music, therapy, and me

I must admit that I am getting ready for some changes in my internship program these days, and I am starting with the AMTA Professional Competencies which feel like they have changed since the last time I really looked at them, but I guess not (when I look at my current evaluation). Perhaps my thoughts about how different things look are spurred on by my desperate wish that the membership would have actually followed through on the "revision every five years" provision that was put into place about 10 years ago and would have revised this document twice in the past 10 years. This is not supposed to be a rant, so I will simply say that I feel that this document needs to be revised more than once every decade. Anyway... I am currently working on a competency-based clinical training project that is requiring me to delve deeply into the competencies, and I am enjoying the opportunity. There are so many things that I like about competency-based clinical training that I can go on a...

I am currently in the awkward place of going through the assignments that I offer to my interns during their internships. I am having to make decisions about what to include and what to let go of right now. Now, this is something that I do to some extent after every run of interns. I always review their assignments and look at what worked and what has to be changed. Over the last three interns, as I have mentioned several times lately, no one has been able to finish assignments on their due dates. This concerns me as it indicates (to me, at least) a failure on my part to help my interns establish good time management practices during their time with me. So, I am trying to figure out all sorts of things when it comes to assignments. For this process, I start with the AMTA competencies. In case you didn't know, I strive to run an internship that is governed by the AMTA competencies - every assignment is based on the competencies and is part of the operational definitions that I have ...

One of the best and most difficult parts of my job is evaluating the skills of my interns. This is mid-term week for my current intern, and it is time to get my trusty, competency-based evaluation ready to review.  My evaluation is 29 pages long. Now, I can do an evaluation, without commenting, in about 30 minutes. Commenting adds time to the evaluation, but it is an important part of this process - feedback, feedback, feedback. The reason my evaluation is so long is that it includes all sorts of information - every competency, operational definitions of each one, and where each competency is demonstrated in the assignments and situations that happen in the internship. Every single competency has multiple skills (well, except for those that we don't cover in my program) as part of the evaluation process. My interns get this from the beginning of the time - they know what they are supposed to demonstrate from the start of the program in order to pass their time with me. As indicated...

Spring break is over, so it is time to head back into the work routine. Part of that work routine is reviewing my internship program and setting things up for my next intern (#36 coming in June, and I am thinking deeply about if I want an intern #37). My current focus is to develop my self-study courses for my interns to do during breaks - if they choose those tracts. The tracts that I am thinking of will probably include changes in assignments across the entire program, so I have to figure out what I want my interns to know at the end of their internships to figure out how I am going to get them there. That's the way that competency-based education works - starting from the ending and then working backwards to develop the tasks, assignments, and learning objectives of each assignment. All things should be related to the desired level of competence. Period. Without this type of ending focus, students are not always aware of why they are learning what they are learning. Another part...

One of the things that always seems to surprise music therapy students when I talk to them about becoming interns is that there are some responsibilities that they have to follow in this entire process. There are times, when I am talking to internship supervisors, that I have to say the same types of things - there are responsibilities that internship directors and supervisors have during the internship as well. One of the things that I try to do before each intern starts with me is to re-read all the documents that are required reading. After teaching the AIAC continuing education course for about 10 years, I know what the expectations for all parties are pretty darn well, but it is always good to review them on a regular basis. I do my best to follow all of the National Roster Internship Guidelines throughout the intern's time with me. They are pretty easy to follow, but there are some folks who just don't bother or who are unaware, I guess. The thing that continues to be th...

Here it is, Sunday again. I have tried a different way of "reading" this week - that of skimming rather than reading every word because I get so involved that I cannot read more than about four pages - AND, I am only in the first chapter!! If I only read four pages a week, I will NEVER finish this book! Page 9 (Yep, that's where I left off last week after what seemed like SO much information gathering) includes the introduction of how different theoretical orientations shape the supervision of interns and students. Pages 10 and 11 speak about developmental approaches stating that "Developmental models of supervision...are metatheoretical...and readily applicable to varying theoretical persuasions" (p.10). I know that my own perspective about intern training follows the ideas of the developmental model more closely than that of the psychotherapy model, but bits and pieces of the psychotherapy approach makes it into the experiences of my interns - how could it not...

Clinical training is something I really enjoy. I had a meaningful experience at my own internship (many, MANY decades ago), and I find being an internship director to be very good for my own clinical awareness and development. I hope that my interns learn as much from me as I do from them. All of that to say that clinical training is one of my passions in this field of music therapy. As such. I find it to be a consistent topic that I explore during my continuing education. Since this is something that I continue to be passionate about and always want to be better at, I tend to focus my time on learning more and more about this topic. Now, one of the other things that I am passionate about is competency-based education and clinical training. It is a nice situation when both of my passions come together in a smooth manner. I am currently reading Clinical supervision: A competency-based approach by Carol A. Falender and Edward P. Shafranske, published in 2009 by the American Psychologica...

Yep, you guessed it, I didn't get any reading done this week for many different reasons, but I did do lots of thinking on the topic of my books - competency-based clinical training in the world of music therapy. I was privileged to present on this topic yesterday at the Student, Intern, Supervisor Conference (SISC) hosted by the Music Therapy Association of Ontario, and this has renewed my interest in this topic as a structure and system for music therapy interns and internship supervisors. So, I am on a quest to talk to as many music therapists about this topic as possible in the next year. Here are the things that I like about Competency-Based Clinical Training: All required skills are identified BEFORE an intern starts their internship. Interns get a copy of these skills when they enter the internship program so they know what is expected in order to graduate. All skills are considered pass/fail. If an intern is completely unable to do the skills, then it is time for more teachi...

It is early on Saturday morning, and I am sitting at the computer, preparing to present on something that I absolutely love to talk about. You know it. Competency-Based Clinical Training! I am getting my Dropbox links ready and reviewing my Powerpoint and my reference list and coordinating my outline. I am looking forward to presenting and to watching the rest of the conference. This is the first hybrid conference that I have attended, so I am curious to see how it all works. The good news is that I can justify this time for CMTEs, if I need it. I am really looking forward to this opportunity to talk to music therapists. It's been a long time since I have spoken to new music therapists. At the moment, I am printing out the final presentation to use for my own discussion and practice in the next three hours and forty-five minutes. I will use some of that time to organize the view behind me as well as to declutter my desk a bit. Once I finish up here, I have to switch to another Goog...

As you know, I am bound and determined that my internship program be competency-based as close as possible to the ideas of William G. Spady, the original author of competency-based education as a pedagogical structure. To that end, I have coordinated my evaluation, assignments, and the entirety of my internship program to the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) Professional Competencies . This is a system that I started in 2000 when the competencies were first adopted by AMTA, and I have revised it many times in the last 22 years. I am changing it now to accommodate parts of the new reality for us as music therapists - the reality that includes the possibility of telehealth as a definite part of our future as therapists. The point that I would like to make, however, is that I use the Professional Competencies to provide my interns with information that they need to know and to provide me with a more objective way to determine when they are ready to head out into the entry-level w...