music, therapy, and me

I am in a period of change. This is partially due to my age, I am sure, and partially due to the fact that I have moved into a new home, and partially due to the fact that there are so many things happening in the world that there isn't much that remains static. Things are changing all around us, and it is sometimes difficult to keep up.  So, I am feeling a sense of accomplishment this morning. I woke up at 3:30 (my usual waking time these days) and finished a book. I have been reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett since Monday. It was nice to get to the ending. If you haven't read it, just know that I loved the Amazon series (there is a second season coming!!), and then I read the book. The series was very close to the book - something that I value in a remake and that doesn't happen often enough for me. After I finished the book, I took the pieces of furniture down to the office/studio to set up. Before I started that project, though, I looked at my utili...

Today's goal is to finish packing up the living room. I have six days until I close on my new house, and I am not ready to go yet. Fortunately, I have 11 days until the movers arrive, and I am only moving a small way down the road, so I can take some things over in between closing and movers. That's the plan, at least. I am almost finished with the dining room shelves. I keep finding additional books on shelves, but I am almost finished and ready to take the shelves down. Once that is done, I will be able to stack boxes against the wall instead of in the middle of everything. I should also be able to move my coffee table and my loveseat to that area so I can pack up the rest of the room.  I have lots of ambition and very little energy, so this should be interesting. There are so many things that go into being someone moving houses. In my original timeline, all of this happened during one of my breaks from my job, but the universe had different ideas, so now I am doing most of t...

It's Tuesday again, and I'm going through my TME file to find ideas to share. This is one based on a wide game format (thank you, Girl Scouting!) and is used to encourage my clients (who tend to be sedentary, just like me) to move. Sometimes we use a timer to keep us going - one minute at a station, one minute to find a new station... Enjoy!! Gross Motor Stations Mary Jane Landaker, MME, MT-BC Therapeutic Music Experience Purpose : To provide opportunity for full-body movement; increase sensory stimulation; increase sensory awareness; gross-motor coordination; response to signal (music changes); socialization; impulse control. Source : Original idea based on Theory from Sensory Integration and Brain Gym. © 2006 by Mary Jane Landaker, MME, MT-BC. Materials : CD with familiar, up-beat music; CD player; movement signs – movement suggestions: spinning; wall push-ups; jumping jacks; stomping; step-kick; step-together; sit-ups; push-ups; rolling; grapevin...

Because I am still knee-deep in organizing and getting my stuff together in my new room, I am very interested in what others do to get their rooms together. I love looking at how others organize, and I often strive for the same type of coordination in my own clinic area. So, when I am stumped, I go to the internet. Made for Music Teachers has a post that really makes me think about what I'm trying to do in my own space. I like the idea of having all related things together (that makes logical sense to me). I am currently sorting my stuff into four different categories - explore, listen, learn, and therapy. Each corner of the room will have a different focus. One corner will be for exploration. For me, this includes sensory exploration beyond that of listening. I have a large cabinet that holds my tubs of bells, pom poms, sensory bottles, sound bottles, and lots of other things as well. I'm going to take my electronic instruments for that center/station/area of the room. ...

Not doing therapy is really messing with my internal calendar. It is amazing how much I depend on my routine to keep myself grounded in time and reality. Right now, I have finished the moving out process but am stalled in the moving in process. So, still no students in the music therapy room. Many people have stopped by to see the "new music therapy room." Most of them make comments like, "I didn't know how much stuff you have" and other pithy remarks. One person came in (the one displaced by my moving but also one of the ones that directly benefited from my displacement 4 years ago) and said, "I'm going to miss this room." I didn't say anything - personal growth, maybe - and allowed her to own her feelings. Today's task is to scrounge up a desk surface and then set up the office area. Once that is done, I'll use the two cabinets that I have right now to store some of the materials that I have. After I use those, I will get an idea ...

