music, therapy, and me

I have always been someone who sees a problem and then strives to make it less of a problem. I've identified a problem with myself and research, and I'm now stuck in solving mode. If I'm not getting what I need from our publications, then what can I do to get what I need elsewhere?? This is the type of question that will take over my mind for a while, especially now that I have six more days of enforced rest away from my job. I don't have many clinical issues to think about, so my mind is capturing the most intriguing problem and is working away at it. One of the most frustrating things for me is to identify something that I don't like without having an idea what can fix it. I get very frustrated with other people who just seem to complain and complain but who do not make any effort to make their situations less difficult for themselves. So, I am going to talk a bit more about what I need as a clinician from the research that is available out there. This is ...

I did something to the iPod during my medical leave (You can certainly see my continuing struggle with iThings in posts in this blog, if you are interested). As a result of whatever I did, my music library on the computer went from 22 thousand songs to 2 thousand. I made 20 thousand songs and files - POOF - disappear!! So, now I am in the process of re-establishing my music library on the computer. Fortunately, I started my music therapy career a long time ago, so I have many, MANY CDs in my library. That is a good thing when it comes to disappearing music, but a bad thing when you are trying to re-rip everything that used to be there. You can see, in the picture above, some of the CDs that I am going to rip this weekend. This is a small percentage of my collection, but these are the second round of essential CDs to load onto the iPod. I went through several of my CD books and pulled out CDs that clients asked for over this past week. There are CDs of The Beatles, The Beach Boys,...

It's the second day of Spring Break, and I am looking for something to do... Of course, there is the typical stuff that I SHOULD be doing - laundry, cleaning, cooking, throwing things away, and the various and sundry other things that have been waiting for me to "get to them." So, now I have to decide what I am going to do today. Now, because I am a music therapist and a musician, I often sing to myself. This behavior has been increasing lately as I have been making up short mantras and singing them to myself. For example, " It is not my job to make everyone happy. They have to make themselves happy." This mantra is sung in a major key with lots of syncopation. Another current mantra is, " Spring Break is here."   These mantras allow me to put my emotions into music. I like this for several reasons. First, using music allows me to regulate my breathing, my heart beat, and my muscle tension. Second, the lyrics encourage me to put my emotions into ...

What if music therapy education was completely based on the competencies? What if music therapy clinical training was a full-time experience for music therapy students from the first day they walked into an academic program? What if every music therapist in the United States was a member of the American Music Therapy Association? What if music therapy was an essential part of all mental and physical health treatment and a consistent treatment modality in the education of all kids? What would music therapy look like then? I love thinking about "what ifs." There is a certain amount of "what if" thought when you are going through a session with a client. I find myself consciously (and unconsciously) thinking "what if I sped this rhythm up a bit? What would 'Q' do then?" So, I try it. I then see what happens. I evaluate and make more decisions based on more "what if" statements. Being open to the possibilities is important in...