music, therapy, and me

One of the things that I tend to do during my three day weekends is wander around my living place and explore stuff. Now, you might think that I would do that all the time, but I don't. It is not uncommon for rooms to go unvisited in my home for several days in a row, but I try to go into all the rooms at least once per week. During the summer, I tend to wander around a bit more. Now, this is not a new behavior for me - even when I lived in an apartment, there would be weeks where I wouldn't go into one of the bathrooms and the craft room. I visit the rooms more often now in my house than I did in my apartment - and, I have more rooms to visit now. So, anyway, I have spent a little bit of time in my library room. This is one of the rooms that needs work - well, all of them need work. I have about seven boxes in there that need to be unpacked. I need to get a bedframe for the bed in that room. I have an idea for a daybed setup in there, but I need to find a cheap frame to get st...

Rant. I was perfectly fine this morning. I really was. I took a couple more minutes of being in bed this morning. I took a shower and then came down to find a spate of messages that passively blamed me for technological issues that are happening in a particular group. I was named as the reason for not changing things to avoid some of these issues. No one else was named in the message line, and it really tromped up, down, and sideways on my feelings. Now, I am a grown up and I know that I do not have to relate to things in this particular manner, but this happens every year at this time and it is always the worst timing because I am very busy right now - more busy than others in this particular group. Interestingly, when things calm down for me, these same folks have no interest in changing things up. I refuse to participate in the conversations concerning technology because I always feel that I am the one who gets blamed, so I refuse to make the decision. I am not a fan of waffling and...

I made a bit of progress on my reading quest this week - I got a book to read. I know, I know. Getting a book is not the same as actually reading that book, but I did put it in my work backpack and carry it to and from work over and over again, so there is progress. If you are interested, it is Jennifer Buchanan's latest book, Wellness Wellplayed: The Power of a Playlist , that I ordered from Amazon. I am one of the people who voted on the cover art (this cover is the one that I liked), and I have been making my own playlist for this year. I have two songs on it at the moment, but I think I will select another one before this post is finished. I like the idea of making a playlist for myself to chronicle what I am feeling and events. I haven't read any of the book yet, but the title has intrigued me. I am hoping that the rest of the book will get me excited about this concept. My playlist has two songs on it right now - one that is unfamiliar that I added because of the title an...

I am learning. It has been a very long and pervasive struggle, but I am learning that I do not have to respond to anyone or any particular thought at any time. I do not have to put my opinions into contentious situations or conversations where there is no benefit to me or to others. I will not contribute to the noise that is already present in our lives. At the moment, I am watching a couple of conversation themes. There is a huge disconnect between people looking for music therapy jobs and people hiring music therapists for jobs. I have to be honest, I tend to side with the business owners in this particular debate. Maybe it is because I am an old music therapist, but I do not feel that brand new music therapists deserve the type of salary that I now earn - that seems to be the level that this generation is seeking. Without experience. Without understanding how music works on a deeper level. Without being willing to comply with requests from supervisors or work the schedules assigned....

Forgive me as I slip into my rant mode, because this rant is probably going to be prolonged and very opinionated and somewhat personal to my own experience. That's what makes a rant, a rant! Just so you know, you are welcome to challenge, support, or be completely offended by what I write - these opinions are my own and you are welcome to your own opinions about any and everything that I write about. If you want to talk things through, then feel free to leave a comment or contact me via social media. I will be happy to talk to you further! Now, please stay tuned for the rant... Disclaimer: This post was inspired by a vague post left by one of my music therapy acquaintances. I have no idea what the original circumstances were or what was said by any party or anything like that, so I am responding to the vague statements left by my acquaintance. I also do not believe that this situation is unique to music therapists. Read on for more. Rant in 3...2...1... Several years ago, I was a m...

NOTE: this is another rant where I tell you just what I'm thinking. I have not named any names, but you may be able to tell who the parties are based on contextual clues and access to the same social media feeds that I access. I will NOT publish any comments left on this post, so please feel free to comment below. There is a trend happening on one of my social media groups that is really angering me. It is a trend of shaming. There are a couple of people who consistently get onto other posts and engage in language that is often irrelevant to the post and shame the original poster into doing something that is completely different from the first post. I am torn about what to do about it all. I think that the motivation behind the several other people is a genuine effort to promote a specific point of view into our profession. I believe that they have decided that this is the way to go forward but do not have the experience or ability to moderate their responses to the conve...

Do you ever have an "ultimate fan" moment? You know, the type of request on social media that just makes you feel a bit excited and very humbled and somewhat curious about why someone wants to connect with you? A retired music therapist (who isn't really all that retired, just on to different adventures around the world) just posted that she had such a moment, and I just had one, too! Now, this wasn't a huge thing, but it is a step closer to something that I really wanted to be part of, but wasn't nominated for - it was my own fault, really - I didn't let anyone know that I really wanted to be part of this big step for our professional organization, but I still really wanted to be remembered and part of this process. Maybe someday... Anyway, I went over to one of my social media accounts today and found that the Commission on Education and Clinical Training (I refuse to use the rest of the commission's title because I think we should be forward th...

