music, therapy, and me

Monday has come around again, and it is the last Monday that I have off before the start of the 2025-2026 school year. Next Monday is my first day with kids after being off for over a month due to medical issues that are continuing even after surgery. We now know more about what is happening inside my body, and it doesn't seem all that great. I go to my primary person today to cover some things that are concerning me - high blood pressure, falling, etc., but that is a topic for another day. Today's topic is laminating. I am a big fan of lamination. My clients tend to be juicy, so it is a good idea to cover things in plastic that can withstand some Clorox wiping (or LOTS of Clorox wiping). So, I enjoy covering visual aids in plastic.  When I was an intern, it was often my job to cover visuals in clear Contact paper. Now, I HATE Contact paper because it was my job to cover visuals during my internship. I swear that stuff sees me coming and instantly starts to fold, wrinkle, and s...

I am back to wanting to do thematic blogging for some of the days of the week on this blog. Mondays used to be internship focused but I no longer have an internship, so I have stopped writing on that topic. Since I am not in the internship world anymore, I feel like writing about it is sort of hypocritical. So, I am trying to get back into a routine of writing thematic posts at least three times per week.  These themes have to be things that interest me about the world of music therapy, but I am not really in the world of music therapy at this point. All I can really talk about is what it is like to be a vintage clinician, and I think that would get boring real quick for me and for you. So, let's see what else I know... Therapeutic Music Experience development Group management Being a clinician in a world that favors research Budgeting for a music therapy practice Becoming an entrepreneur Making things for clients Some music therapy history Music therapy systems that work for me Wa...

This is my second attempt at a post for today. There are times when I just can't post what I am writing because it is not conducive to my mental health or the purpose of this blog. So, the first post of the day went into my draft folder. I will not look at it again. It will just sit in that folder forever and ever. Let's talk about something that makes me feel happy - creating art and other craft processes. Yesterday, I sat on my bed and I created some word art. Word art is something I enjoy - I use it as a stream of consciousness tool for myself. I write words in different fonts. The words are sometimes sentences, sometimes just single words, but they always show me something about how I am feeling or what I am struggling with in the moment. Sometimes there are song lyrics involved. Most of the time, though, the words are just that - words without much to link them together. Yesterday's art consisted of emotion words about my near future and covered all of my current emoti...

I made it. This was a rough week for me emotionally. It was up and down with client interactions and engagement, but I did not want to move from my house to work every day this week. This happens to me more often in the summer months, and I know that a big part of my reluctance and negative thoughts are part of my particular version of seasonal affective disorder. Knowing that fact doesn't always make it easier to live through, but I do. We are getting ready for our first round of high heat and humidity this upcoming week. I am considering moving downstairs until my surgery so I can be more comfortable at night in the basement temperature instead of the upstairs temperatures. I have 10 more days before my surgery happens, so there is plenty of time to be comfortable. Anyway... I had a brainstorm yesterday for a theme packet for my sing about songs  series. My sister helped me come up with some things to include in the new packet - look for it soon in my Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) ...

There is nothing better than getting into a creative routine. That being said, it is not something that I have been doing very much of lately. It has been difficult to navigate a world where no one seems happy. I got notice that a music therapy acquaintance of mine is in hospice care, the government seems to be floundering in ways not seen for four years, and it is cloudy here. Very cloudy. More snow is coming. All of these things have had an effect on my creativity. I am somewhat snowed under with emotion, and I am not sure that all of the things that I am feeling are mine. I am a highly sensitive, empathetic introvert, and when things get emotional and unsettled, it is best for me to move into my cocoon until I can navigate the world again. I am trying to emerge at the moment, but who knows... Perhaps I should think of myself as a joey instead of getting into a cocoon. Back into the pocket of nurture rather than a caterpillar/butterfly. I like the idea of having a place to retreat to...

Something happened between my last post and this one - I had to do a last minute presentation to fill up time at the Online Conference for Music Therapy . I selected a presentation that I did a long time ago called, "Been There. Done That. Now What? - From Slump to Career Pivot." I guided participants through a couple of exercises to help clarify future plans, and it helped me as well. I was very honest with attendees about my own struggles - the ones that I was writing about in my post earlier that morning - my continued feelings of inadequacy and "not being good enough" (AKA, imposter syndrome). I went through the exercises with them as we were talking about this situation. I thought about my current future and what my "no boundaries" future look like, and how I can merge them together in small ways. I finished the day in a better mood and with a better outlook for my future than when it started. One of the things that I try to do on this blog is to offe...

