music, therapy, and me

As you probably know by now, I have closed the internship program that I ran for 25 years. It has been a long time since I have had a viable applicant, and intern #36 graduated in January, so there was no real reason to keep it open anymore. To be honest, I am not really missing the role of internship director.  Is that a bad thing to admit? I'm working through the feelings and guilt and all that accompanies a life-changing decision, and I've had two in the past three months. This was the most recent. So, with two life-changing decisions happening in the span of 12 weeks, I am having to change my habits and my focus for specific things. It is interesting. I have started the process of going through the resources that I have collected solely for the purpose of my interns to use. Now that there are no more interns, these resources can be reintegrated into my professional library or given away. I have moved my Internship jump drive off the jump drive key ring at work and brought i...

Today's post will probably be a short one since I am in the throes of an allergy attack, trying to get on allergy medications, and debating whether I should call in sick this morning or not. I don't think I will - I can be miserable at work as well as here at home, but I have to figure out what to do with five groups of students while I am not feeling well. There is no provision about having to stay at home when you have a runny nose and a killer sinus headache like there is when you are running a temperature, so I will be heading out into the world to sneeze and wheeze and hack and moan. Anyway, this is my second post on Mondays about no longer having an internship program. I got a request from a student on Friday about applying. It was bittersweet to have to tell the student that I have closed down. I have a feeling that more of these conversations will happen now that the AMTA symposium has finished and it is internship hunting season for seniors. I just could no longer deal...

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 ...

It is the Monday before I head back to my school-based therapy job, and I am not ready to give up the life of a lady of leisure... at all! It is pretty silly to want more time off, but that's the way it is right now. Since it is Monday, it is time to write a bit about being an internship supervisor. Now, I haven't had an intern since January, and it appears that I will not have an intern in the near future. That is fine with me because I am enjoying the process of doing therapy rather than teaching someone else how to do therapy, but I also miss being a supervisor a bit. To fill the time and to accomplish something that I have dreamed about for a long time, I am writing a general internship handbook. The first three chapters are published through my TPT store . To access them, you have to sign up for TPT (formally Teachers Pay Teachers), but it is free, and you can access so many free resources that it is more than worth it (in my opinion). Anyway, if you are or know any music ...

It is Monday, and time to talk about music therapy internship things. I will be hosting a visitor on Thursday who might become an applicant later on. So, I guess my thoughts about closing things down will have to wait a bit more. We will see. The primary purpose of this post is to advertise a new resource out there for music therapy students. This is the first chapter in an internship handbook that I have been writing for a long time, and I released it out into the world on Saturday. Please consider buying it, if you are a music therapy student who wants more information about getting an internship placement. It is available in my TPT store at this link . It includes a way of organizing information and a reproducible form for use. It is also only $2.50 USD. I hope to have the next part up by next Saturday - How to Prepare for Your Internship Once You Have One (title is a work in progress). This is a labor of love for me. I am constantly amazed about what music therapy interns do and do...

I am feeling defeated. I am sure that this is a part of my summertime blues, the fact that our extended school year schedule starts up again this morning after too little time away, and influenced by the fact that my only applicant from this past year turned out not to want to be an intern with me. All of those things are combining to make me just feel crabby and cranky and not all that excited about anything to do with my job. Over the next 13 work days (or 18 calendar days, if you prefer to count that way - I do), I am planning to decide whether I keep my program open or close it down completely. This is not a decision that I am going into lightly. I am grappling with this decision on several levels including personal and professional. At this point, the only thing that seems to be keeping me in the internship process is my professional guilt. I'm not sure that's enough to keep the program open. I have one year and 357 days before my internship has to be closed down due to my...

It has been two weeks since I offered a position to an applicant with no response. The applicant has two more weeks to accept the offer, but I am not sure that the applicant even received the offer. I guess I will resend the offer letter - just in case. I hate the waiting times that are involved in this set-up of ours. I have to wait until the applicant answers. Then, I have to wait for the internship agreement from the university program. Then, (and this is the hardest type of waiting that there is) I have to wait until the student intern actually starts! I am very thankful that I do not have an intern right now. The temperature in my music therapy room is very hot right now, and there is no fix in sight. My mother and my sister are very angry about this fact and keep telling me things to do that are not really feasible. I am tired of being hot. It really saps my energy and my attitude is not a happy one. I know that my seasonal affective disorder is worse in the summer than in the wi...

