music, therapy, and me

For my entire career, I have rebelled against the idea of session planning. I struggled with procedure sections in my undergrad training. I've written about this recently - how I would take the example in our practicum handbook, change the details but not the format, and would be told that it "was not right." That was all the feedback that I would get. I would ask how to make those sections "right," and no one could tell me how to do that. I had a revelation in the summer between my junior and senior years (thank all that is good in the universe), and then I was able to figure it all out, but that experience has left me a bit leery of writing session plans. One of the biggest issues that I have with session plans is that there is so much that happens in a session, and it is impossible to foresee every response. Plain old impossible! So, I don't write session plans. I haven't for my entire career because I find the practice to be busywork. Instead, I focu...

I woke up very early this morning. This is not unusual for a Monday morning, and I think there is a bit of time anxiety at work on these early mornings, but I still don't like it. Thunder is rumbling in the distance, and it looks like it might rain most of the day. The stormy weather might just be the reason behind my angst and wakefulness.  Ooh, that was a close lightning strike - loud thunder almost immediately after the flash.  I still have an hour before I need to leave for work, but I have a long list of things that I need to accomplish in that hour. Blogging is one of those things, but it is not the only thing that I have on my morning list. Once I am finished with the things that I have to finish up before I leave for work, I have to navigate 50 miles to my place of business in the storm. Once I get to work, it will be time to set up my April musician list for our sessions this week. It is time for leisure/choice time as well as for learning a bit about musicians who we...

Today is Monday, February 9, 2026, and the Online Conference for Music Therapy 2026 is over! This is a really good thing because it means that I have little to do but my own stuff for the rest of the month. There is very little that feels better than having a large project completed, and this is that feeling. I am tired, but that is my usual state these days, so I really can't pin my exhaustion on OCMT - it's just me! My sister has the day off today, but I do not. We both have next Monday off which will be nice. I won't be doing anything special next Monday, but I will not have to go to work, so there's that! I do have to get going and get things happening at work today. I am not sure what we are going to do this week, but I will come up with something. I am having to rethink what I do with my groups because they have become less coherent than they used to be. I used to be able to plan one session for each of my four different types of groups, but I can't do that ri...

I forgot to take my medications last night until about 2 hours later than usual. These are my big, pain relief, nerve dulling medications that affect my sleep, awareness, and response time, so it is a pretty big deal when I forget them. I opened my eyes when the alarm light turned on at 4am, but I also did not get out of bed until almost 5am. My brain is still fuzzy, and my eyes don't focus right until the medication starts to wear off. So, that means that today will be an even later day. Today is a four-group day. Three of my four groups have already been with me this week, so I have to come up with something new for them to do when they are in the music therapy session. The other group is my once-per-week group, so they haven't explored any of the things that I have available right now - yet. So, the first thing that I have to do is to figure out what I am going to do with my clients. They went through a series of silly songs with me on Tuesday, so I am thinking I will bring ...

I am always happier in this time of year than I am in the summer months. For some reason, my seasonal affective depression is related to the sunshine. I don't know if this is because of my vitamin D deficiency, or if I was conditioned due to my early years in Texas where it was hot and humid, but summer is not a good time for me. I flourish so much more in the autumn and winter months when it is chilly, cold, and dark. I know that more people have the opposite response to this time change and the upcoming season. I am seeing so many conversations about how it is difficult for them to navigate these dark days. Meanwhile, I am gaining energy. This has been a typical week in my music therapy life. Kids have been up and down when responding to what I am sending out into the music therapy session. Many of the students have entered the room in full-out tantrums. I don't know if they were angry about having to come to music therapy or if there were other things happening, but it was m...

I had plans for myself yesterday - an afternoon without sessions where I could do some more organizing of the spaces that I have upended due to a recent ceiling leak. I had plans that were destroyed by a storm two nights ago and slick roads. My afternoon without sessions changed into business as usual - two sessions in the middle of my afternoon. The same groups will be going on their field trip today, but I will only miss one session and will only get 30 minutes of extra preparation time due to my schedule. Sniff. Sigh. Waaaaah! So, I did my actual job yesterday - all of it. One thing I noticed a long time ago was that plans NEVER go exactly like you think they will. I have always thought of session "plans" as more like "strategies" or "suggestions," and I think it baffled some of my teachers during music therapy school. I remember getting marked down for session implementation when I rearranged the session to accommodate client responses and setting even...

