music, therapy, and me

Yesterday, when I woke up, my house was sitting at 80 degrees F. For someone who has hot flashes and asthma and heat related health issues, this is WAY too hot for sleeping. So, I did what I usually do, tinker a bit and then call for an HVAC specialist to come out and see what was going to happen. I had visions of AC replacement and the draining of my already strapped funds. My sister offered a loan from the Bank of Sister which helped a bit, but I hate having to get money from other people. Fortunately, I ended up just needing a tune up on my unit, so I ended up not having to pay anything! My bank account is breathing a sigh of relief right now. I spent some time talking to my HVAC technician, and I found out that he has a daughter on the spectrum who loves music and talking. We also talked about the knowledge that he has that I do not have about HVAC systems and repairs, and it got me thinking about a current project that I am working on - interpreting the AMTA Revised Competencies t...

I have officially ended my time as an internship director at my facility. Due to this, I am seeking a different focus for the next several months (at least) and will focus on my growing general internship handbook. By the way, I have published the fifth chapter in my Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) store - you can find the link  here . I am getting ready to start putting these together into bundles - one for the first three chapters and another for the next part of the handbook - the parts about what to expect when you get to your internship and actually start working as an intern. Chapter Six is in the formulation stage - I am trying to think about the things that my interns have found challenging during their first several months as interns and write about those things. I am enjoying this process of writing something for music therapy students and interns to use. I know that it will not cover every situation completely, but I will try to get as much about internships written as I can...

Twenty-five years (to the day) from when I welcomed my first intern to my internship program, I closed the program. It is time for me to move back into being a therapist without the added stressors present when you are a solo internship supervisor and director. It has been about a year since I have had viable applicants. The one person who actually finished an application and went through the audition decided not to move to Kansas for her internship. So, I am taking the lack of interest and lack of support from our professional organization as the signal that now is the time to move into another way of doing this job. I am processing this decision and am grieving it at the same time. This has been a season of leaving things - a job, now my internship program. I am tired of things changing, but my rational mind knows that change leads to growth and difference which is not a bad thing, it is just a new thing to navigate. My sister and mom keep reassuring me that I will find other things ...

My mother asked me, just last night, if I would ever host a music therapy intern again. I am running out of time to do this because I will be leaving my current job in one year and nine months, and I will not be accepting an intern after October 2025 for sure. It has been some time since I have had a viable candidate and the last one decided not to come to Kansas for her internship. With a lack of applicants who can follow directions and finish paperwork or tell me that they are withdrawing their applications, I am inclined to close up shop and be done. It is time to get into the National Roster Internship Guidelines and see what the procedure is for closing down. This attitude and decision makes me feel pretty sad due to the fact that I enjoy being an internship supervisor, but since no one is interested, there is no reason to stay open. I wonder how many other programs have closed because of this. I know that there used to be nine National Roster programs in my state and now there ar...

It has been long enough since I have had an intern that I am seriously feeling like I have little to say on the subject. At the same time, I am currently writing Chapter 5 of my general internship handbook, so I am able to write about being an intern and what types of things to think about during this important time in our professional development. It is a strange place to be in, and it is one that is a bit challenging for me. Right now, I have had three vacant internship positions since the beginning of the calendar year. I will have a vacant position next month and that will be an entire year of rejected offers. In the past nine months, I have offered positions to three applicants who have declined. It is interesting how people complain that there aren't enough internship programs, but programs like mine are empty. I guess there aren't enough internship programs that pay large stipends (which mine cannot) out there. I get it. It is interesting to me how we have moved from an ...

I am working on a project that I have been developing, writing, then getting very uneasy about over and over again. I think it is a good idea, but then my inner critics start up, and I get frozen.  NO MORE! I am pushing past those critics to publish my Music Therapy Internship Manual.  I am looking for a different title, but I don't know what it will be yet. This project is fun and a labor of love. I have felt, for a very long time, that we need to offer more to music therapy students to make the entire process of being music therapists less confusing. Since I cannot find what I want to offer to my interns, I have decided to write what I am looking for. I have published the first three chapters now. The first chapter is all about the process of finding an internship. The second chapter is about how to prepare for the starting date. The most recent chapter , released yesterday, is about the first day of internship and goes into a bit about time management. I am going to make ...

Today is the day where I slip back into my internship director mode - for the day. I have an internship applicant coming to spend some time with me and with my clients. We are going to get to know each other a bit. The applicant will lead a 10-minute therapeutic music experience (TME) with the first group of the day (I hope they will be good to the applicant), and then the rest of the day, the applicant will watch me do my sessions. Today is the first day of our extended school year session, and there are three things happening. The first is the intern applicant visit. The second is that we have a new schedule to navigate. The third is that it is time to get ready to go in the last portion of this school year, AKA our extended school year. I have no idea what we will be doing this week. Usually, it is our country of the month introduction, but I am not prepared for that right now. So, we might do some games. I like that idea - we can play WAR, Slapjack, Instrument Memory, Simon Says, C...

