music, therapy, and me

I didn't actually make anything this weekend of note other than some Canva visuals. The rest of my weekend was spent watching K-dramas and thinking. I got an old course reapproved so I am working on marketing materials for that but there isn't much else happening right now. I have decided to start up my intern webinars again. These were things that I did quite a bit ago, and I found them interesting and fun. I am hoping that the next round will be valuable to me and to the interns who take the time to spend with me. I asked current IDs for some topics, and they echoed the things that I had observed with my last several interns.  We, as a society, have gone through a significant change in how we learn, act, and observe. Attention spans have shortened. Initiative is not what it was 10 years ago. The way we educate ourselves and others has changed and evolved into something that is not focused on problem solving and is more focused on following protocols and procedures. Critical t...

Next week, at this time, I will be up early and stressing about hosting my second ever Creativity Camp. This is a passion project of mine - something that I have long wanted to do and FINALLY have the time, energy, and motivation to pursue. Thank goodness for being able to retire with my full pension after 30 years of working as a full-time music therapist!! So, here comes Creativity Camp!! You may be wondering about this entire thing and why this is what I am doing right now, so here comes an explanation... Growing up, my family was comfortable. My mom was a stay-at-home mom until I was 11. My dad was a plant manager for several plastics companies in the 70s and 80s. We had stable housing and enough to eat, wear, and do. We were not rich, but we were stable.  As kids, we did not get everything that we wanted when we wanted it. We had less "things" than many of our friends, but again, our family was stable. Mom and Dad were together, and it was a safe upbringing. My mother wa...

Ah, my primary nemesis, we meet again. Standing in front of you, I feel shame and disappointment in myself - not anger, but the more cutting disappointment. It is entirely my own fault - I set deadlines and timelines and then listen as they whoosh by my head. I have a project that I wanted to get started last month, but that didn't happen, and this month's deadline came and went without any sort of movement towards accomplishing the project. Other things have taken precedent, so I have accomplished other stuff, but that poor project is just sitting there, neglected and crying out for attention. That is my usual pattern with my side job - it gets buried in the mass of things I have to get finished for my main job. Today, I have a bunch of chores to get started and finished surrounding a trip to the theater to see The Devil Wears Prada 2. I have to get multi-vitamins and avocado mash as well as my regular grocery order, then come home and put the groceries away before heading to ...

One of the benefits to having had COVID recently has been the absolute need to stay at home without going anyplace. I have been out of my house twice in the past (almost) two weeks, and I stayed in the car the entire time I was "out." I am getting ready to head out tomorrow evening (fully masked) to go to my friend's husband's celebration of life. I will also be spending some time with the lawn guy today - again, completely and fully masked. I may also go driving just to feel like I've been out. Yesterday, my first post in a long time started me thinking about some possible options for me. I have decided to be an exhibitor at the Midwestern region conference next spring. Right now, it is scheduled to be live, so I think I can pick up where I had to leave off in March 2020 when I was getting ready to have an exhibit for the very first time. I still have some of the products that I made back then, so I can just keep producing things for this upcoming spring event. E...

Today is the last day of school for the 2021-2022 regular school year. The kids were finished up yesterday, but we teacher-therapist types have one more day of professional development and progress notes to complete before we head off into the world to do things not at all related to our jobs. My interns and I will be making things today. I enjoy doing a full out creative experience with people who do not always explore their own creativity. I have led some CMTEs on creating visual aids and have just finished two projects for a course that I am taking that are part of the entire visual aid thing... I am trying to convince my anxious brain that I am able to wait to go to work until after my usual time. There is nothing at work that is pressing or time-framed at all today. I do not have to get to work early - I can wait and work at the regular times. I have gathered some of my "must have  materials for making things, and they are waiting on the stairs for me to go up. These "mu...

There is a power differential that happens in an internship program. This power differential is not unique to music therapy, in fact, this happens in every single profession. There are always power differentials. Someone always has more power than me. Even as a small business owner, there are people and entities out there that have more power than I do. Power differentials ALWAYS exist. I am in a position of power as an internship director. I am acutely aware of this fact and strive to ensure that there is always this imbalance that occurs between myself and my interns. I do my best to make sure that I do not abuse this imbalance. I try to encourage my interns to understand that there are things that I will not do because they are my students and because I am required to be their supervisor. There are also things that I have to do, for the exact same reason. I find it extremely funny when my interns ask me not to judge them. (It happens with each intern at least once.) That is literall...

I was able to accomplish yesterday's goal of arriving at work exactly on time - I was on the property, parking the car at 7:14 am! I did not allow any sort of anxiety reaction take over - I had to tell myself quite frequently that it would be fine (especially when I got stuck behind one slow school bus) if I was a couple of minutes late. I always stay later than I have to, so there is no reason why I should be feeling any sort of guilt that I am not at work enough for what they pay me. I am, and more than! I am repeating the process today. I have less responsibilities than usual today because we have closed a classroom due to a COVID outbreak. So, my third class of the day has been cancelled because we have no new students. I have almost an entire afternoon to work on my digital resources for my students. I need to buckle down on that project for October - I've decided to do a presentation about bullying. We spend lots of time with kids on how to identify bullies, and not as mu...

So, my brain is starting to think rationally again. It's been some time, and I welcome the change. I do not like being in the throes of an emotional upheaval, so getting back into a rational frame of mind is quite a relief to me. As a result, though, I am starting to think about the world of music therapy and where I want to fit into that world. Right now, I am very interested in why our national association has gone through TWO executive directors in less than a year. I am wondering why this is so - what is going on with the membership, the board, and the leadership of our organization that is making folks leave us before even getting to know us. One director leaving seems somewhat unremarkable but two seems like a problem. I am interested in why this is so. Now, I've left some social media groups lately due to what I consider to be bullying behavior from some of the music therapists on those groups. I wonder if our directors have been the targets of the same sort of b...

Old Faithful! Isn't this a cute book?? It is time. I have spent about a year and a half in my old bullet journal, and I have about 40 pages left in this one, but it is wearing out, and I have decided to move to something new. I'll be using the rest of my first journal (my beloved R2-D2 journal) to take notes for Rock That Practice. I have a new journal that my sister gave to me (she's a regifter), and I'm starting to get things set up in that book. I have to set up some information that I have in my old book into the new one, so that's what I'm going to do this morning before I can do other chores. I know, what does this bullet journaling thing have to do with music therapy? Well, it's definitely a peripheral topic, but it does affect my organization and task completion rates. I know that many people don't do this sort of thing, but I do, and it works for me, so my recommendation is to find what works for you and DO IT! Bullet Journaling works f...