music, therapy, and me

I am a proudly vintage music therapist. I have been practicing music therapy for over 30 years now, and it has been an interesting journey. As I am getting ready to transition from a full-time school employee to retiring from that job to something new, I am thinking about all the things that I know now that I wish someone had told me earlier... One of the things that I wish I had been required to do was a introduction to business course. I am starting that process now, but I really wish I had been in the know for my entire career. I am now trying to learn about being a small business owner as I am trying to figure out my next steps. I knew, from the very beginning of my career, that I would never escape the question, "so, what is musical therapy, anyway?" I have had many different ways of explaining what I do, but it has always been interesting to see how people respond and what they ask about our profession. I should keep a tally of the times that I explain my job. That woul...

I was offered an interesting opportunity recently that has made me start to think a bit about our Board Certification examination. No details about the opportunity, but I am thinking again... Before I get too far into this particular topic, let me tell you a bit about myself and where I come from as a board certified music therapist. I took the examination in November 1993. In those days, back in the last century, the test was administered once per year. You had to go to the closest examination center where you sat in a room full of people taking all sorts of certification tests. There weren't many music therapists in the large auditorium that my test was held, but all of the seats were full of people taking all sorts of tests. I am a fast test taker, and I finished my test in 20 minutes. I was terrified that I had failed because it did not take me any time at all to finish, but I passed. I have no idea if I passed well, but I passed and that is all that matters for this examinatio...