Ooh, boy. Songwriting is not for everyone, and that is okay. It is not always easy, but I think it is an essential skill for music therapists to be able to write goal-focused songs for clients. Like every other element of music, this is one that gets better when we practice. And practice. And practice. So, if writing songs is challenging, there are some tasks that you can do to make it easier. Here are the ones that I use, but I would love to hear what you do when you need a new or very specific song to support your clients in achieving their goals. When I get into a situation where the creativity just isn't happening, I take as many elements out of my decision tree as possible. I use dice or pull notes from a hat. I use piggyback songs. I write nonsense songs about strange pictures. I get into a repetitive chord progression and go into some word association strategies. I have figured out things to do that shake me out of my slump and back into composition. These are skills that I ...

Yesterday, I enlisted the assistance of my mom and my sister to start with my new project for the next year - sing about themes . I am planning on releasing these thematic packets every month this year to supplement music therapy programming for clients of all ages and goal foci. These thematic packets will come with 4-6 therapeutic music experiences (TMEs), ideas for adaptations to all TMEs for various populations, and a couple of digital files to make visual aids for clients to use during sessions. The first theme is one that is dear to my heart and will be kept a secret for a bit of time, but rest assured that I will be sharing it as soon as I can. The fun for me comes in collaboration with my creative relatives. We are a force to be reckoned with when it comes to creating. I've told you about my mom's current creative force - Barbie furniture and houses, but my sister is also very creative - she channels her creativity into specific projects one thing at a time rather than ...

My word for this year is "play." I select a word each year that helps me focus on self-improvement. In the past, I have had many words designed to inspire me to do more. Before this year started, I decided that I was tired of self-improvement, and I wanted to spend more time on things that I found fun. So, I decided that "play" was my word back at the end of 2023. As we enter the last quarter of 2024, it is time to start thinking about what I want to be doing this next year. I have enjoyed the focus on finding things that are fun and help me play with things and people. I want to continue this focus, so I will be looking at different words and ideas for what I want to do in 2025. One of the reasons I chose the word "play" as my focus is professional in nature. I was not feeling happy with how things were going in my music therapy practice. I was feeling creatively blocked at a level that is not my normal. I wanted to find my first love again - doing things...

So, I have a problem. My problem is that I love paper. I like writing on it, getting as much of it as I can, and then reading from it. I have two shelves of scrapbooking paper and cardstock that I am trying very hard to use, but there are so many more designs that are out there, just waiting to be purchased... by me! As far as problems go, this isn't the worst one to have, but it can be an expensive one. I have a smaller shelf of finished books that I have made that just sit there. No one has wanted to purchase one, but I continue to make them because the creation brings me joy. Do you want one?? I will send it to you! The more I make, the more I get so I can make more things. This is the fundamental issue with being a creative person, I guess. I am feeling the urge to make another something today. Unfortunately, my living space is not a place where I can spread out my materials quite yet. There is still some work to be done before I can use my glue and my paper and my paper cutter...

As I have been going through boxes and bags of things as a result of my recent water emergency, I have been finding all sorts of things that I have purchased and then packed away. These are things that I had been able to justify purchasing at the time, but that I have not actually used yet. So, as a result, it is time to start working on my Six Things Rule again. Just to refresh your memory (or introduce you to this rule that I have created for myself because I tend to hoard things and keep buying more and more things to use), I have established a "Six Things Rule" to help me figure out if I can purchase things for my music therapy clinic. This rule helps me a bit when it comes to impulse buys, but not much because I can think up six things to do with just about anything when motivated. Right now, though, I need to decide if I can keep these things that are taking over my very being and all my space. These bulletin board pieces, for example. I bought some paw print calendar n...