Lately, I've been kinda disgusted with some of the things that I've been experiencing in my job, reading on social media, and watching develop in the music therapy professional forums that I've decided to be part of. Every thing is just converging upon me along with my annual descent into Seasonal Affective Disorder (yep, mine happens in the summer), so I'm feeling more and more of the negativity that's in the air. It's somewhat hard for me to release all of this emotion because it seems to be permeating every single cell in my body. Wow. That sounds a bit dark. I am okay, but I am a bit disappointed in what I am exposed to right now. I am considering getting off a specific Facebook group where people seem to less considerate than what is expected of therapists (in my opinion, of course!). It is getting so that you cannot post an opinion without being ridiculed for your language or told that the system that you are a part of is illegal or discounted becaus...

There are so many views on self-care these days. That hyphenated word has become a trendy thing to talk about, and lots of us are talking about it. The views include those who justify all sorts of things as self-care and those who feel that we should always be giving without refilling the stockpile. There are all sorts of things that we consider to be "self-care," and the definition changes from person to person. I waver between feeling the need for my version of self-care and feeling guilty about taking the time and the money for something viewed as frivolous (in my opinion). I have periods of time when self-care is the only thing that gets me to move in the morning, and other times when I just don't have the time to focus on what I need as a human being. It can be quite frustrating. As a music therapist, I spend lots of time focusing on the needs of other people. It can be a slippery slope which can lead to feelings of self-importance (what will they do if I am n...

Several people have noted on posts lately that their well-intentioned comments have been taken to an entirely different level by people who are reading things from their own perspective and are commenting from that perspective rather than from the perspective of the original poster. Boy, do I understand the frustrations of someone taking your post and making it into something other. I don't do much posting on social media sites about my thoughts or products because of a situation which happened many years ago. I posted some thoughts that I shared on this blog, and I got yelled at by someone who (I think) didn't read the piece that I wrote. This person took offense that I would write about internships and interns and started to accuse me of acting illegally because internships in music therapy are (mostly) unpaid. I engaged with this person for about 10 exchanges and then I disconnected from the conversation. The person involved was not interested in what I had to say and ju...

I've been struggling this week with being positive, connecting with clients, trying to keep my mind on the rational side of things rather than just going straight into emotional overload, and with pretty much every thing else - sleep, eating, interest in anything, getting enough energy to take a shower, and all sorts of other stuff. I also am having a strange craving for chili-spaghetti, but that means a trip to the grocery store after work which I avoid at all cost because of the crush of people that just have to get their ingredients as well, so my cravings are going unsatisfied which means that they are growing and growing. So, I was sitting with some co-workers before a meeting yesterday, listening to them talk as I tend to do, and they were talking about their own struggles happening this week. Many of the same things kept coming up (not chili-spaghetti, but that's life! They don't know what they're missing...). It's kind of strange, but my struggles felt...

There are times when my mind gets mired into specific trains of thought. This is one of those times, I think, and I am trying really hard to pull myself out of the quicksand that is inclement weather days into something else. I've been writing lots about the "me" side of this blog lately and not so much about the "music" and "therapy" parts. It's easy to do when your schedule gets messed up and all you see is more inclement weather in your future... Time to pull myself up and out. I love being a music therapist. I love working with other music therapists to help them get to the best type of therapist that they can be. I thoroughly enjoy working with music therapy students and helping them figure out how to become music therapists during their internships. I like doing these things both in person and via webinars/recordings. I love starting an idea, offering that idea to other people, and then watching that idea expand in ways I never would ha...

Ah, social media, how I simultaneously love and hate thee. There was a post on one of my feeds about how music therapists should just share their resources in an open source model so that all other music therapists could have access to those resources so they "didn't have to reinvent the wheel." This brought me up short and has bothered me ever since I read it. (I really need to stop taking things so personally when the person who posts it does not know me at all - it wasn't directed at me, so stop reacting to it as such!) I do give away lots of things for free - I post a therapeutic music experience (TME) that is mine alone (my intellectual property) almost every week. I have an idea right now that is not going to cost anyone (but me) any money at all. I present, I offer free webinars, I give lots of myself and my time and intellect to the music therapy world at large - and I have been criticized for it. Now (in a roundabout way), I'm being criticized for t...

Oh, boy. It's another one of those days where my social media page is covered with indignant comments about yet another person out there who is doing something with clients that involves music. The criticism starts - "Is this person a music therapist?" "Should this person even be allowed to use music in a  nursing home?" "I had a job and someone like this came in and took it from me!" Sigh. I find all of these discussions pretty exhausting, and I don't really like that it happens so much. My opinions (that's what this is entirely - OPINION - which means that I get to think and write about whatever I want, and I get to share it with other people as such - OPINION, not FACT) are pretty set by now, and I feel that we music therapists are the ones that are failing. Okay. I know that some of you just stopped reading at the end of that paragraph right there. If you are still with me, let me start explaining. Here are my opinions: Music d...

Currently, there is a discussion about the Certification Board for Music Therapists ' examination going on over on my social media feeds. (We've moved away from the whole MLE debacle, so of course we have to stress over something else...) People seem to be upset that the practice tests are not the same as the real test, that standardized testing is the entry standard for certification, and that other people passed but are "not good therapists." There is a bit of "poor me" attitude going on, and I, for one, am not really all that sympathetic. My mother and I are currently engaged in a conversation about our respective professions, occupational therapy and music therapy. Between us, we have over 75 years of experience in our work, and quite frankly, we've seen lots of stuff happen over the years. Mom went through the OT master's level entry process when it happened in the 90's (just let that sink in!!! OT transitioned almost 20 years ago!!!) and ...