music, therapy, and me

I am currently in a contemplative frame of mind and am directing my thoughts towards the presentations I've agreed to give at various and sundry conferences in the next few months. I came up with the ideas for most of these presentations, and now it is time to flesh them out in a way that makes sense to me (and to my audience). I always get into this process about this time of year. I spend time thinking about my presentations when it's proposal time, but then I leave the thoughts behind until I hear whether the presentations are accepted by the various selection committees. After I know whether others are interested in what I have to say, I start the process of outlining my presentations. With just under two months until the American Music Therapy Association conference, it is time to start getting my presentations ready. I am presenting on three different topics this year - on the Online Conference for Music Therapy (with the executive director - I didn't have to writ...

Apparently there is a name for the thing I'm going to talk about right now, but I don't know that fancy name, so I'm going to call it my picture book. I have a book full of pictures that I keep around for visual inspiration.  Th ese pictures are from magazines and came from advertisements more than anything else. When I see a picture that I like , I cut it out, post it on blank paper, and then put it in the book. Then, when my creativity is at it s lowest, I f lip through the book, l ooking for inspiration. Know what? I alw ays find some in that book. There are strange looking fruits. I have advert isements for things that make me curious. I have pi ctures of celebrities that I've chosen due to the composition of the picture or the topic ma tter. Whatever catches my attention goes into the book. The be nefit of this collection, for me, is that i t provi des me with ins piration when I need it the most. I am a visual learner and I think best through visual man...

I know it's late, but here's the blog post for today. (So sorry, Janice!!) I woke up this morning, finished a couple of tasks, got distracted by one of my games (it gave me unlimited lives, Janice, UNLIMITED LIVES!), and then had to get ready for the appointments that I had to do. Now that the tires are rotated and balanced, I can focus on thinking about my blog post. Today is a day for self-care through the completion of tasks.  I have taken care of my car care, I went shopping at Target, and now I am eating a late breakfast/early lunch. I went shopping before I ate, so I ended up with lots of stuff for lunches for the next month and not much nutritional value, but I am going to enjoy these things as well. The next step in my self-care day? Talking to my parents. They will call as they go through their own Saturday morning routine - breakfast at McDonald's, grocery shopping, trip to the post office, to another store for more shopping, and then home. These weekly ch...

La st night, I spent some time talking to other therapists abo ut time manag ement and orga nization, something that continuou sly challenges me, but that I strive for at the same time. I consider myself an expert in what "not to do" in this field due to the challenges that I 've been t hrough and the solutions that I have found that make the mantra of "work smarter, NOT harder" possible for me.   As I talk to other therapists about how to arrange their time and environment, I am al ways str uck b y how others approach the world. Th ings that seem to be common sense to me in my sma ll life a re apparently not that comm on to others. This simultan eously makes me laugh and despair and marvel at th e h uman race as a whole. As someone who st r uggles with time management at times, I have found that deadlines are very important to me. In my life, I pl ay many roles, but one of the most interesting ( to me , at least) is that of C ontinuing Education D irec...

I survived yesterday. I didn't get to try my new plan for my current problem clients because the class was in turmoil. I modified my plan to include shorter sessions with less clients - I split them up. The classroom teacher changed my groups, and I ended up with some turmoil, but I was able to nip it once it started. Today is Thursday. It is also payday (that makes me able to breathe a bit). I think I will get to try my new center plan with my last group of the week. I will see if it works this time around and then tweak the plan. I will figure this out and will find a way to offer these services to an ever changing group of clients within the treatment service delivery model that I have to use. It's time to go, so I'll wrap up with a thought for us all. The things we do may not be apparent to all, but to the ones that matter, music therapy is invaluable.

One of the things that I really try to do is to be honest about my life as a music therapist - it's not easy to admit when things don't go well, but it's important to recognize that things will not always go as planned. I am going to try something new today. Well, it's not really that new, but it will be new for music therapy for specific clients in specific sessions at my facility. Here's the big idea... CENTERS I know. Not that impressive, but the only thing that I can figure out to divide and conquer my clients who are struggling with appropriate interactions with others. We are going to do six different things during sessions today and tomorrow. I have file folder activities for one set of clients, a dice game for another set of clients, and a note hunt composition TME for the other group of clients for the first round of centers. Everyone will get out of the small, dinky, dingy music therapy room into the bright, large, high-ceilinged Discovery Center f...

I'm playing around with an idea about changing up my TME Tuesday posts these days. More about that later. Right now, what I'd like to do today is to introduce the latest version of sing about songs , my theme books for music therapists. One of the things that I love to do is to write songs and therapeutic music experiences for clients who have a variety of challenges and therapeutic goals. I enjoy coming up with ideas that would work with a 4 year old and for a 94 year old. I also like to think about how to make the lives of my fellow therapists a bit easier. So, every three months, I publish a version of sing about songs .  I choose a theme (this edition's theme is autumn) and center all of my therapeutic music experiences around this theme. I make an effort to compose original songs to include, but not all of the music used is original to me. (I'm a therapist who feels that there is benefit in using recorded music, so I include a list of theme-related pieces...