music, therapy, and me

I am currently about 900 miles away from home, sitting in a hotel room, and waiting for enough time to pass so I can get the complementary breakfast that is offered. Why? You may ask? Well, my mother wants to see her best friend, my sister wants me to visit, and I have little to no time constraints at the moment. So, I am hurtling towards my family at speeds of up to 85 mph in order to get there, get on a plane, fly back across the country, and visit someone that has been my mother's best friend since kindergarten. That's why, This is definitely a nostalgia break, for sure. My mother's friend is impressed at how I put together our itinerary. (For gracious' sake, Aunt M, I am 56 and have done this a time or two before!) We are going to fly across the country (over my house) and visit. After that, I have about a week before my friend arrives at where I will be staying. I am trying to set up some music therapy meetings to ask questions and see what my future might hold for...

Recently, I have gone into a pattern of not writing ideas or songs down. This is great for my improvisational skills, but it is not great for my therapeutic music experience (TME) compendium. It is time to be a bit more intentional about my composition and TME development. If you have read any of my previous TME Tuesday posts, then you know that I have an organizational system for my ideas. I have a structure that really works well with my brain and my way of doing therapy. This system requires that I think through all sorts of musical and therapeutic elements to coordinate session strategies with specific clients. Now that I do not have clients, I have time to compose and write TMEs down again. My current focus is the two upcoming events through my company, musictherapyworks.com, LLC. One of them is a conference focused on working with adolescents and the other is a creative endeavour that includes making visuals for use in sessions with clients . These are both things that I enjoy c...

It is time to revisit the idea of thematic music therapy programming in my blog. I don't always remember this particular theme for Tuesday posts, but I feel like I need the structure this morning, so here goes! For today's theme, I am focusing on emotions. The book packet that I am putting together is based on a book where emotions are displayed in inappropriate ways. I enjoy the book so much, especially the illustrations. I have all the TMEs planned out, but I haven't written them down yet. That's the next step. One of the things that happens over and over in my sessions - often by well-intentioned adults rather than my clients - is that emotions are labeled as good or bad rather than just there. I stress, over and over again, that emotions are not the important thing - it is how we handle our emotions that make them good or bad. If we are feeling angry, then that is fine. If we are feeling angry and hit someone, that is a bad action that came through our emotional sta...

So, my sister likes Website Wednesday as a theme. I have done this in the past (check out the label for earlier posts), but it might just need to be something that I come back to. So, here it goes - the second attempt at this theme... It's Wednesday which means it is time to feature a website. I am currently paying attention to all sorts of music education folks - their blogs, posts, and classroom reveals. For some reason, I really like classroom reveals. It probably has something to do with hearing about my sister's themes and not being around her for the big reveal. Anyway, one blogger that I am enjoying right now is Mrs. Stouffer . Her website, Mrs. Stouffer's Music Room , offers lots of blog posts about things that are not relevant to music therapists but as many that are, especially if you are a school-based therapist like me! I am currently going through Mrs. Stouffer's Ultimate Book List.  This is a resource that will be helpful for me this year as I try to make ...

For a long time now, I have been writing songs for thematic TMEs (therapeutic music experiences) and collecting them in my ideas book - the TME section. I haven't put them into a formal collection, but I am on the verge of getting this project started. There is lots of discussion about thematic programming in my parts of the music therapy world. There are loud voices both for and against using themes. I am neutral in the conversation - I am always for whatever makes any music therapist's life a bit easier. If you are a thematic music therapist, I would love to hear what themes are your favorites. If you are not, then do what you do and do it well! I have some themes in my clinical practice at the moment - they tend to be music education themes more than any other, but I also use my umbrella goal areas as themes for programming. As an educational enrichment specialist, I have great latitude in how I arrange my music therapy sessions, so themes help me stay organized. I tend to t...

