music, therapy, and me

I woke up yesterday in a down mood. I am not sure if this is based on my hormonal cycle or the circumstances that are happening around me, but it is not my preferred state of existence. I do not like being someone who is on the periphery of situations - I prefer being in charge and making essential decisions. That is not the case right now. I am an extra in the drama of other people's lives, and that is not the place I prefer to be. I am also lonely with all the working from home stuff. I miss my daily interaction with my clients. It is difficult to find songs to sing that provide them with something to do where they cannot engage in choice making or providing input. I have to change my way of thinking about what I am doing in order to make it make sense for me. This is a complete tangent from the title of this post, but I think it will make sense if I write it down. Bear with me. I have always loved the idea of writing music to supplement educational curricula. My first thesis pro...

WARNING: This is not a complete idea or therapeutic musical experience...yet. I am working on it, so here is a glimpse into my process of putting together a TME from the very beginning...a very good place to start... Idea sparked by my sister, a second grade (sometimes first grade) teacher who teaches computer coding to her students and from materials sent by Music Therapy Mailings (I think last month, but it may have been the month before that). I have done TMEs like this in the past, but I have never really thought about it in terms of coding before. Basic ideas of coding - if you are interested in learning more about what coding is, google it! There are TONS of resources and tips and exercises - skill development in the areas of executive skill function and planning to see if things will work the way they need to work. In the music therapy room, we are going to use instruments to indicate directions and will be guiding a human through a predetermined pattern in real life. B...

So, if you've been following this blog lately, you know that I am currently trying something new for me - I am starting to use centers as part of my music therapy sessions. This came about because I have large groups of students placed in classrooms that have very little therapeutic rhyme or reason. Clients are constantly changing - kids leave and brand new ones arrive pretty much all the time. We never find a time where we stabilize.  I am trying something different. Two times per month, I am setting up centers for my clients to complete as part of their music therapy treatment. I have three centers - Explore, Listen, and Learn. These titles simply give me a way to indicate where I want clients to go during the session. I also have two different task indicators for my centers - Must Do and May Do tasks. I completed one full round of centers for half of the school last week - the other half will do centers this upcoming week. This is due to the snow day and day off that I too...