music, therapy, and me

One of the advantages of going through my CD collection and ripping music to my computer is that I am being reminded of music that I have loved over my life and career. One of these songs is by Fiona Apple who was part of the "angry girl singer-songwriter" movement that happened at some point in my past. Criminal  is one of my favorites from Fiona Apple. Okay, let me explain something about me. I tend to find one song by an artist that resonates with me, and I then explore more of the music. I am not always impressed by the other songs that those artists share, but I have many CDs that I got because I wanted a copy of the one song that I love. I used to be part of a CD club - BMG got me many CDs for less than $2 each back when I was budgeting for everything - so I was able to find many of the songs that I loved back then for very little money. (I never really paid full price for any CD.) So, with Fiona Apple, I have a couple of songs that I like and more that I do not like as...

Yesterday's day off ended up being a bit more painful than I thought it would be. I coughed and tore one of my oblique muscles. It hurts lots, mostly when I cough, but also when I twist my torso in any direction. This is a problem because I have to be able to assist with behaviors of concern, if we have any, and I don't know that I will be able to do so without significant pain. I was able to sleep with the assistance of a positioning pillow and eventually finding a position where I was relatively pain free, but this has added some complications to my existence. As a result, I am talking about what I know about music for pain today. This is not something that I know much about, other than some information offered in AMTA presentations a long time ago and personal experience, so note that my information may not be the most up-to-date. What I know is that we have found that people who listen to music before and after surgery often have less need for pain medication than those who...

Flashback to the CD burning days of my career, and you can see a project that my clients completed quite often. In 2014, I finally wrote it down and made it a bit more formal. These days, folks don't burn CDs as often, but you could certainly translate this into a playlist experience instead of making a CD booklet - I liked the use of the cover art to pull together the concept of presentation of music. This TME Tuesday post is very much inspired by my reading of Wellness, Wellplayed The Power of a Playlist!! by Jennifer Buchanan. If you haven't read this yet, then go get it. I will do more of my synthesis on Sunday, but I am looking forward to reading it again and using the ideas contained to focus my own music listening again. Hey, if you are interested in more TMEs like the one presented below, consider signing up for my sing about mini subscription . Only $9.00/month USD for 4-6 TMEs and supplemental materials delivered to your email box on the fifth of every month! You ca...