There are times when I have little to no creative inspiration but still need to be writing music for clients. If I try to force things, I often feel more upset and more blocked than when I go through my techniques to help me figure out a way around or over my blocks. My favorite technique is writing a silly song. Silly songs do not have to make sense, they don't have to have any sort of therapeutic benefit, and they don't have to be shared or even written down (though my clients have often loved my silly song results, so I try to record the songs in some way - who doesn't love to be silly?). I usually start the entire process by focusing on something I can see. I tend to respond well to visual input, so looking at an item or a picture helps me in my process. I have a book of magazine objects that I have collected over the years that has provided lots of inspiration. I also just do random things that I see. Once I have the item selected, I just start my improvisation. The be...

Dearie, me. It is already Friday, and I have blogged about three or four of the last seven days here. I am getting closer to figuring out what I want to start writing about as themes (which is something I find I need in order to keep going with music therapy related topics on this blog - otherwise I end up just babbling on and on and on...). I am wondering if writing about composition from a clinical perspective would be something that would help me figure some things out. I used to write monthly therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) for sing about songs , but I stopped doing that on a regular basis a while ago. It would be nice to get back into writing music as a part of my regular routine. So, how about Songwriting Sundays? (I like alliteration, so something with an "S" at the beginning HAS to be on either Saturday or Sunday - it's corny, but it makes my heart happy, so...) I enjoy writing songs. I enjoy making things up as I go along as well. So, having a songwriting to...

Yesterday, at this time, I was getting ready to spend the night at my job. About halfway through the day, though, I remembered that my Christmas boxes were supposed to be delivered. I did not want two large boxes to sit on my porch for two days, getting covered by snow, and tempting other people to take them. My father's (and mine as well) cornet was shipped this time around. If I lost that, I would be heart broken as it is something we shared. So, I drove home yesterday afternoon, pulled in the boxes, and decided that I would try to get to work this morning through the storm. I have now decided that I will not be doing that. All of the roads between here and work are completely covered with snow and ice. While I would love the extra sick time, I am not all that willing to risk my life by sliding off roads and into ditches on completely covered roads. It has happened before, and I am determined that it will not happen to me again. So, I now have a day at home without plans. This is...

I took yesterday off to get some breathing treatments going and some relief from the pollen that has taken over my existence. Today, though, I have to get going to work. The day has already started out better than yesterday did. When my alarm went off, I was able to get up, and I haven't coughed much at all. I will take my nebulizer to work and do a treatment when I arrive. I can't do a treatment before that because it makes me shaky. It is better to wait than to drive under the influence of this drug. So, breathing treatments have to wait for later this morning. I can do another treatment when I get home and then I will be ready to sleep. We will play Instrument JINGO today. I had originally planned on doing a brass demonstration, but my breathing just hasn't cooperated, so I remembered JINGO and prepared that instead. It fits the theme of the second week of the month, so JINGO it is. (By the way, my theme for this week is "instrument information.") Some of my gr...

I received some disappointing news yesterday. Now, in the long range scheme of things, not having enough registrants to justify my CMTE is not a big deal, but for me, it is disappointing. So, I go into some of my coping skills and strategies to find my center again. Today is Tuesday, which means that I try to focus my writing on therapeutic music experiences (what I call the things I do with my clients in sessions - AKA TMEs). Today is a good day to talk about taking an idea and then making it into a TME - something that happens with music therapists all the time. Ideas can come from any place. There are times when I am driving home after work, and a song pops into my head. I scramble to get out my pencil and my post-its to notate it a bit before it fades into oblivion. There are times when an object sparks some therapeutic intervention ideas. There are other times when I hear a song on the radio, and I just know that a particular client will enjoy it and welcome the song into music th...

My brain is reaching post-COVID stage, and I am starting to think logically again (at least, I feel like I am being logical...), so I am thinking about things that are not entirely important but that make a difference in my life. Yesterday's post on systems was about classroom systems that my sister (Hi, KB!) uses in her second grade class, and included some talk about centers. Now, centers are one of my favorite ways to check for independence and generalization of skills for my clients, but they are hard to run in my music therapy room - mainly because of constant staff turnover and the need to constantly train staff members on how to interact and how to stay out of what clients are doing! **We all want to help, but we don't all realize that helping too much hinders people rather than actually helping them.** I want my students to explore and figure out answers without interference from well-meaning staff members who just don't get how we all learn. Anyway... Lately, I hav...

