music, therapy, and me

It is time to revisit the idea of thematic music therapy programming in my blog. I don't always remember this particular theme for Tuesday posts, but I feel like I need the structure this morning, so here goes! For today's theme, I am focusing on emotions. The book packet that I am putting together is based on a book where emotions are displayed in inappropriate ways. I enjoy the book so much, especially the illustrations. I have all the TMEs planned out, but I haven't written them down yet. That's the next step. One of the things that happens over and over in my sessions - often by well-intentioned adults rather than my clients - is that emotions are labeled as good or bad rather than just there. I stress, over and over again, that emotions are not the important thing - it is how we handle our emotions that make them good or bad. If we are feeling angry, then that is fine. If we are feeling angry and hit someone, that is a bad action that came through our emotional sta...

This is going to be a thematic post - all about themes, and my current theme is "Back to School." I spend lots of moments during this time of year hearing about classroom themes (my sister's classroom is going to be amazing, y'all), watching classroom organization videos, thinking about my own room (which doesn't really change all that much), and seeing the decor that is generated by many people in the music education world.  There are some teachers out there (cough, cough sissa!) who make everything match or work within their creative themes. My room has muraled walls, so there is not much room for things to put on the walls. Also, my clients like to rip things from the wall and destroy them, so I don't want to spend time and money replacing decorations over again. So, I tend to keep the decorations things that I can move to and fro in the group area rather than on the walls. That doesn't mean that I don't have ideas about themes. Ooh boy, do I have i...

My Niec-at So, my sister reads my blog and sent me her ideas about what my themes should be for each day of the week. I got a text last night (after I was asleep) about what she wants to see as my themes. Here it is - Maker Monday - Tune In Tuesday - Website Wednesday - Thinking Thursday - Fact or Fiction Friday I am still navigating the ideas for each of these themes, but I will start some of them. Since today is Tuesday, let's investigate a bit more about what Tune In Tuesday could be about. It could be about music, music videos, musicians, therapists, or educators that are part of my life or that I've noticed. I'm not sure I could sustain that for long. It could be something about things to pay attention to as a therapist.  I just don't know. I am kinda dithering these days. I have little to no focus for anything other than medical appointments and reading books. I want to do more, but I just can't get going on any project. I have one more step to go through befo...

I am back to wanting to do thematic blogging for some of the days of the week on this blog. Mondays used to be internship focused but I no longer have an internship, so I have stopped writing on that topic. Since I am not in the internship world anymore, I feel like writing about it is sort of hypocritical. So, I am trying to get back into a routine of writing thematic posts at least three times per week.  These themes have to be things that interest me about the world of music therapy, but I am not really in the world of music therapy at this point. All I can really talk about is what it is like to be a vintage clinician, and I think that would get boring real quick for me and for you. So, let's see what else I know... Therapeutic Music Experience development Group management Being a clinician in a world that favors research Budgeting for a music therapy practice Becoming an entrepreneur Making things for clients Some music therapy history Music therapy systems that work for me Wa...

Oh dear. I have not really been in a consistent or interested writing mode lately, but I think this might change. I am starting to get more interested in writing things about music, therapy, and me again. We will see, and there will be interruptions to my writing since I have some stuff to go through in the next couple of weeks, but I am starting to get more interested in different topics. I may be doing more themed posts in the near future. Who knows? Thank you for being here - for reading the things that I post, even when they are not all that applicable to music or therapy. At the moment, I am getting ready for new adventures. It seems like a good time to do this pivot while I have a full-time salary and can build things up without making money from it all. So, be prepared for some advertisements from me in the near future - showcases of the things that I already use in my life as a music therapist that might make your music therapy life move a bit differently. It is time to get goi...

