music, therapy, and me

I have a suspicion that tomorrow will be our first snow day of the season, and I have an intern who needs to finish up hours before graduating on Wednesday. I do not want to extend the internship again, so I am planning on being present during our snow day, even if I have to spend the night in my office rather than driving home. I am currently sitting here, waiting to take my shower and head out because I do not want to get to work too early, especially since I am planning on staying there for the entire night. Right now, there is only one school district in the area we serve that has closed - on one website - all of the others are not registering any closings that affect my clients. I get an incentive to show up on inclement weather days - an additional day off to use when I need it. I will add this upcoming snow day to my sick time so I can have some more of that time. My intern is expected to graduate on Wednesday. We need 26 more hours to reach the 1020 hours needed by AMTA and my ...

It is time for my intern to start talking about termination of services with my clients. We have to do things a bit differently around my place because we never know when clients are leaving until right before they leave, so we do not go through discussion about ending services with individual clients. We focus on the intern's graduation from the internship and moving on into their new futures. It is time. I am always a bit amused by this process with my clients and my co-workers. Some will be very sad and offer my job to the intern. Others will be happy to know that I am waiting in the wings to swoop in and take over. Still more will appear ambivalent. It always surprises me to see how people respond to the news that every intern will be leaving our facility. Other than termination, we are trying to figure out the accompaniment for our holiday sing at the end of our school session. I am still not able to bend my finger and still having to splint the finger at work (still can't...

As I am getting ready for work this morning, I am thinking about the fact that there are five days left until my next break. We work on Friday this week because of how the summer session and inservice days worked out. That is a no-contact day meaning that kids will not be present. I have an intern who needs her hours and then will be graduating and another one that could use an entire day of work time to get assignments done. I am hoping to be moving into a small office in my music therapy room. It is my old office, and I am looking forward to getting my professional space back. As much as I enjoy being around my interns, I really like having a place where I can do my own thing. I don't know if things will be moved out by Friday, but I will prepare for that move regardless. I have two cabinets that will make the move across the room with me. That will give my interns more space and less clutter to have to deal with, a place of privacy where they can talk about me, and a place where...

I'm finishing up a television show that I really enjoy - Person of Interest . It was something that aired from about 2010 to 2015, and I stream it on my Netflix account. This is the second time through that I'm watching this, and I really enjoy the show. I like the premise, and I find it "a triumph of the human spirit." Now, if you do not like shows with lots of conspiracy theories and shooting and fighting, then I would recommend that you avoid this show, but I enjoy a good conspiracy, so it's just what I enjoy (at times). Anyway, I am watching the last episode of the fifth season of this particular show. Everyone of the main characters looks like they will die in their pursuit of their cause, and it is moving towards a somewhat satisfying conclusion (I forget exactly how it ends, so I'm really involved with this particular episode). Oh - there goes one of the characters... My involvement with this particular show leads me to think about other endings i...

I think I'm finished with Physical Therapy. The reason I am not quite sure is that the Physical Therapist (PT) told me to talk to my Physician's Assistant (PA) and my PA told me it was the decision of my PT. Neither said specifically that I was finished, but I think I am. My testing on Wednesday indicated that the strength and functionality of my recovering leg was within spitting distance of the non-recovering leg, so the only thing left would be strengthening both sides more, but that is not the job of a physical therapist. So, I'm not going to PT this morning. The PT is supposed to call me at some time about this. I am freaked out! My parents tried to help me yesterday after the appointment by talking me through some of my feelings. I think most of my feelings are coming from a place of fear that I will do something to ruin this result and have to start over again. My PT recommends that I wear my brace at work for some time still. My PA didn't seem to think tha...

I am tired of my Thoughtful Thursday topic, so I am going to vacate it for a while. I haven't remembered to write on different quotations, so it should be easy to let this topic go the way of Sing A Song Sundays and Song Synthesis Sundays. I will be Thoughtful NO MORE!! So, that leaves me with another dilemma - what should I write about right now? This dilemma always starts after the opening paragraphs. The questions start - "Is this interesting enough to me to continue writing?" "Does this have anything to do with Music, Therapy, or Me?" "Should I just skip today completely?" Then, I usually settle into a topic or an idea and start to write. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I am in the termination process as a client (for, really, the first time in my life). I am down to the last session next week, and I am experiencing separation pangs and simultaneous excitement. I am both very proud of my progress and scared to death that I am going to do some...

The termination process has begun. I've only ever been on the client side of termination one time before now, when I was in counseling during my junior year of college, and that really wasn't too bad. The expectation was that the counseling would stop when the semester ended. I knew it at the beginning and didn't really notice any termination techniques during that time. I'm noticing now. I think I have about three more weeks of physical therapy left before I am finished. No one will really say anything about timelines (which I hate), but the insurance company has authorized treatment through my six-month post-surgery appointment at the beginning of June. So, the physical therapist has started the topic of termination. I bet that most of his clients don't realize what is going on, but I do. I have experience being on the other side of things. You start to talk about how far the client has progressed. You continue with discussion about how to maintain the level r...

Several months ago, I spent lots of time talking about professionalism . My posts on Sept. 23, Oct. 30, Nov. 6, and Dec. 23, 2011 were all centered around my relationship with a difficult co-worker, one who attempted to bully me and who was not an appropriate teammate at all. That co-worker was fired on Friday. As I have been thinking about the past 10 months and the utter lack of professionalism that has led me to my various rants, all I can think now is, "I knew it!" I get strong feelings about some people at times. When I have such a visceral reaction to a person, I try to figure out why I am responding so strongly. Past encounters have demonstrated that my intuition is a good indication of who to spend time with and who to avoid. Unfortunately, a creepy feeling about a person is not enough to convince others about possibilities. That intuition is a good thing as a therapist - a lousy thing as a co-worker. As a therapist, intuition assists me in figuring out how t...

This is a picture of the San Francisco Peaks by Flagstaff, Arizona from the Meteor Crater Complex outside of Winslow, Arizona. It is one of my favorite pictures because of the winding road that took me from the interstate all the way to the crater itself. The landscape is the desert (another place I love!) and looks so barren. I like to think of this picture as a representation of the journey that we therapists take with our clients. We start from a place where we are comfortable (the buildings in this picture). We know where we are, and we know where we are heading (the mountains). The path between the two is often winding, sometimes treacherous, and sometimes not clearly defined. While the way to the goal is not always clear, when you reach the goal, you can see where you have been. I closed the therapeutic relationship with a client this week. He was a young man with a tragic history of physical abuse and neglect who came to our facility about 11 months ago. He really start...

Today, I will have to say "Good-bye" to a client who has blossomed in music therapy. "Q" is leaving today after about a year of time at our facility. "Q" is a young man who has a horrible history of neglect and physical abuse. He arrived with no communication or social skills and is leaving a young man who can indicate what he needs without biting or screaming. He is truly a success story for the people who work at my place of employment. "Q" has been featured in several of my previous blog posts. He interacted with me through the music way before he interacted with others. He responded to music in ways different than any other stimulus. He is a young man who deserves music in his education because he truly does perform his educational objectives more when music therapy is the primary form of intervention. Did I ever mention that "Q" has gigantic blue eyes? Today I have to say "Good-bye" to "Q." Ending a th...