music, therapy, and me

I am going to write this blog for one hour, starting now, and try to make something that has relevance for all of my designators in the title of this blog - music, therapy, and me. This is not always an easy task. There are times when the music takes over, others when therapy is foremost on my mind, and I am usually prone to talking about me - one of my favorite topics. So, let's talk about music, therapy, and me this morning. We will get the "me" part over with. I am still tired, very frustrated with a particular client who has decided to target aggression towards me, and happy that today is Thursday rather than yesterday. I wish I had some more stuff to get me energized, but tired seems to be my default lately. I'm going to blame my changing hormones for all of this exhaustion. I am currently feeling inundated by a plethora of phone calls from all sorts of people wanting to give me things or sell me something or to set up appointments. Some of these people know that...

Most of the posts that I have written over the past several years have been me-focused. Of course, this blog actually functions as my online journal, so the "me" parts are part of how I identify as a human and as a music therapist. I have a feeling that there are times when people are just not as interested in my personal feelings as they are in my ideas and opinions about music and therapy. I try to focus on music therapy things on four days of the week, but I forget sometimes (like yesterday) and end up nattering on and on about what is happening in my life or about bullet journaling or about my back aches. I figure three days of personal stuff is plenty for this blog. So, if you are interested in specific posts, here is the way I approach my writing (most of the time - I am striving to get back into a set pattern of topics): Sunday - Synthesis Sunday - I like to think about something and try to figure out my stances on that topic. There is some news from AMTA that was rele...

I returned home last night after 10 hours at work, 3 hours of commuting, and another 2 hours at my part-time job to find a voicemail from the apartment company informing me that they have a showing this morning. While that is good on one hand, it is also extremely stress-inducing because I have not had a chance to clean the apartment and it is a pit of lint and stuff sitting all over the place. The showing is this morning at 9:30, and I have not been at the apartment since Tuesday because of all the things that I have to do. In addition, I am getting ready for jury duty service - something that lasts for two weeks here in my county - on top of coordinating packing and moving services, carpet cleaning, the delivery of two beds, and an upcoming visit from my Mom and my sister. Add to all that the end of the year/preholiday stress happening at work, and I am at my wit's end. I got nothing. You know, I am spending inordinate amounts of time in a stress response these days, and I do not...

This was the year of t-shirts. I got six different t-shirts this year - my father found several places on the internet to purchase novelty shirts, and HE DID!! The ones in the bottom picture are from him! One is a Girl Scout themed one, one says, "I'm the oldest - I make the rules," and the other says "These are difficult times" under a picture of 6/4, 9/8, and 11/16 time signatures. I think I'll wear that one when I do my next webinar - all about chord progressions that I think ALL music therapists should know by heart and by hands. If you are interested in the webinar, check out this link for details. Did I mention that it is free? The top picture is the collection I received from my mother and my sister. One is from our trip to Hawaii and the other two are Star Wars themed because my sister knows me so well. The one with Darth Vader on it has the Imperial March notated in bass clef with the lyrics, "dum dum da dum, dum da dum, dum, da du...