  I am moving into a magical room. Besides the space, the walls are covered with murals painted by my very talented friend, Tawnya. (If you are interested in her artwork, you can contact her here .) I have inherited the play factory room, so there are some things that are no longer relevant (see the elf), but she's going to change the art to bring in some music-type elements. I am going to try my best to keep the murals as a part of my room. Mr. Elf - I think I'll name him Bartholomew - will soon say "Welcome to Music Therapy." The expectations will also change a bit. I don't use the same terminology as the play therapists, so "No hurts" is no longer relevant. The rest of the murals can stay as they are. They add such a nice whimsy to the room. I love them and am ready to figure out how to use them. Here's a run down of the murals that I get to live with from now on. There is a ship high up on the wall above my large instrument jam space. Perpe...

My four-rooms ago music therapy room - the one I loved! I start moving today! The current music therapy room More of the current music therapy room In a facility where I have had eight different rooms, I am ready to find another "forever" home. I am absolutely positive that this will not be the last place that music therapy is placed at the facility, but I would like this to be my last music therapy room move at this place. We shall see. I had a perfect music therapy room at one point. It had built-in storage, custom designed to accommodate my drums and guitars, and was large enough for movement by entire groups but small enough to feel like things were contained. We could use ribbon sticks without risk of tangling up our neighbors. It was wonderful and taken away from me for the room I'm in now. In between those two rooms, I had three other rooms, but I eventually was able to move into the gray music therapy room three Novembers ago. Some of the cabine...

I forgot that yesterday was a Wednesday, so I hustled off to work and didn't remember to find a website to talk about. Forgive me if I combine the two on this Thursday of this very strange week? I think of this as cheating a bit, but I am going to talk about the website for the Certification Board for Music Therapists . Honestly, this website is one of the ones that I refer to most often during the course of the year. I use it to find specific therapists, I look for approved providers, and I also use it, over and over again, to develop learning objectives for my various presentations. The reason I think of it as cheating is that every music therapist in the United States should know about this website. The best feature of the site? Information on how to talk directly to the folks at CBMT! They are willing to answer any and all questions and are our best resource when it comes to finding answers. Go check it out if you haven't. There is so much that is available to us all on t...

It's happening. My annual batch of ick has started, and I am trying to figure out how to tame it long enough to get through this busy season. Yesterday's task was to get the medication started. That always takes a day in bed because the medicine makes me very dizzy and extremely sleepy, so I stayed in my home yesterday rather than venturing out into the world. Today, though, I have to go back to work to get things checked off the to-do list. This week is shaping up to be a strange week anyway. I have behavior management training this morning (which I am going to watch rather than engage directly in due to a recently sprained MCL that I DON'T want to have to deal with during the next 6 weeks of moving and travel) and the Holiday Dinner on Friday (which I have NOTHING to have to do for - as far as I know!). Also, I should start moving my therapy materials from one room to the other room at some time this week (hence, some of my hesitation at spraining my knee again). I'...

I am going to be moving to a large music therapy clinic pretty soon - don't know for sure when this is going to happen, but I'm assured that it's going to be soon - and I've been thinking about what types of things I want to do once I have the space to do them. The room I'm moving to has four times the size that I have now, so I can spread things out and use that entire space for therapy things. I will be able to split up large groups of students who should not be near each other into smaller groups. I will be able to take out my brand-new parachute pieces and make large parachutes that we can use to launch balls into the high ceilings without fear of knocking out ceiling tiles. I will be able to have certain areas of the room for certain TMEs - sensory, large instrument, group, listening stations, and other center ideas. I love using themes to organize my thought processes when I am thinking through sessions plans. My new space will lend itself very well to using...

Yesterday, our COTA at work bops into the music therapy room to tell me that she wants the space and will be talking to the principal about me moving to another room. I was flummoxed and upset. I have been asking for alternative plans to the music therapy room (which is brand new and inadequate for what I do) during the entire planning, construction, and moving process. Each time, I've been told things like, "You'll get used to your strangely shaped room." "We don't want to move you to that space since we might need to use it as a classroom and then you'd have to move." [That's what I was told for a room just like the room that the COTA wants me to take.] "We're not going to move the music therapy room again. This space is the space that you have. Get used to it!" Know what? All of a sudden, I'm being asked to move... again... to another space... to accommodate the needs of someone else. I know I am spoiled. I know that t...