music, therapy, and me

Blogging is an art... ...and I am not the best at it. Okay, updates are in order. Since the word "me" is in the title of this blog, I'll focus just on me for a time. I know, egocentricity rears its ugly head. Indulge me, please. I have been sick since November with a brief hiatus in March. I have decided that sinus infections are cruel and unusual, especially when followed up by tonsillitis and bronchitis. I am tired of being on medications and then getting sick as soon as the meds are gone. Boo- hoo ! My job has become much more challenging as of late. The students have changed, but music therapy is still the job for me. The actual work keeps changing. I find that the changes make me constantly reevaluate my own growth as a therapist. I am now finding myself in the position of relearning music therapy from a different perspective. It is interesting. My population has dual challenges - developmental as well as psychiatric. The typical psychiatric platforms do not work we...

Where has the year gone? 2008 is almost over. It has been a busy year with many therapeutic "A-ha" moments for me as well as MANY "oh-no" moments. Here are a few for your reading pleasure... Oh-no #1 - realization that, while I have been working REALLY hard at my education, I have not made as much progress as I would have liked towards my advanced degree in music therapy A-ha #1 - the archives in Fort Collins are very interesting and a valuable resource for therapists interested in what folks thought about music therapy as a profession way back when Oh-no #2 - my anonymity in my profession is rapidly disintegrating A-ha #2 - other music therapists like my ideas and what I share with them during conferences - thanks to all who stopped by my space in the Clinical Practice Forum Oh-no #3 - I have not been able to spend as much time as I would like on developing new experiences, interventions, and applications for my clients - the projects are piling up A-ha #3 - online...

Irony There are many things that I find ironic. One of them is paying $140 a night for a hotel room where we have had to call maintenance twice - once for light replacement, and once because of a bad room key, where the water pressure starts off strong and ends up with a whimper, and where the room is about as big as my back patio. Something else that I find ironic is that the hotel has one restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch. The prices, which 15 years ago I would have found EXTREMELY disconcerting, run around $20 per meal. I now consider that reasonable. Interesting. I am still not happy about the entire situation - I tend to be more thrifty than not, but I guess I have become more accustomed to the idea of paying through the nose for food at professional meetings. I also find it ironic that folks who coordinate conferences ALL OF THE TIME do not have the logistical know-how of scheduling things so commonly-themed sessions are not scheduled at the same time. There are many dif...

Decisions Who would be a better match for me? Who would be a better match for my clients? Who would be a better match for the interns I currently supervise? Who will I accept? Who will I reject? These are some of the decisions that I have had to make over the past four days. I am a person who typically makes decisions after weighing the pros and cons of each side, deliberating with others, and really thinking through all possibilities. Once I make the decision, whether it is about voting, sweater color, financial issues, I tend to accept that the decision has been made, and I move on. I spend as little time as possible rueing a decision that I have made. I get uncomfortable when my decisions impact the lives of others. I prefer when my decisions are "yes you" or "not you" rather than "you, but not you." I remember getting a very curt rejection letter from my "safety" application for internship, and it stung that they did not even want to meet me ...

From this side of the 20th reunion... So, please indulge me as I wax nostalgic for a bit. My 20th high school reunion was last Saturday evening, and I am still reeling from the shock that it actually happened - It did, I saw pictures! In addition to reunion shock, I had to participate in the CBMT Practice Analysis Survey and then had to figure out how long I've been a music therapist. That was just as shocking. I realized that I have been a music therapist for over 15 years - this is another revelation for me! I guess I should have seen it coming. You know, I don't generally feel old when I'm working with my clients. I dance, joke, and keep up with the younglings very well. I can sit on the floor cross-legged and get up without help. I can belt out tunes from Rihanna, Chris Brown, and Keith Urban with the best of them. Working with children is a great way to feel young - you have to keep moving or you get run over. Is this a mid-life crisis? I sincerely hope not since I hop...

Aging I will be missing my 20 year high school reunion this Saturday evening. There are several things that I find wrong with that statement - First, it has already been 20 years since high school, and while I do not find myself wishing for those days again, it does not seem possible that that much time has passed. What happened to being young? I have some issues with my sciatic nerve. I feel old as I totter around my apartment, limping on my right leg. The fact that I am missing my 20 year reunion makes me feel even worse! Go figure. The best thing about aging is thinking about music therapists-future who will have to engage me in music therapy reminiscence groups in later years. They will have to sing early Madonna, U2, Thompson Twins, and songs from every Disney movie ever made to engage my attention. Can you imagine the difficulty with finding, "Don't Pay the Ferryman" by Chris DeBurgh for my poor future MT? I will find some way to communicate my musical preferences ...

The Therapeutic Triad Recently, I have been pondering the role that the therapist plays in a music therapy session. I really like the idea of the therapeutic triad - don't know who came up with the concept, or even where I learned about it, so I'll make no attempt to cite it - sorry. I envision the therapy relationship as a flexible triangle with the client at the top of the triangle, the therapist at one end at the bottom and music at the other end. The triangle is flexible and pulls one way and the other as the members of the triad work together or apart from one another. Each element is essential for the others to participate in effective music therapy, but none is more important than the client. Without client involvement, there is no therapy. So, I started to explain the concept of this triad to an intern at my facility. She is a very visual learner, so the picture of the triangle was the best first step for her. We discussed each of the elements of the relationship separa...