music, therapy, and me

I wonder if anyone noticed my recent absence from this blog or if I just write into the void, but I took about a week off from writing anything for several reasons - some personal, some professional, and some completely irrational reasons. That's the way life is - sometimes you know what you want to say, and sometimes you just have nothing to say. The last nine days have been a good break as I thought about things happening and figuring out what I am wanting to have happen in my life as a music therapist. Now, just so you know, things are okay here. While I have had some emotional brain takeovers and some days when I have been just uninterested in thinking in the early morning hours, things are pretty much the way I like them to be in my comfortable days. The weather has changed daily and is now getting more the way I like it - cold and dark. We have not had any snow yet, and that is a good thing for me.  I have been spending lots of time with and in my brain lately. I tend to do t...

Members of the American Music Therapy Association were sent an important email on Thursday entitled "AMTA Overall Update." A link to the full article is here if you did not see it or are not a member of AMTA. Basically, the email states that our professional organization has finally realized that there need to be some changes in how we interact with one another and to what we need to expect from AMTA. Please note that this is a blog - not a definitive source of anything at all. In the next paragraphs, I will be sharing my opinions and observations about things through my own lens of experience as a music therapist and as a professional member of AMTA for almost three decades. My opinions are my own and are very specifically just that - OPINIONS! You are free to disagree with my views here or on other social media platforms. I always welcome debate, especially when you do not see things the same way I do. In my mind, I think this conclusion has been inevitable since about 201...

...and then you see it EVERYWHERE?? That's happening to me in my developing thoughts about culture and how we use elements of culture in music therapy. All of a sudden, I'm finding situations where I could see others reacting or responding to music or comments or information given. I am having to spend some time sorting through these feelings and the expanded vision, and I haven't even really been all that deep in the topic...yet. This happens quite often. I hear a song that I like, and all of a sudden, it is everywhere - in the Dollar Tree store when I go shopping, on the radio, my clients ask for it over and over again, it is incidental music. You name it. It becomes pervasive. This type of thing is happening to me right now. I have always been interested in culture, especially how it influences musical performance and engagement. I try to be culturally aware - I try not to be someone who tries to take cultural aspects as my own, but I also see a great benefit in ...