music, therapy, and me

There are about three more weeks of summer session (Extended School Year - AKA ESY) left before Fall Break. Three more Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and two more Thursdays to work through. I have plans for most of the upcoming sessions, but not all of them. As always, those plans are not set in stone, but at least I have an idea about what I'm going to do. Plans are good, but not if you intend to follow them to the letter. I had a practicum supervisor many years ago who expected me to follow my plans exactly as written, down to the breath. She would check off what I would do with my clients, and, if I deviated from my written plan, she would challenge my decisions. I now know that she was preparing me to explain to others what was happening in the music therapy session, but, at the time, it was difficult to explain why I varied my statements to my clients from what I had written on my session plans. She was the supervisor who taught me to think about and talk about the decis...

I have a dream that includes a remote house somewhere. The actual setting of that remote house varies - sometimes it is in the desert, sometimes in the middle of the mountains, other times it is next to a lake. It's a place where there is great internet access (because I don't think I could do much without the internet these days) and a place for thinking, a place for sewing, a place for painting, a place for making music, and a place for watching the sun rise and set. There are wood or tile floors that are easy to keep clean and lots of book shelves for all of my books. Bella has a place to wander and climb as well as places to hide and wait to ambush my ankles whenever she wants. This is just a dream place, but maybe someday it will be a reality. I also have a dream for a music therapy clinic. One of the things I do for fun is to sit with a sheet of graph paper and draw clinical spaces. I like floor plans, so I dream and draw. I dream of a music therapy clinic space that in...

I've had a bit of a creativity spurt over the past couple of days. It's refreshing to be involved in projects that challenge me and inspire my wish to create as well as to share what I do with all of you! I've been working on the first official edition of sing about songs for release in September 2015. I love this process of coordinating ideas and brainstorming and then making it work. The next theme is sing about travel , and I have many ideas to develop and incorporate into my own music therapy practice as well as bringing them to you all. There is an example packet on my website right now, but this next one is going to be more - more information, more things to do, and more resources for you! I'm up to 27 discrete therapeutic music therapy experiences (TMEs) with a goal of 30 in total. I have a bunch of visual aid files for use (if you want to, you don't have to) while you are leading these TMEs. Everything is coming together nicely. One of the things t...

This week something ended. It was a GREAT ending that came with a sense of accomplishment and pride. Here's the announcement... Interested in starting an internship program? Want to know more about what is involved in intern supervision? AMTA is pleased to announce the launch of “MT Intern Supervision: A Training E-course for Intern Supervisors.” This new AMTA E-course was developed by your MT colleagues on AMTA’s Association Internship Approval Committee .The self-study e-course is designed to provide information to anyone interested in learning more about the music therapy internship process, and to provide official training required for MT-BCs to be listed on the National Roster of Internship Directors. Successful completion of this e-course also provides 5 CMTE credits from AMTA (CBMT Approved Provider ‪#‎ P‬ -051.) Jane Creagan, AMTA’s Director of Professional Programs, said, “Music therapy intern supervisors and their agencies provide a very valuable service b...

"Additional duties as assigned." This is a phrase that can contain lots of things that you never thought you would be doing in your career. It's almost always the last entry in a job description. For me, this means duty of some sort. I've learned over the years that volunteering for duty makes it less distressing than waiting to be assigned to the duty. If you volunteer, you get more control over what you end up being assigned. So, to that end, I've volunteered for afternoon bus duty. My reasons for this are many, but one of the reasons is that we need someone to do afternoon bus duty. There weren't any other volunteers. I have another reason as well - I feel that one of the members of morning bus duty does not like me and does everything possible to make my life difficult. One of my conditions for taking over afternoon bus duty was to leave morning bus duty when the fall session starts and this co-worker returns. Folks were so grateful to have a volunte...

When I started this blog, I picked the title very carefully. I wanted a place where I could talk about things that I love (ooh, does having "me" in the title seem a bit self-aggrandizing? Yes, I love myself. I had an interesting conversation with one of my clients yesterday about how we need to love ourselves before we can love others - he started the conversation and made lots of good points. Hooray for self-esteem!!) I wanted to be able to spend time thinking through my ideas in words, and a blog seemed like a good place to do it. I still think it is, and am grateful for those of you who read it. I hope that you find something of value in the posts I have made, even if you disagree with what I say. Make that, especially when you disagree with what I say! I find that it is just as important to disagree as it is to agree as long as the act of disagreement is conducted in a respectful manner. Why am I writing about this today? I honestly don't know. All I know is tha...

I don't have a therapeutic music experience (TME) to share today, but I do have some thoughts on process. DISCLAIMER: This is not the ONLY way to develop therapeutic music experiences, this is just MY way to develop therapeutic music experiences. Find your own way into using music as a therapeutic medium. All set? So, how do I get my ideas for TMEs? I brainstorm. There are often two entries into this brainstorming process - object and goal. They start off a bit differently, but end up going through the same pattern of development, which I will try to illustrate here... Object-based TMEs - I start with an object of some sort. This is usually an object that I come across in a store or on Pinterest and is something that I can hold in my hands. Goal-based TMEs - I start, of course, with one of my client goals. Right now, most of my clients have emotional regulation goals, impulse control goals, and relationship goals as their music therapy focus. As a result, I often start wi...