music, therapy, and me

My major project this first summer break is reorganizing my living room/office space in my home. I have completely ripped my front room apart, and there are things all over the floor at the moment. I have piles of things to donate, to put back on the shelves, and to repurpose. I have my new desks in place with the bookshelves keeping them stable, and I am putting things in places that seem to make the most logical sense. For example, all of the file folder assembly things are in the same place and on the same set of bookshelves under the creativity desk. The reference books, compact discs, and some of the boring writing utensils are on the shelves of the writing desk. My goal is to have everything I need for my various interests within easy reach no matter what I am doing. I am also trying to keep the top of the desk areas (hollow core doors) as empty as possible to encourage me to engage in work on these surfaces.  At the moment, there is more stuff off shelves than on. Eventu...

In one day, I have to take stuff to the annual church rummage sale. I've decided to donate some of the stuff that I have laying around - including some novelty instruments, games, DVDs, and clothing. It is time to start loading up the car. I have been storing toy instruments in my house since we had to downsize due to renovations at my facility. Now that I have space for all the stuff, I haven't really found that I need those instruments at my facility, so it continues to sit in my house. There is no reason for this, so I am going to give away some toy drums, some keyboards, and toy guitars. I am going to keep the Fisher-Price story tellers and the cartridges - I can make plans to use and store those things. Every break, I get into a "why do I have this?" type of mood, and I yearn to clean up and clear out. I also find myself keeping things much longer than I need them - mainly because of the "what ifs" that go through my head as I am cleaning out. IT is...

My last group session yesterday was a mess. It was such a mess that I gave up. I gave the only two kids who were sitting without screaming the iPod, a headphone splitter, and two sets of headphones. They sat, enveloped in their musical choices, while everyone around them engaged in full-blown tantrums, screaming, throwing themselves into drums, the walls, and each other. It was a mess. There was no way I could compete. The sheer volume in the room alone was ridiculous. Now, these students are students who have some impulse control, functional communication, and who have a bit more control of their actions and reactions to things than some of my kids who are more involved with their diagnoses. Again, it was a mess! The only thing that went well with the session was that I managed to calm almost every client before they left the music therapy room. We didn't do much music at all. But, when I looked around the room, I figured that any type of music would just add to the mele...

Narrow-minds and Ethics So, I have got myself into some trouble with the music therapy listserve again. I seem to do that quite a bit when I open my big fat mouth. I hate when people with opposing OPINIONS start to argue with each other. There is never a winner, especially when the opinions are contentious to begin with. The music therapy listserve has been abuzz with comments about a book featuring a music therapist as the protagonist. The book also concerns a lesbian relationship, something that was not highlighted before the book was published. One MT asked for some opinions about the book, and another MT stated that she felt that marriage should be between one man and one woman, not a lesbian couple. This opened up the floodgates for calls to remand this MT under the code of ethics. She was told to seek supervision to assist her in removing her bias towards people who were in homosexual relationships. I decided that some of these conversations were appropriate, but I started ...

The SEMTAP and me... I completed my first SEMTAP observation today. What a mess I am in the middle of at this point right now.  The parents want the student to get music therapy services because they want her to be able to perform. The student refuses to perform. The student has exactly two (2) IEP goals, neither of which are appropriate for music therapy services. The SEMTAP is basically writing itself now. I am not able to justify music therapy services to support the goals and objectives on the IEP. We will probably head into mediation because of all of this. Did I mention that this is part of my current job, and I have had to cancel the music therapy sessions for the 83 students that I am paid to work with during the school day?? Tomorrow I go back to complete the protocol. What a weird way to spend a day.