I don't know if you read yesterday's post or not, but I have an internship interview happening a week from today.  I know, I had all but decided to close my program, but then one applicant actually finished the application and accepted an interview invitation. I am getting ready to interview and audition a prospective intern again. Am I ready? Of course, I am ready to move back into that sort of interaction with the greater music therapy world, I guess. If this applicant is accepted and then accepts my acceptance, I will have another six months before the start date to be therapist. By that point, I might be tired of being "therapist" and be ready to give up that role a bit to an intern. I might. I might not, but I can do it as well. I've done it before and can do it again. First, though, the interview. Interviewing for my program includes a visit to the facility (which I know is a bit of a privilege, but I want applicants to know what they are in for before they ...

It is the Monday after Spring Break, and I am trying really hard to get back into my work routine. I did not sleep well last night - probably because I had the alarm set which always leads me into not sleeping well. I was up about 2 hours before my alarm was set to go off. I will be doing three groups and a dyad today, bus duty, and then occupational therapy after work.  I am currently stuck in limbo mode when it comes to my internship process. None of my applicants have completed their applications - I am waiting on one letter of recommendation for them all, so I am not ready for an intern in June. Three months is a bit too short of a transition period for me. I am also waiting to hear about a job application that I submitted, and things are changing at work as well, so it may be a good thing that applicants aren't showing much interest in the internship. I have not had an intern since the middle of January, and I am enjoying aspects of being the sole music therapist at the facili...

I am sick today. I get sick quite often in my role as a school-based music therapist and getting sick often complicates the time I have with my interns. I realize that you can read that last phrase two different ways (at least), and both iterations seem to be appropriate, in this case. I always have a plan for what interns do on the days when I have to be gone unexpectedly, but there are times when I have difficulty getting my co-workers to understand the plan. That's a whole other topic, though. Let's focus on the point that I am trying to make right now. There will be times when you, a music therapy intern supervisor, will have to take a sick day. This is going to happen, so you have to figure out what your interns will do when you have to be gone. It is better to have a clear plan that you share with your interns than to have to figure it out as you go along. Over the 25 years that I have trained interns, I have had more absences in the last 10 years than in the first 15. So...

Friday is finally here, and it looks like my morning commute will not be as difficult as I thought it would be. At least, that is what I am still hoping. It is about 4:40 am, and I am trying to figure out when I will leave my house and head out into the wind chilly world. I have an intern graduation today. FINALLY! We were thwarted in our efforts to get this internship finished by Mother Nature who sent snow and ice on Tuesday and Wednesday leading to snow days due to impassible roads. Today, we are going in NO MATTER WHAT because it is time for my intern to get done with it all!!  I was asked if I was doing a celebration for my intern. I do not do that because every time I plan a party of any sort, something happens that prevents people from attending. I've had to take interns to the emergency room on party days. Once is just bad luck, but I've also planned parties and then accidents closed down the highway getting to the venue. Water mains break on my party days. Ice storms. ...

I have a suspicion that tomorrow will be our first snow day of the season, and I have an intern who needs to finish up hours before graduating on Wednesday. I do not want to extend the internship again, so I am planning on being present during our snow day, even if I have to spend the night in my office rather than driving home. I am currently sitting here, waiting to take my shower and head out because I do not want to get to work too early, especially since I am planning on staying there for the entire night. Right now, there is only one school district in the area we serve that has closed - on one website - all of the others are not registering any closings that affect my clients. I get an incentive to show up on inclement weather days - an additional day off to use when I need it. I will add this upcoming snow day to my sick time so I can have some more of that time. My intern is expected to graduate on Wednesday. We need 26 more hours to reach the 1020 hours needed by AMTA and my ...

My intern is getting ready to graduate from my program, and I will be a solo therapist starting next week. I am looking forward to it. I am always happy to see my interns go - this isn't because of them, but because I got into music therapy to be a music therapist not an observer of music therapy. When I am supervising, I am not doing music therapy as much as I want, and that is difficult. I am getting my topic plans finished for this month. We are going to do the country of the month next week (it's Australia), my intern graduates in the middle of the week, and then I will continue with the country for the last two groups that will not see it before my intern graduates. After that, I will get back into my rotation of country, music education concept, instrument, and musician of the month. When there is a fifth week or a partial week, I focus on a technology/career concept. In addition to these general categories for my rotation, I also have monthly themes to incorporate. The c...