I am not feeling well. My "unspecified upper respiratory infection with asthma exacerbation" is back. So far, the first three weeks of my new year are not going well. I am going to have to go back to the doctor because my family members will nag if I don't - and, rightfully so as medical attention is the only way to get out of this particular brand of ick. I woke up this morning, very early, with the nasty taste in my mouth again. So, I am doing a breathing treatment and will go to the doctor after work. Yep, I still have to go to work. Right now, I am not running a temperature, but I am sure that will change once I get going. So much fun! So, what do you do with clients on days when you are not contagious but are not feeling well?  Boy, do I have experience with these types of sessions!! I have the luxury of working in a facility where I stay put in my room and students come to me for music therapy sessions. I know that not every music therapist has a place or the luxury...

Tuesday again. For new readers, Tuesday is the day that I usually write about Therapeutic Music Experiences (TMEs) which is what I call the things we do in music therapy sessions with our clients. There are times when I share entire TMEs, but I haven't done that in a long time because I sell TME collections to music therapists on my website. If you are interested, let me know. Anyway - It is Tuesday which means talking about Therapeutic Music Experiences (TMEs). I am heading into work after two days away - one professional day and one sick day, so there will be things to do when I arrive, including figuring out what I am going to do with my clients this week. Last week's common group focus was experiencing the violin because we had a concert last Friday (when I was gone for a conference - can't wait to hear what it was like!). I have no such focus at this point right now. Since we had Spring Break, my focus rotation was interrupted. Usually, this week would be the Musician ...

Today's the day that I take over my full caseload without an intern in sight. I am looking forward to this chance to be "THE music therapist" again, I am not going to lie. I like having nothing other than my job to do. I am enjoying the fact that I get to get to work when I want to and then leave when my 8 contracted hours are up rather than spending more time in supervision mode. The change in my status from supervisor to therapist means some changes in how I am working with my sessions. I do not write full out session plans. I have not written many session plans since I stopped being a practicum student way back. My university program focused on writing session plans, and I had one supervisor who would check off my procedures when I was running the plan. If I didn't do things in the order I had written them, she would challenge my clinical decisions. I don't know if she was testing me to see if I could justify the changes or if she honestly thought that a 3-year...

This is my first full week back in the clinic as therapist for some of the group sessions that we offer as a "specials" department in my facility. Last week was a partial week due to fall break, so we had Monday off. I was running my groups last week, but it didn't feel quite real to me since we only had four days instead of five. I know, silly to feel that way, but I own it. It's the way I feel when I have Mondays off. I prefer Fridays off. Anyway, I digress... One of the things that I try to do every week (that I am leading session, that is) is to write out a couple of ideas to run during my sessions. These fit on a small piece of paper or, you guessed it, a super-sticky post-it note, and they serve as a prompt for ideas. Right now, my post-it has some ideas on it about a skeleton song that one of my former interns wrote, a loud/quiet song, and rhythmic engagement as a prompt to remind me of options of things to do with all of my students. I do not follow formal ses...

It is time for my favorite themed week of the year. Star Wars week! I am a fan of the Star Wars stories from long ago. Episode 4 was the first movie that I remember seeing in the drive-in theater. I know that I saw movies in theaters before that, but I only know that from stories rather than my own memories. This movie I remember with my own eyes - watching it from the back of our station wagon, late at night. My junior intern will be doing most of the sessions for his assigned caseload this week. That will not change, but my senior intern is giving up her time with clients so I can do what I love to do... play with my clients!  We are going to boss R2-D2 around. We are going to learn a bit about John Williams. We are going to do much, much more as well. We may use our pool noodles to conduct or to even do some highly restrained and supervised light saber battles. I want to find my mini flashlights to see if we could do some constellation stuff as well. This is the week. I do not u...

Hint: So much to celebrate next week!! I get to surround myself in a movie franchise that I have loved since I was seven years old!! Do you know what I am referring to? Not Teacher Appreciation week. Not May Day, but May the Fourth!! If you have no idea what this is, you may want to skip the rest of this post. If you haven't ever watched this franchise, then I'm not sure we can be friends (just kidding, but I may try to convince you to dive into the stories...I'm just saying...) I have arranged to take over music therapy sessions from my interns next week so I can share my love with my clients. I have identified the t-shirts that I will be wearing. I have to get batteries for my robot prop this weekend - my favorite character, by the way. I may have to prepare by watching all the movies this weekend...I wonder if I have enough hours from this evening through Sunday evening to get through everything! Am I vague enough for you? This tends to be the week that my music therapy ...