I am still an internship director without an intern, and I am not entirely upset about this fact. I am looking forward to going through the rest of this year as a solo therapist, but I will probably have another intern at the start of next year - at least one. Does it mean something when you have seven unfinished applications? Most of those unfinished applications are waiting for letters - either eligibility or recommendation letters. I wonder if the applicants think that I have everything and have just flaked off. I really haven't - they just don't have everything finished. I state, several times in fact, that it is their responsibility to ensure that all parts of their applications are turned in, and I will communicate with them when the application is complete. None of them have bothered to check. Message received. So, I will be deleting their applications and moving on. I wonder if any of those applicants realize that it is their responsibility to close their applications. ...

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 Monday again, and I am wiped out! There is just something about May that just makes me feel disjointed. At this moment, I have a Talent Show to coordinate, graduation music to provide, a school-wide carnival to work through, and then a day of school district schmoozing and training to survive before a week of medical testing before our extended school year starts up. So, this is a busy time of year, and I am feeling the pinch just like I always do. I am still in the process of deciding about my internship program. I have six incomplete applications in my files at this moment. No applicant has completed their application except for one who did not want to pursue the internship. I have one application for January 2025, but it is also not complete. I am hoping that I will get a completed application really soon so I can move forward with the process of evaluation, audition, and interview. We will see what will happen. This application situation makes me wonder what is going on, and ...

I think I am fully immersed in my "old fogey" stage of life. At this moment, the song,  Kids  from  Bye, Bye Birdie  is sliding through my musical brain as I am thinking about the seven applications that I have in my internship file that are not finished. In addition, I have one set of letters of recommendation without an application - isn't that an interesting situation to be in... The one finished application prompted me to send an audition/interview invitation - no, actually, THREE invitations before the applicant bothered to let me know that an internship with me was no longer desired. No one seems to remember that they need to inform the other places that they have submitted applications that they no longer need to proceed as defined in the National Roster Internship Guidelines. So, I am a bit frustrated with the entire experience. Now, this is probably more of a function of what is going on around me than any type of significant change in applicants, but this i...

I must admit that I am getting ready for some changes in my internship program these days, and I am starting with the AMTA Professional Competencies which feel like they have changed since the last time I really looked at them, but I guess not (when I look at my current evaluation). Perhaps my thoughts about how different things look are spurred on by my desperate wish that the membership would have actually followed through on the "revision every five years" provision that was put into place about 10 years ago and would have revised this document twice in the past 10 years. This is not supposed to be a rant, so I will simply say that I feel that this document needs to be revised more than once every decade. Anyway... I am currently working on a competency-based clinical training project that is requiring me to delve deeply into the competencies, and I am enjoying the opportunity. There are so many things that I like about competency-based clinical training that I can go on a...

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 do not have any interns these days, and I am enjoying the opportunity to leave at the end of my contracted hours. This may seem like a small thing to be happy about, but it is one of the perks to not being supervisor at the moment - I get to leave my workplace at the end of my day! Let me explain. In order for my interns to be able to finish up the 1020 hours that are required by most university programs in seven months (with a generous time off schedule), they have to work 8.5 hour days. I need some quiet time every morning, so I tend to arrive at work between 6:45 and 7:00 am. My contract time starts at 7:15 am. Interns arrive at 7:30 am which means that they leave the workplace at 4:00 pm in order to get their 8.5 hours each day. Since I do not believe that I should require them to work when I am not present, I end up working until 4:00 pm each day. When I do not have interns, I get to arrive when I am ready to arrive and leave when my 8 hours are finished. This means that I get t...

I am not an internship supervisor at the moment. I am on hiatus, and I have been enjoying the solitary existence. I have been rearranging my storage areas without having to worry about the work spaces of others, and I am reveling in the opportunity to think through things without having to explain them. At the moment, I am also thinking about my next round of interns while I am waiting for current applicants to finish their applications. I have several of them, but none of the applications are complete at this point. All of them are waiting on a letter of reference... well, except for the two who have letters of reference but no application. It is interesting what things are revealed to me in the application process, but I digress. I decided to re-up my AMTA membership at a tier that I felt was comfortable for me just so I could accept interns in this calendar year. I still feel the pull towards training and mentoring, but I am not as enthusiastic about our professional organization th...

Tomorrow is the first day that I will be at my job without an intern in seven and a half months. I am ready for a break from being mentor and coach and supervisor. I need times when I am just therapist, and this is one of those times. Fortunately, it coincided with no applications for my January or March start dates, so I didn't have to deny anyone a position. I am just taking this break since it is happening. This is also happening at the same time I am trying to decide if I want to continue as a member of AMTA and also as an ID. Today, though, is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so I am at home, trying to figure out what I am going to do next. I do not intend on leaving my home at all today - it is just too cold to spend any amount of time outside - but I also have my session strategies figured out for the next several days, so I can stay in and try to thaw out one of my toilets. It has frozen - again - so it needs to be thawed out before it bursts. That is completely a tangent, thou...