music, therapy, and me

It is early on this Sunday morning, and I am sitting in the semi-darkness, wondering what to write about. I have a blog post title generator that I occasionally use to help me find a way, and this was the suggested title that caught my fancy - Will Music Therapy Ever Rule the World? Ooh, boy! Here is my completely unsolicited opinion that has nothing to do with what you might think but is my right to hold and espouse to anyone who listens. Feel free to agree with me or disagree with me. We can debate this until the cows come home, if you would like, but I am just as entitled to my opinion as any one else is - and I will fight for the right for you to offer up your opinion, even if I feel that your view is incorrect (again, in my opinion!). Are you ready? Here it is. No. Music Therapy will never rule the world. How can it? How can music therapy, a profession which is growing in awareness and acceptance, be something that is universal? There are several things that are keeping us from wo...

At some point, I am sure that this will become an occasional series, but it is keeping my brain occupied with something other than COVID-19, so this may be a theme for a bit. Please note that this is a work of fiction, something that I think may happen in our small world of music therapy at some point, but not rooted in the current reality.  I just like exploring "what-ifs."  "Number 2427," Persephone whispered to herself as she walked through the masses of people and the hallways towards her designated entrance. It was orientation week, and she was trying to find her seat in the auditorium. To do that, she had to find the hall that linked to her section and row - she was number 2427, and that meant heading up about halfway up and a bit over halfway across the great building. There were so many people. Persephone had never been in a class with more than her siblings before. This felt like a small city full of people. Some were playing instruments. ...

Does anyone else have one of these? I'm not sure where I got it. I have today and tomorrow left of my break before we start back to school. I am not ready to leave my home for the rigors of work, but I have faced the inevitable and will go back (reluctantly) for two days of inservice and (hopefully) work in classroom time before students come back on Monday. I've started my materials piles. I got some huge containers of the wipes that I can use in my environment rather than the ones that we have at work which have scents that trigger asthma and the aloe that triggers tons of itchy red bumps on contact. I have a beach ball that I will use for some groups (but not all since I also have several clients who like to destroy such balls). I have my growing pile of cut out laminated materials. I also have some glue sticks (which I did NOT buy during this school supply time) that need to go to work, some flashcards, a new reflexive journal for my new interns, and some music books ...

Stuff is threatening to take over my life - yet again. I try to fight it back every so often, think that I've found something to help me in this journey, and then watch as the stuff just takes over. I know why the stuff is so overwhelming, and I know the habits that I have that are contributing to this situation, but I seem to prefer stuff to order and maybe I just like to organize...hm. I had an internship applicant come into my office on Monday. Now, I had arrived early at work, cleared off my desk, and tried to straighten up as much as I could before that applicant arrived. By the time we were doing the official interview, however, the desk had stuff on it and things had crept out of their spots. I tell all applicants that my office is always cluttered and is sometimes VERY cluttered. I used to work for a principal who said that she only told one lie during interviews. That lie was that her desk never looked like it did during interviews - it was always much cleaner than the p...