music, therapy, and me

A Disney movie that I love is Meet the Robinsons . If you are not familiar with it, it is about science and experimentation and finding a family. It is a movie that is creative and not just a remake of something that Disney has already done (I am VERY anti-live action remakes of cartoon classics!). Throughout the movie, the theme of Keep Moving Forward comes up again and again, and is finally echoed in a quotation from Walt Disney (no date to attribution) -  “Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” Curiosity is something that comes and goes for me. At the moment, I am curious about the world of music therapy beyond my role, but I am not feeling able to engage outside the four walls where I do music therapy. I have dreams for what I want to do, but limited knowledge of how to get there. I am still curious about it all. What do...

I love it when a post on social media makes me think about things a bit differently than I have previously. I saw one this week that made me go into dream mode - what would I do? The question was about staff retreats and what to do during them. Oooh! This is one of my "If I Won the Lottery" dreams. I would LOVE to have a conference center where music therapists would be able to attend continuing education courses and retreats and meetings and conferences. There was the perfect place too, a closed convent with beautiful buildings that used to be a ladies academy as well as a convent. It was a mere 6 million dollars - why should price make a difference in how I accomplish my dreams (EXTREME SARCASM HERE!). So, I started thinking about the retreats I have been on over the years to figure out what I would do if... there are any number of "ifs" here - if I had a staff to retreat with, if I was invited to lead someone else's staff in a retreat experience, and ...

I enjoy making things. I like taking an idea, trying to make it into a reality, and then trying it out with my clients during music therapy sessions. Then, I REALLY enjoy sharing those ideas with other music therapists to see if what I make has value outside my own small corner of the music therapy world. To that point, I've sponsored a giveaway of the things displayed below as a good step towards getting others to use my tools. I also enjoy finding out what other therapists out there are making, using, and doing in their own practices. One of the things that I've noticed is that we, as a collective, are able to take one simple idea and expand it, shift it, and adjust it until it is a multi-faceted, therapeutically-enriching, deep music therapy experience that affects more than just the clients we have before us.  The problem is that we don't always have the opportunities to participate in a collective experience. Often we are the only music thera...

Just returned from part of my regional conference. It was within driving distance (my major requirement for attending a regional conference is driving distance), and I passed through the towns where my dad's parents and grandparents lived. I enjoyed driving through those small towns. So, double bonus - trip to my past and time with music therapists. Regional conferences are VERY different from national conferences. They are smaller, so there are lots more opportunities to get to know people. They are also less hurried or rushed. We only had 4 concurrent sessions going on at a time, so it was easy to choose what to learn about. I could only stay for the afternoon and then the first morning of the conference, but it was a renewal of my music therapy spirit and motivation. The local committee did a wonderful job of finding a venue that functioned well, supported presenters, and had plenty of room. I didn't stay in the conference hotel, but I spent time in the space. My only co...