music, therapy, and me

I am in the center of a dilemma. It's one that I've been wrestling with for a while (since I started up my Teachers Pay Teachers store) about how to express to people that aren't music therapists that they cannot call what they do with my materials "music therapy" without the proper training, education, experience, etc. Interestingly, this topic came up on one of my social media feeds today, so now I am really thinking about this particular dilemma. The unfortunate answer to this question is that I cannot control what other people say about music therapy. I cannot police the entire world for the use of the phrase "music therapy" for appropriate uses and inappropriate uses. I cannot control the people who think that playing a streaming service playlist titled, "Musical Therapy," is equivalent to hiring me to work with their clients. I cannot be that person for all other people in the world. I CAN focus on the folks that I reach directly...

Well. Day two is now over and day three will be dawning pretty soon. Time to make some decisions about my conference timeline and continued participation, but we'll get to that later. Here's what happened yesterday. One of the nice and still challenging things about the AMTA National Conference is that there are plenty of things to choose from, yet there are times when what is being presented is not something relevant to me. This happened a bit more on day one than on day two, but was still something that happens more and more as I mature into one of the "older" music therapists. I started my day with a big breakfast (big mistake) and then went to a session about "Reconceptualizing the 'work-life balance': Integrating our multiple identities." (I've read a social media policy since yesterday which states that I am not to list the names of people who present without their explicit permission, so I will refrain from listing the names of the p...

I've fallen into an ethical dilemma. I know how I am going to handle it, but I feel that I need to address it here just so I can see the process through from start to finish. Here is the dilemma. A former client of mine (former by 4 days - left last Friday for a new school) has requested to be my friend on Facebook. I enjoyed being the therapist for this student, but I am not ready to be his Facebook friend. I want to keep my work life separate from my home life. Now, I do not post lots and lots of social information about myself on Facebook, but there are more links into my outside life than I want a client to access. I know that he is not currently my client, but the relationship is still too close for my comfort. I wonder what his current teacher thinks when she posts things about her "grape slushie" drinks that she enjoys several times per week. I wonder what types of censorship I would put myself through wondering what he would see on my timeline, who he woul...