music, therapy, and me

I did not go to sleep last night until early this morning. I got inspired by a friend's request to make a book, and I just couldn't get my brain to stop churning around until I had started the book production process. I woke up later than usual, and now I am sitting in front of my computer on this cloudy Thoughtful Thursday, yawning while I am remembering that I do have a theme for this particular day, so I need to write about that theme... Thoughtful Thursday I am currently trying to wrap my mind around the various things that I have heard about surrounding the pandemic, the responses that others have around it, and the way we are now doing things in education because of it all. I am a school-based music therapist. Due to the clients that I choose to work with, I am an essential health care worker during all of this. I am also a person who has significant risk factors for this virus to be concerning. For the past five months, I have been to work, home, and the occasional store...

I am proud to be a music therapist. I am proud of my profession and of what I do on a regular basis. I truly think that this profession is the best fit for me, but there are times when I become so immersed in being a music therapist and making music therapy things and trying to spread my music therapy message in the world where I forget that there is more to life than my profession. At the beginning of all of this COVID stuff, I was feeling constrained by my situation and frustrated at how my life was progressing. This led me into a period of introspection (as such feelings often do), and I realized that my social media footprint was really around music therapy things. I don't have many groups that are not music therapy based on my various feeds. I decided to branch out into other groups that are about things that are not music therapy AT ALL! (Pause here for an audible gasp from the author!) I thought about where I wanted to spend more time, and then I went exploring around the in...

I have moved from a place of wanting to post every single day on this blog to my current viewpoint of "Eh." Since my attitude has changed so recently, I haven't posted much in the past three weeks. I've been so silent that Facebook is noticing! "You haven't posted in a while. Why not post something on this page so your followers will keep in touch." Thanks, Facebook, just what I need - an algorithm that chides me for my shortcomings! So, here is my explanation post. I have no explanation. I just haven't wanted to write lately, so I've been giving myself permission to stay in bed or to skip things entirely. I'm calling it mindfulness and all sorts of other things to justify why this is happening, but I really think it is just part of the ebb and flow of life. There you go. Sometimes ideas come to you quickly and other times ideas flit around, just out of reach and refuse to settle into a semblance of a paragraph. I believe that writing d...

My mother is currently WAY into the adult coloring book craze. As a result, I've received notepads, bookmarks, coloring books, and magazines that encourage me to color, color, color. Mom has also supplied the markers so I have no excuse except to color. So, I've been coloring. Here's a picture of a work in progress. It is a notebook cover that I've been working on. As you can see, I have not completed it at all, but I'm making progress. Now, I have always been a colorer - I enjoy coloring things and making them unique. I also enjoy drawing things. I've never given up my colored pencils and markers - in fact, I have lots of coloring materials already in my house, but I don't often color just to color. Most of the time, I have a goal for my coloring - completion of visual aids, making a product for sale, etc. This coloring is a bit different. I've never been one who slips into meditation easily. Guided imagery is not something I've been succe...

Today is my day off. It is the only day of the week where I don't always have to do things that are part of working. It's a very good thing to have some time to be on my own, and I cherish my Saturdays. Some Saturdays, I meet via Skype or GoToMeeting with some dynamic music therapists who enrich my life immensely, but this isn't one of those Saturdays. Other than an appointment for some routine car maintenance, there is nothing that I HAVE to do! I am going to take my current book to the dealership to read while I wait for my car. After that, I may go shopping. I have some coupons for money off things. I like that. Money off. Of course, the best way to get someone to spend money is to make it seem like they are saving money, but I am happy to be convinced. I feel the need to do some more creating today. I had so much fun making some non-TME related games and folders for a friend of mine, that I think I'll do some more. Does anyone want a lapbook about shapes and ...

There are only three pages left in this chapter, folks, and then I will have to find something new to focus on during these Sunday mornings. Thank you for going through this process of thinking through what was written so long ago with me. While some of the language (and thoughts) are a bit simplistic for me, I do consider this to be a foundation of all that I think about music therapy, so revisiting it occasionally is important. Last week I went through the three paragraphs that start off the final piece of Sears' outline - the description of the section titled, "experience in relating to others." Today, I will start reading through and discussing the sub-levels contained under that initial heading.  One of the things that I noted last week was the historical context of this book. In the late 1960's, the deinstitutionalization movement was just starting. Persons with exceptionalities were just starting to be included in the idea of civil and personal rights, so...