music, therapy, and me

For my entire career, I have rebelled against the idea of session planning. I struggled with procedure sections in my undergrad training. I've written about this recently - how I would take the example in our practicum handbook, change the details but not the format, and would be told that it "was not right." That was all the feedback that I would get. I would ask how to make those sections "right," and no one could tell me how to do that. I had a revelation in the summer between my junior and senior years (thank all that is good in the universe), and then I was able to figure it all out, but that experience has left me a bit leery of writing session plans. One of the biggest issues that I have with session plans is that there is so much that happens in a session, and it is impossible to foresee every response. Plain old impossible! So, I don't write session plans. I haven't for my entire career because I find the practice to be busywork. Instead, I focu...

Today is the day where I have the most groups of the week. In a recent development, I no longer have an individual session on Wednesday - not because of anything other than classroom reassignments - so Wednesday is my group day. We have six groups and a meeting on the schedule. Intern 34 will be in training for most of the day, and Intern 33 is getting more and more independent as I am moving myself farther and farther from the group area to do "work" while clients are engaging in music therapy. I will be running three groups today, and yesterday was not a successful day for any of the groups that we saw, so I want to do other things today. Nothing worked yesterday. My students weren't interested in any of the things that I had selected. My intern's students weren't interested in any of the things that she presented. No one was interested in anything - and, not just in music therapy. It was rough, and it was one of those days where you could have had the most famo...

My to-do list is getting smaller. I like to cross things off my list of things that I need to, have to, should finish up, and this morning, I can cross off the biggest task that I had in front of me. That makes me feel so wonderful! This is one of the reasons that I use a planner to organize my things to do and things done. I can see when I've made progress on a project or task, and I can also see what I need to do next. This visual representation is the way I can organize my self and my progress best. For some reason, electronic tracking systems are not good for me. I need paper and pens to keep track of what I am doing. It is time for a goal check. This is something that I do every so often to keep myself on track for things that I want to do and for things that I have done. My most immediate goal for today - that of finishing a project for my business - is finished for this month, but it is not over. This is an on-going type of project. Now that this month's contribu...

As you know, one of my biggest issues with myself is my penchant for stuff - all sorts of stuff. You want a Disney movie to watch? Chances are that I have it on my movie shelves (that's right - shelves). You want a book to read? I have hundreds and hundreds. You need some toilet paper tubes for a craft project? I've got quite a few (I NEVER throw those away - you can do SO much with them - I just heard my mother's voice in my head saying that very phrase...). I like stuff. I am quite sure that I would have ended up as a special educator if I had not heard about music therapy when I was 14 years old. I love going to educational supply stores and browsing through the bulletin board strips and the calendar pieces and the manipulatives and the books and curricula and the tools that teachers use on a regular basis. I love all that stuff, and I have to restrain myself from buying it all! If I had become a special educator, I am sure that I would have almost everything that is...

I'm finishing up a television show that I really enjoy - Person of Interest . It was something that aired from about 2010 to 2015, and I stream it on my Netflix account. This is the second time through that I'm watching this, and I really enjoy the show. I like the premise, and I find it "a triumph of the human spirit." Now, if you do not like shows with lots of conspiracy theories and shooting and fighting, then I would recommend that you avoid this show, but I enjoy a good conspiracy, so it's just what I enjoy (at times). Anyway, I am watching the last episode of the fifth season of this particular show. Everyone of the main characters looks like they will die in their pursuit of their cause, and it is moving towards a somewhat satisfying conclusion (I forget exactly how it ends, so I'm really involved with this particular episode). Oh - there goes one of the characters... My involvement with this particular show leads me to think about other endings i...