music, therapy, and me

It is almost the start of a new school year in my area of this world, and as a school-based music therapist, I am getting myself put together enough to face this year with the same type of uncertainty that I faced the start of last year...and probably with good reason. At this time last year, I was uncertain that the pandemic outlook was as rosy as others seemed to think it would be, and my skepticism won out. Last year was a time where my work situation changed radically about every six-eight weeks, and being a therapist for students who could not be accessed was difficult - to put it very mildly. We went from full-time, in-person school to hybrid for some clients and live for others, to complete lockdown due to an outbreak at my facility, to back to full-time, in-person school for some and hybrid for others, to full engagement with all clients but in segregated classes (residents with residents, day students with day students), to full mixing of our two populations. I had to scramble...

Over these past two weeks (the amount of time that I've been doing a different type of work schedule), I've been thinking about what I'm going to be doing in the future. I am an internship director, and I am contemplating what sorts of things I need to prepare future interns to do in a post-coronavirus world. Before all this started, I didn't focus on the thought of telehealth therapy at all. It wasn't a consideration in my particular job, and I don't like spending tons of time editing and recording videos, so I really just ignored the need for these types of thoughts in my training program. No more. It has become evident that we need to be thinking about this since it has happened and many of us have been scrambling to figure out what this entire type of therapy is and what we can and should be doing. Now, my thoughts are still jumbled together and not really clear yet, but this blog is a place where I work through my thoughts, so here I go. It is ...

Go to the website for topics to choose from... I am sure that many of you have been glued to your social media feeds and televisions sets like I've been over the past couple of weeks, watching people talking about what is going on and then trying to figure out what we, as music therapists, are going to do to keep going as professionals. My feed has been full of people offering telehealth sessions, educational livestreams, and all sorts of "new" ways to provide music therapy to people who need to have social and physical distancing. We have stepped up to do things differently, and that fact leads me to wonder if this is an evolution in "how we do things." I'm wondering if this is going to be a new "normal" way of being a music therapist.  There are going to be some clients who will never return to live music therapy sessions. There are going to be clients who will experience music therapy now over the internet who will not be able to be serve...

At Girl Scout Camp, we used to sing a little ditty about Announcements that went a little bit like this... There are all sorts of verses (many of them very rude because, you know, camp!), but I stuck with one of the most polite ones. Bella-cat included because, you know, CUTENESS! Check out my t-shirt at the end - my dad LOVES punny shirts and found many of them online this year! This is one of them - it felt appropriate for the current climate. So, I'm starting a few get togethers on social media for the express function of connecting with my music therapy community - Mondays and Tuesdays at 7pm Central Time. This is so we can talk to each other about the things that are happening in our lives with people who understand it the best - each other! Mondays are for anyone - music therapists, students, interns, and Tuesdays are for interns only! There are details on how to register and get more information on the website right there on the home page. Please register so I can send...