I had an insomnia night last night. Now, usually I am a good sleeper. In the past couple of years, my sleep schedule has been shifting, mainly due to hot flashes, but I usually sleep for a long time, then get up to use the bathroom and cool down, and then I fall back to sleep. Last night was one of my rare exceptions. Last night, I slept from about 8:30 until 10:30. I woke up and went to use the bathroom and that was it! My body no longer wanted me to actually sleep, even though I was tired as all get out. I think I dozed a bit between 2 and 3:47, but I am not sure. My eyes were gritty and wanted to close, but my mind was alert and ready to go. I avoided my usual inability to think around 4am on these days somehow, and I am still pretty alert. I know that I will be crashing this afternoon after things are done in my music therapy clinic. I may just plan on reading my current music therapy book and working on my visual aid system for the prep time that I have on Monday afternoons. I nee...

It is the first Wednesday of the Spring semester, and I, as usual, am not quite ready. I have five different groups to see today, and I have only decided that I will have a greeting TME in each of the groups. That's it. That is all that is on my strategy for this week right now. I do not like it when the therapy week starts on any day other than Monday. This is mainly because my brain just cannot remember what day is what on these weeks, but also partially because it means that my students do not all have the same information offered to them. I can either start the year by doing a Wednesday-Tuesday schedule of TMEs or just treat these days as extras and not do any sort of structured music education topics or all-school experiences on these days. I tend to do the latter. Just in case you are wondering about whether my clients get the same amount of music therapy during the year, the last sessions I ran before break were on Monday and Tuesday, so this is sort of the rest of that ther...

I have a difficult relationship with technology. iThings and I do not speak the same language, so I avoid them like the plague. I have an iPod because Apple took over the mp3 market and it was easier to just give into the Apple thing than it was to try to navigate the world of Zune and other mp3 technology. As long as I don't antagonize it, the iPod does what I need it to do - keeps me entertained. I do not have many smart speakers around me - just the one in my Kindle Fire - and I am fine with not knowing things immediately. I am resisting the world of instant gratification and the need to always get information instantaneously. I have a terrible success rate with Bluetooth things. My Dad got me a BB-8 robot many years ago that has never connected with my Bluetooth stuff. I FINALLY figured out how to work my speakers with my laptop, and I also can get my phone hooked up into my car system. I tell you this because I have a new toy to share with some of my clients next week - a Drop...

So... There was no post yesterday because I couldn't seem to break out of a slump of self-pity and repetitive thoughts about stuff. I decided that my thoughts needed to stay in my own radar and not be shared with the music therapy world. I am in a better space this morning, so here goes another attempt at writing something. I went to work yesterday without an idea in my mind as to what I was going to do with my clients. This is not an unfamiliar state for me. I often start Mondays without any sort of idea what I am going to do with my clients, but I always come up with something. Sometimes what I come up with works with my students, and sometimes it doesn't. Yesterday worked. I sat in my office yesterday, looking through my options. We did some Orff work two weeks ago when I had a full week of sessions. I didn't want to do those instruments again, mainly because my students complain when I repeat things too often. I also established the idea of word rhythms during those gro...

My June box is a bit more full now than it was yesterday when I opened it up. Yesterday, the box revealed that I hadn't really put much into this particular box, so it was time to figure out some things to place into it. I started by printing off my sing about june editions for 2020 and 2021. These books contain several unique Therapeutic Music Experience (TME) plans and some visual aid options. Now I have lots more information available to me for strategizing purposes. I then finished up and printed off a summer music rhythm post that needs to be laminated and cut out to be complete. You can see some of the icons and one of the rhythms ready for the laminator. That is my job for today - laminating everything that I want to use this month. There is a bunch that is not included in this post because their permanent homes are not in the June box (yet), but this file is part of the laminating stack.  One of my TMEs in June 2020 is Bowling for Boomwhackers. This chance composition, let...

This has been an interesting and long morning already. I woke up a bit after midnight the way I've been waking up lately - at random times during the night - fully awake and thinking about some paperwork that I had forgotten needed to get done. Rather than avoiding that paperwork and then being unable to get back to sleep, I got up and finished the two tasks that I needed to get done and then went back to bed. I had a bit under three hours left before my usual (nope, can't say that) regular (been anything except that recently) desired (that will work, even though I wish I could sleep in a bit more) rising time. I wish I could figure out exactly why I am having interrupted sleep these days. There seem to be inconsistent cues that waken me. A couple of nights ago, one of my neighbors (not the exorcism neighbors, but some other ones) turned on car lights right into my window, played loud music, and then left around 2am. Other times, like last night, I was hot. The window was ope...