Here's a review of my week... Sunday - heading to church to find that no one needed me to do anything for Sunday School, so I planned all the anthems until Advent. Got my music arranged and ready to go for next Sunday when we have a choir (hopefully). Monday - Three groups, one individual session and lots of moving things and arranging the office a bit more. Dove into my visual aid closet. Decided that my visual aids need more organization - paralyzed about how to proceed so didn't do anything else. Tuesday - Five groups, three individuals, and not much else. Meeting schedule has changed so I had a bit more time in the afternoon than usual. Wednesday - Five groups, one individual, and the first support service pod meeting EVER during pod meeting time! Tendons hurt REALLY bad and noticed bumps on the back of my tendons appearing again. Thursday - Three groups, two individuals, and the meeting that was usually on Tuesday on its new day. Went to the doctor about my tendons. Left w...

I have decided that it may be best to make my "What I'm Reading" posts every other week instead of every week since I can't seem to bring myself to read every week these days. So, here is a "Not What I'm Reading" type post that still has something to do with music therapy. My current intern is very good at taking music and adapting it to what she needs in the moment. She has introduced my clients to many different melodies and harmonic progressions that have never occurred to me as options for TMEs. It's been fun to learn these songs along with my clients, and she has inspired me to head back into my music library to use the resources that I have and to find more. I have been looking at fake books on Amazon recently. I love fake books and have gone through several of them in my career. I have the bits and pieces of several of them floating around my house, so it is time to get a new set of fake books. Right now, the most popular one is the Disney Fak...

Every year around this time, a song starts to circle around in my head. It is not really a song that I enjoy listening to very much, but it is there and it just keeps circling around and around. I haven't used it much in therapy sessions (especially not lately as it is an older type song - one from when I was young, so...you know), but it gets in my brain and just keeps going. The song? Back to School from Grease 2.   Now, perhaps you are one of the people in the world who have never heard this song before. That is perfectly fine, but let me tell you, it is one that really struck a chord with me (pun intended) and has special meaning this time of year because...(wait for it)...we are going back to school. Here is a link to this song via YouTube . Now it can be stuck in your head as well. I don't think I have ever officially written a therapeutic music experience (TME) for this song before, so let's go into TME development. First step, find the lyrics to look at. Second ste...

I have had a Promethean Board (ProBo for short in my head) for a week now. I have run my first two applications using the ProBo this week, and I find it to be interesting but not necessary to my existence as a music therapist. I am hoping that I will always feel this way about it - that it is nice to have but not essential for me to do my job. It is interesting that this is my perspective. I don't think I am all that unsavvy when it comes to technology, but I am VERY picky about what I let into my life and my habits. It took me a long time to consent to having a cell phone. In fact, it took an accident on a snowy day to make me realize that cell phones are essential tools in life today. It took me about as long to upgrade from my flip phone to a smart phone. I keep my phones until the battery can no longer hold charges rather than turning them in each time I am eligible. I just don't see why a reliance on technology is a good thing. My motto for this part of my life is "te...

Last week, I shared the format that I use to organize and categorize my therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) for my use and for the use of others. This week, I would like to share a recently developed TME to demonstrate how I use this form in my practice. Are you ready? I Have an Apple by Mary Jane Landaker, MME, MT-BC Purpose : To encourage appropriate social interaction through passing and tossing an object; bilateral coordination meeting at mid-line; hand-eye coordination; entrainment to external beat; sustained attention Source : Original chant and TME. © 2011 by Mary Jane Landaker, MME, MT-BC. Materials : Large stuffed apple; OPTIONAL: external beat track on instrument or CD Environment : Group members sitting in a circle where passing or tossing an object is easy to complete Song/Chant/Words : VERSE ONE X              X         X       ...