Being an internship director means there are times when I have to deliver bad news to an intern. This might be something like client or staff issues, remediating skills, ethical situations, changes in supervision, or other things that come up during the time an intern is with me. One of the easiest things to talk to an intern about is extension of the internship past the proposed end date due to need to get clinical hours, but that is never the easiest of situations either. One of the things that I like about being a National Roster Internship Director is the ability to change and adapt the program to accommodate the needs of each intern that arrives through my door. I tell my interns that their time with me will be THEIR TIME WITH ME. Each intern needs different things from me, so no intern's program will be identical to another intern's program. I have had to extend the programs of several of my interns. Most of the time, when we extend a program, it is because of attendance....

It is time for my intern to start talking about termination of services with my clients. We have to do things a bit differently around my place because we never know when clients are leaving until right before they leave, so we do not go through discussion about ending services with individual clients. We focus on the intern's graduation from the internship and moving on into their new futures. It is time. I am always a bit amused by this process with my clients and my co-workers. Some will be very sad and offer my job to the intern. Others will be happy to know that I am waiting in the wings to swoop in and take over. Still more will appear ambivalent. It always surprises me to see how people respond to the news that every intern will be leaving our facility. Other than termination, we are trying to figure out the accompaniment for our holiday sing at the end of our school session. I am still not able to bend my finger and still having to splint the finger at work (still can't...

It is Tuesday again, and I have not written down any TME ideas for the past... um... month. I am failing in my experiment to write 5 TMEs per week, so I am resetting this experiment. It is time to evaluate and try to figure out what is going on. First, I am recovering from a broken finger that has impeded everything that I need to to do for this experiment. I am hoping to start occupational therapy very soon, so I can stretch this ring finger and strengthen it enough to get back into playing the guitar. I miss my guitar so much! My songwriting is only half-way done because I am not allowed to use my left hand fro anything at the moment. It is frustrating, and not being able to use my left hand means I am not able to play things in their entireties. I can hear the melodies and the accompaniments, but I cannot play them to see if I am correct. I also don't have any composition software on my work computers, so I cannot hear if what I am writing (rhythms can be my downfall when compos...

It is always interesting to see what happens in the internship of each person who comes to do an internship at my facility. Each intern is unique, and each intern has their own quirks, challenges, and contributions to share with me while they are around. In the past 25 years and 36 interns, I have learned so much about myself and about being a supervisor because of the people who volunteered to be interns at my facility. Some of the lessons are not as easy to swallow as others. Here are some of the things I have learned about myself through my role as a National Roster Internship Director over the years... Music therapists do not share much common language. I have to be ready to let go of my clients to allow every intern to become who they will be as therapists. I have to take breaks from being "mentor" in order to be "therapist" for my clients and my own well-being. I have to be a micromanager for some interns - this is not a role that I enjoy, AT ALL, but it is so...

It is 4:30am, and I've been up for an hour now. This wasn't planned or desired - it just happened, so I am trying to wake up and think at the same time. As I woke up, I heard some thunderclaps, so I might have been awakened by the rain that is going on right now. Who knows?   I have been spending some of my non-client time engaged in thinking about the hidden curriculum present in my internship program (I wrote about this on Monday in this post , if you are interested in knowing more). I have spent some time refining the skills that I want an intern to possess before they start my program. I am developing interview questions to help me identify some of these skills. I am going back and thinking more about what I think being a professional in my work setting means - the skills and responsibilities of being a professional. What I am finding is that my interns do not have some of the essential tools that I think they need to be successful music therapists later on. As we are all a...

Have you ever heard of "the hidden curriculum?" This concept (resources that I found helpful are listed below) is that there are many things that are included in education that are not part of the formal learning objectives. Students have to learn how to function within the educational culture in order to succeed. Those who conform to the expectations that are in addition to the educational material presented are more successful than those who do not conform. The "hidden" part comes from the situation that these expectations are often not taught or demonstrated - they just exist in the mind of the educators. I'm not exactly sure why this particular phrase popped into my head this morning - I haven't been thinking about what I will write this morning - but it seems like a good time to write about all of this. As you know, I sometimes struggle with situations that arise from being in an internship setting. One of those things is getting interns to complete tas...

I am currently in the awkward place of going through the assignments that I offer to my interns during their internships. I am having to make decisions about what to include and what to let go of right now. Now, this is something that I do to some extent after every run of interns. I always review their assignments and look at what worked and what has to be changed. Over the last three interns, as I have mentioned several times lately, no one has been able to finish assignments on their due dates. This concerns me as it indicates (to me, at least) a failure on my part to help my interns establish good time management practices during their time with me. So, I am trying to figure out all sorts of things when it comes to assignments. For this process, I start with the AMTA competencies. In case you didn't know, I strive to run an internship that is governed by the AMTA competencies - every assignment is based on the competencies and is part of the operational definitions that I have ...