music, therapy, and me

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...

I have to admit that I am not the most "other focused" person in the world. If you read these posts, you will see that the most used word on this blog is (probably) "I." I do not work with many other music therapists, so I write from my own perspective as a therapist and as a musician and as a music therapist. I am trying really hard to expand my views from those that are in my realm of experience to see those of others. It is difficult to do since my reality is just that - my reality. I have a cousin who is struggling with schizoaffective disorder right now. I believe it is of the bipolar type, but I do not have all the information. I know that the posts that are happening on social media indicate a skewed view of reality. I engaged in an interaction via social media and got shamed for offering a fact - the cousin decided that I was stupid for stating a fact that is geographically appropriate and then declared that I was an idiot. It was a bit hurtful because at th...