on TPT has to offer at least one file for free. That means that there are so many things on the site that are available without a cost to others. I have found many different files for free. Now, it is time to plug my own site. I try to create visual aids specifically for music therapists. I have forms, pictures, full therapeutic music experiences, and books for sale on my site. I try to keep the prices low so that these visual aids and books are affordable for music therapists. If...

I have to admit that I now have enough money to purchase many of my music therapy instruments, but there were times when I was unable to spend money on the luxuries of things like shaker eggs or tambourines. In those cases, I learned how to make many of the instruments that I wanted to use with my clients.  Making instruments takes time, and time is valuable, so keep that in mind when you are making budget decisions. So, how did I make instruments? I looked through every single Bible School curriculum that I had access to. I searched through kids' books about crafts and making things. I used the internet to find resources. I scrounged through my recycling to find materials. I bought lots of glue and mod podge and tissue paper and duct tape. I would make things and then bring them into my clinical environment to test them. (My clients are WONDERFUL at breaking things, so they are the ultimate test for all my instruments!) Then, I would take the pieces back and figure out what to do ...

One of the essential tools in my thrifty toolbox is finding things to do that take little to no money but offer great rewards in terms of self-care and relaxation. Now, the hardest thing about this is that what I find valuable might make you more stressed, so you have to find your own way into self-care. What I talk about here might not be something that works for you, so the first thing to know is that you have to find what interests you. My self-care routines include reading, making books and other papercrafts, crocheting, watching movies, and napping. I also like taking classes on papercrafting and self-improvement, and all that, so I look for ways to get the most bang for my buck! I subscribe to a service called SkillShare where I can take classes on lots of different topics. I also have an unlimited movie subscription to my local theater where I can watch as many movies as I want every month. Between these two subscriptions, I spend about $30 per month. My other hobbies and self-c...

I am the type of therapist who thinks that it is better to save some money and spend some time to make tools rather than paying for something someone else makes. Blame my mom who learned it from her mom who learned it from her mom and so on and so forth. We have always made things that we needed - not just for the therapy space (Mom and I are therapists - the other generations were not) - but for everything. So, back when I had clients who needed pervasive levels of support to accomplish some of our music therapy goals, I was looking for ways to assist my clients in holding and using mallets and handled percussion instruments that did not take all of my budget. Adaptive cuffs were appropriate, but they dissolved quickly - there was something about the glue that put the Velcro onto the foam that just disintegrated quickly when washed and disinfected. I did not have the money to spend $20+ dollars every month for each of the cuffs that I needed, so I went to the design board to see if I ...

Here it is, Tuesday again, and I am avoiding the thought of having to go to work - not because I am not looking forward to working, but because I just don't want to leave my bed. Bed is comfortable, but money is essential, so I will get going. I did not sleep much overnight, waking at 1:30 and not getting back to sleep, so I am just plain old tired, but that's not the topic of this morning's post. Today is Tuesday, so it is time to talk about being thrifty! Speaking of thrift, let's talk thrift stores! My sister and my mother are champion thrifters! (Spell-check doesn't like that word, but I do, so we are going to keep it!) They have a series of thrift stores that they frequent several times per month where they keep an eye out for things for my sister's classroom, for my mother's various collections, for gifts for others, and for my music therapy practice.  Now, I am nowhere near their level of thriftiness, but I am starting to try it out. Things to look fo...

Welcome back to the Thrifty Therapist series here at music, therapy, and me. Let's talk about sound makers and finding ways to make them for our clients to use during music therapy sessions - sound makers that do not cost much to make, use, or replace when needed! As a beginning music therapist, way back in the very late 1900's (yep, I am THAT old), I had no money. I mean, I was living with my parents, paying them for groceries, and barely making my car payment with my $6.50 an hour job. I was a recreation therapist at a residential treatment facility, and I had nothing. I think I had a guitar and that was about it, but I still needed to find ways to make music with my clients. As a result of little to no money and very few resources, I had to get creative. Fortunately, I have a mother who taught us to get creative and to look in all sorts of ways to do what we need and want to do. So, finding ways to make music with my clients was something that I took as a challenge more than...