music, therapy, and me

I like to call what I do in sessions, Therapeutic Music Experiences or TMEs . I got this highfaluting series of words from an intern I supervised a long time ago, and it really seems to fit with what I think I do. The other words that I have used over the years included activities, applications, and interventions, but none of these terms ever really seemed to encapsulate the purpose of music in a therapy session the way TME does. I use specific TMEs as parts of larger music therapy interventions. The experiences are designed carefully to address multiple goal areas at the same time. If we are addressing impulse control as a common goal for all group members, I ensure that every TME has an element of impulse control to fit within the use of music therapy as an intervention. Within one single TME, however, many different goal areas can be addressed. This week I used a simple Orff improvisation with a group of students with diagnoses on the severe end of the Autism spectrum. These st...

All of these words are appropriate adjectives for how I am currently feeling. This conference experience has been an extremely rewarding one so far, and the opening ceremony finished a mere 4 hours ago. Let me explain further. I arrived in Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon with my meeting schedule in hand. I have the privilege of being the chairperson of the Association Internship Approval Committee (AIAC) for the American Music Therapy Association, so I always get to start my conference before the conference officially starts. *CAVEAT - I am writing this entry at 1:53 am EST, so I apologize if I do not make much sense. I am not used to being up this late on a regular basis, but I really cannot get to sleep yet. I will rue this decision in 5 short hours from now...* Tuesday evening was spent in the company of my friend and long-time conference roommate, just catching up with each other after a year of emails and facebooking. On Wednesday, I led the AIAC meeting. We met for 10 hou...