music, therapy, and me

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...

I am almost finished with the first part of the outline presented by William W. Sears as a part of Music In Therapy - one of the first texts I ever read for my music therapy education. I decided to write about this because it is a text that helps me focus on what I am trying to accomplish in my music therapy sessions. I find it interesting when my interns haven't read this chapter, it was such a seminal part of my education that it just blows my mind when others haven't experienced it. I am also enjoying the perspective of thousands of music therapy sessions as I re-read this chapter. I think it is one thing to read texts while you are immersed in learning about music therapy, but it is a completely different thing to read those same texts with years of experience to synthesize as well. I think my perspective on what Sears speaks about has matured over my career, and I find myself taking my own experiences and filtering through them Sears' thoughts. Anyway, here is t...