Yesterday, I enlisted the assistance of my mom and my sister to start with my new project for the next year - sing about themes . I am planning on releasing these thematic packets every month this year to supplement music therapy programming for clients of all ages and goal foci. These thematic packets will come with 4-6 therapeutic music experiences (TMEs), ideas for adaptations to all TMEs for various populations, and a couple of digital files to make visual aids for clients to use during sessions. The first theme is one that is dear to my heart and will be kept a secret for a bit of time, but rest assured that I will be sharing it as soon as I can. The fun for me comes in collaboration with my creative relatives. We are a force to be reckoned with when it comes to creating. I've told you about my mom's current creative force - Barbie furniture and houses, but my sister is also very creative - she channels her creativity into specific projects one thing at a time rather than ...

I have today and tomorrow off for a medical procedure, so it is time to do some reflection to keep myself from going into an anxiety spiral. The next two days are going to be lots of "hurry up and wait" situations, so I have to spend some time engaged in distracting myself so I don't eat and so I take what I need to take when I need to take it. So, I am going to focus on what is happening in my music therapy space right now. This week is my music education focus week. I have a different focus for every week to help me organize and to give us all a starting point. Within those foci, I tend to vary my treatment to reflect what is happening with each group that comes into my space. I figure a session is a success if clients leave in a calm manner after their time with me, so I use that as my focus for treatment. I do what I feel I need to do to get clients to that point. There are times when I throw out my determined focus the moment the group enters the room. There are othe...

You know how I had no idea what I would do with my 30 minute groups on Wednesday? Well, I came up with something that seemed pretty successful - always a good situation to find yourself in! I sat in my office space and just thought and thought. I had a stack of books that I had to put away, and I decided that a singable book might be a good way to get music going in a very hot environment. So, I went through the stack of books and found one that I could expand upon. I selected Groovy Joe: Ice Cream and Dinosaurs  as my book for the week. It is not a song book (as far as I know), but there is a song affiliated with the book (I did not download it), so it lent itself well to an improvised song/chant with a background beat. I kept up the dinosaur theme and showed my clients a magnetic play set of dinosaurs that I purchased from the Dollar Tree store many years ago. I sang/asked them to choose their favorite from the pictures. Most of them selected brachiosaurus as their favorite. Mine...

My intern is getting ready to graduate from my program, and I will be a solo therapist starting next week. I am looking forward to it. I am always happy to see my interns go - this isn't because of them, but because I got into music therapy to be a music therapist not an observer of music therapy. When I am supervising, I am not doing music therapy as much as I want, and that is difficult. I am getting my topic plans finished for this month. We are going to do the country of the month next week (it's Australia), my intern graduates in the middle of the week, and then I will continue with the country for the last two groups that will not see it before my intern graduates. After that, I will get back into my rotation of country, music education concept, instrument, and musician of the month. When there is a fifth week or a partial week, I focus on a technology/career concept. In addition to these general categories for my rotation, I also have monthly themes to incorporate. The c...

Today's past post comes to us from March 20, 2017 . Post #1478 was the second post in a series. I am often surprised by things that I have written - this is one of those things. I do not remember these posts, but they challenge my way of thinking at the moment - this is a good thing, and it amazes me that these thoughts were my thoughts! This post happened after my attendance at a super regional conference in Colorado. It was a good conference - one where I had the opportunity to share my interests with others in ways that I find most relevant to me - we created some art, we watched videos, we talked about burnout, we talked about research in clinical practice. It was a good conference for me, and one of the last ones that I attended in person - I think there was one more regional conference in 2018 that I attended because it was at home. I was able to save on hotel fees while getting some time with my parents and siblings. I came home to write this series of posts. For some reaso...

I am getting ready to be a solo therapist again which means taking over my entire caseload for the first time in a bit over a year. Now, this is not a bad thing at all, but it means that I have some things that I will need to make habitual again that have been set aside in favor of intern development. One of those things is putting together about 20 group sessions per week in a way that allows me to keep myself organized. I find that thematic programming helps me be a bit more organized and helps me remember which clients have experienced what in their time with me. Now, when I say thematic programming, many music therapists become a bit defensive - on both sides, to be fair. There are valid arguments to all sides, so let me elaborate a bit on what I am meaning by thematic programming... I like some themes, and you may find that my idea of themed programming is a bit different from your own. That's okay. I do not have a week for "Dogs" or "Science" or "Supe...

