music, therapy, and me

This is my second attempt at a post for today. There are times when I just can't post what I am writing because it is not conducive to my mental health or the purpose of this blog. So, the first post of the day went into my draft folder. I will not look at it again. It will just sit in that folder forever and ever. Let's talk about something that makes me feel happy - creating art and other craft processes. Yesterday, I sat on my bed and I created some word art. Word art is something I enjoy - I use it as a stream of consciousness tool for myself. I write words in different fonts. The words are sometimes sentences, sometimes just single words, but they always show me something about how I am feeling or what I am struggling with in the moment. Sometimes there are song lyrics involved. Most of the time, though, the words are just that - words without much to link them together. Yesterday's art consisted of emotion words about my near future and covered all of my current emoti...

Now, I make no secret of the fact that I am dedicated to MY way of writing things into therapeutic music experience (TME) plans in my life. I make my interns use my form as a way to indoctrinate them to MY way of thinking about how WE should (goblin alert) be producing materials and ideas for each other to use in music therapy settings. I share MY way of doing things with others as often as I can, so I am hoping that MY ideas have spread to other people in ways that help them plan and implement strong TMEs. There you go. This dedication to a particular process is something that is a bit pedantic, but it is also how my brain organizes TMEs, so it is what it is. I do not insist that others do things exactly like me (except, of course, for my poor interns during their first four months with me, but I don't insist that they do things MY way after they turn in their TME assignment file in month four), but I do find immense value in my way of doing things. When I was a student of music t...

I'm to the point in my current "new idea" process where it is time to start getting the small pieces together into a file format that can be easily replicated. For me, this means setting things up into a digital file - something that I've learned to do through trial and error. Let me explain. I enjoy making visual aids, and I often try to make them available for other music therapists. To do that, I have a Teachers Pay Teachers store - musictherapyworkscom - where I can sell digital files for a little bit of profit. The process includes some pretty easy steps, and I will share them with you here... To create digital files, I use Powerpoint and a pdf converter. That's it. There is something that has to be done to make visual aid files unalterable, and that is how the pdf component works. So, to make this particular file folder activity, I have decided to include a rhythm component, note names, and rhythm wheels. Each folder will have two rhythm components...

My creative phases come and overwhelm me for a time, then they morph into a time of ennui. I am in a creative phase right now. Ideas are coming faster than I can manifest them, and it is a bit hectic around here as I am trying to put them down on paper so I can get things arranged, organized, and make them a reality. My current project is a mini edition of sing about songs with some links to visual aids offered through my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I have way too many ideas to include in this mini edition, but that's not a bad thing. The mini edition may spur me to write another full-sized edition of sing about songs with additional TMEs to go with the visual aids and the themes. We will see what I get finished in this next month before the mini editions become a reality. So, in the next two weeks, I have some visual aids to design, print, and make as examples for a photo shoot for the new edition. I have TMEs to write out. I have a music therapy disclaimer to formulate. I ...

Welcome to the other side of the first holiday mountain that we traverse every single year - that of Halloween angst and anxiety. With this particular holiday over, my work place will go back to "normal" for a little bit before the next holiday hoopla begins. Fortunately, I get to go to conference and then straight to Thanksgiving in the middle of all that hoopla, so this next holiday doesn't register too much on my radar. Anyway, now that Halloween is over, I am happy to be able to concentrate on a brand new series for Sundays at this blog. I think I've decided to call it - Song Conversion Sundays - and the idea is that I'll choose a song at random from my music library and then develop it into some therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) for use with my clients and with other clients. It may take me a bit to get into my groove here, but I think that I will probably use one song per month and really go deep into how I can use the song for therapeutic gains, outcom...

It is very early on Friday morning where I currently am sitting, and I am enjoying the relative quiet and a visit from my brother's cat, Walter. Walter is an interesting little cat - half the size of Bella cat and all lean muscle. He is definitely Grandma's darling and got a special blanket of his own for when he moves out of this house into my brother's new place later this week. His present was the largest in the pile on Monday. He is definitely a well-loved cat. This is the beginning of a new series of blog posts. I'm not sure if it will become a weekly theme or not - for the moment, this will be an occasional theme about how I put my session strategies together. I hope you like it. Now, on to the topic for today... I have been here, surrounded by creative people and family members who love me most of the time (they are the same people) for four days now. I have been writing in my little book every morning as I waken early and wait for everyone else to start t...

It was the first day of school yesterday, and I had a TME that did not include any music. In my book, a TME that doesn't have any music (but was music-related) is not something that a music therapist is uniquely qualified to do with clients, so I really wanted and needed some music to go with the idea. I came up with a little song to go with the idea. It was an explanation song - an attempt to let my clients learn about the concept we were working on while supporting their engagement and participation. It's not a bad little song (I usually write songs that fit a specific pattern), and it worked the way I wanted it to during sessions yesterday. I think it will work today as well. So, the way I do most of my composing is not your regular run of the mill composing practice. I use an index card. Always have, and probably always will use a 4X6 inch index card. I always have them nearby (they are part of my "always" bag necessities), and they are inexpensive so I can ...