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 have just had an epiphany about something that has been churning around in the back of my mind for a long time. I want to make myself a junk journal to use. Now, if you read this blog regularly, you know that one of the things that I love doing (that is not music therapy) is making books from scratch. I have made a bunch of books and have either sent them out to friends (let me know if you want one!) or listed them on Etsy (where they do not sell). I like making books, but I don't really use them as my planners or things like that. I made one last March when I was at home with my Mom and my Sister, and I am using that one as a trip journal. It has been really fun to add things to that book, so I am thinking about making another one for me to use. I just came up with the theme for this junk journal about three minutes ago and just before I started to write this post. I decided I would make this journal on the theme of "Things I Love." So, something else that you probably...

It is the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend here in my part of the world, and I have done very little in the past two days, including writing. I am currently participating in NaNoWriMo - the National Novel Writing Month, and I have not written much in the past three days, but I have done some. This is the first time that I have participated in this particular event. The goal is to write 50,000 words in a month. I am at 32,648 words written this month. I have stories that total 51,563 words all together, so I feel like I have won, but I am only counting the words that I add in this month. The purpose of NaNoWriMo is to get me into a writing routine of some sort. If I manage to write the remaining 17, 352 words in the next six days, I will be amazed. Since I haven't done this before, I am proud of what I will get finished at that date.  I am enjoying the writing - mostly. As always, when I have something that I want to do - a goal, if you will - I tend to lose interest and start to re...

It is finally Thursday. I have only six groups left in the week. That means that we have finished fifteen groups by this time every week. It is no wonder that Thursday usually includes some exhaustion. While we only have four groups today, our day is pretty full - in addition to our four groups, we have two individuals scheduled now. I am not the leader of many of these sessions - I do not have primary therapist responsibilities in our individual sessions and I lead half of the group sessions today. I am spending time this week, during my office hours (non-session time in the music therapy room), writing therapeutic music experiences (TMEs). My goal is to have five finished by the end of tomorrow. I have completed two of the five and have the other ideas identified but not in TME format. I established a new Google form to work in to generate a database in a form a bit different from what I usually do, and I am finding the task interesting. I am a creative person. I create all sorts of ...

I am currently challenging myself to write 5 TMEs a week like I assign to my interns to see how much time it takes. Yesterday, I finished a Google form to input TMEs into a database and completed a TME from idea to documentation (all but the sheet music) in 90 minutes. That reminds me - I need to take a sheet music book with me to work. My composition software isn't on my work computer, so I have to write things old school. That means that my rhythms might not be accurate, but I will try my best. One down, four to go. I am trying the Google form with an associated spreadsheet to see if I can move from one way of doing things to another. It is not easy to reconfigure my brain to think and create differently, but I want this to replicate what I ask my interns to do as much as possible.As a result, I am changing my ways to see if that has an effect. So, if I go with my assumption that learning how to do this is more difficult than just changing how to do this, then the 45 minutes of t...

Today's creation is something that I enjoy doing, that I do on an occasional basis, and that needs to be done every once in a while - I am putting together some chairs.  I consider this type of task to be a creative task, but not in the same way as my other ways of creating. I enjoy putting furniture together. I enjoy the frustrations that occur when I try to figure out what the diagrams mean. I get echoes of "helping" my Dad put together things - did you know that I know how to fix sprinkler heads because of him? There you go. Here's the background to why I am putting together some chairs. I bought two chairs about four years ago. One was a chair with a back and the other was a stool. I usually use the stool for my craft area and the backed chair for my writing at my desk. About two months ago, my backed chair broke at the welds. I am not a welder, so I cannot fix the chair. I moved the stool over to the desk area, but I miss the chair back when I am writing. I order...

As you know, I am working on strengthening the communication options that my clients can access during music therapy sessions by reworking my binder system. I made some progress yesterday towards my goal, but found that the ideas that I had about putting together said binders just didn't work, so I am not finished, and I am back to the beginning. Let me tell you a bit more... Yesterday, before I left for work, I printed out seven copies of my binder pages. I put together this project about a year ago when I was part of the Berklee Music Education and Special Needs course, but I haven't made the time to put those binders together. In the past, I have used regular three-ring binders to store my initial communication pages. Each binder tends to last about three months before it is completely ruined by my clients. I have a couple of clients who will walk out of their way when they enter the music therapy room to walk on top of the binders. If the binders are not on the floor when t...