I am running themed therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) at my facility this week because... It is Star Wars week, or, as a co-worker put it yesterday, "It is the May." This is the one week per year that I devote myself to a theme for music therapy programming. I do not often use themes with my clients because I don't like that type of structure or limitations and my clients often need me to do other things. I think thematic programming would be fine, but it's not what I want as a therapist. So, I don't use themes. Even though I do not use themes for my own sessions, I do love creating things that go together for various categories and topics. I'm working on a new subscription service that will focus on thematic programming exclusively. The first topic? Cats...of course, it is cats. Anyway... This week's theme is Star Wars, and I have pulled out my May storage box to access as many of my Star Wars visuals and materials as possible. In my monthly boxes, I h...

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 ...

It is Tuesday. This morning came very early for me, and I am not particularly happy about it all, but it is what it is, so here I am, trying to come up with a TME Tuesday post, all groggy and bleary-eyed like. The classroom next to mine overloaded the air with a bunch of air freshener after a feces incident yesterday, and I had to leave due to an inability to breathe. That is not the topic of today, however. Today's topic is a bit "so what? Who cares?" in nature. Let me explain... So, I believe that the act of writing out my goals, my intentions, my processes, and my procedures helps me advocate for music therapy. I also believe that this act helps me remember things, refine details, and provide adaptations for ideas that enrich the lives of (most of) my clients. I am able to provide people with detailed plans for any type of experience placed into my session, and I can justify just about anything in treatment because I have thought through the processes of how music can ...

Since it is the beginning of the month, I went to my thematic boxes with anticipation to see what I had stashed in the box for the month of June. What forgotten materials and TME ideas and visual aids would await me to jumpstart my creativity and give me some sparks for my session strategizing?? Wait for it...  That's it! That is all that was in June's box!! This is one of those months where I had not really thought much about what types of things I do in the month of June, and the box REALLY reflects this fact! There are exactly THREE things in this box for use during the month - all of them are orange for some strange reason, and none of them have TMEs attached to them, so that's not going to work for me! This month's "What's In the Box" post is going to be quite disappointing if I don't get to brainstorming and creating and thinking about what can go into that there red box!! For me, June is a month of summer school sessions. We have four weeks of o...

Ah, systems. I often think about this particular post series during the week as I go through my regular routine. The thoughts that go through my head include things like, "is this a system?" and "is this even interesting to anyone other than me?" If the answer to both questions is affirmative, then I figure out what to write about. Lately, I've seen queries about how people arrange their instrument storage, so I took a look at my system of organization. Here it is... Just like everything else in this series, this is just how I do this task - it is not a recommendation or requirement or even a strong suggestions. It is simply my way of doing things. These posts are meant to give you a glimpse into one way of being a music therapist - not THE way of being a music therapist. Find YOUR way and make it work for you. If things aren't working for you, then look at all the ways and find the combination that you need to do what you need to do in your space. S...

I started a post about how my daily routine went yesterday, but I decided that I needed to focus a bit on something more fun. So.... I wrote a song yesterday. It was not the song I set out to compose, but it is pretty cool, if I do say so myself! Here's how it happened...  If you read this blog on a regular basis, you know that I love to make visual aids for my clients and for other clients of music therapists. I post those things on my Teachers Pay Teachers store for small costs to others. I try to make things that I use in my clinical interactions, and I always include a song to go with my visuals. I also have therapeutic music experience plans and thematic units to go along with these visuals, but I do not offer those in my store because I want to have a bit more control over who can access that material. Usually, if you send me an email, I'll send you a copy of my TME - just let me know that you are a music therapist (student, intern, or professional), and you can...