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 ...
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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...
The Moon Ask anyone who has ever worked in an emergency room, and they will tell you - full moon nights are the most bizarre nights ever. I am a moon baby and VERY affected by the cycles of the moon. Let me explain. I was a postmature baby. You don't hear much about those of us who were more comfortable in utero than the rest of you folks, but there are babies that wait to be born. I was one of those babies. My mother carried me for almost 10 months, much to her dismay, and I waited to be born until the night of the full moon. I was one of 31 babies born that night and day and things were hopping in the hospital. Ever since then, I have been ruled by the moon. My mom swears that I cycled through mild forms of mania and depression even as an infant, linked up with the moon cycles. (She has worked in hospitals and has observed the full moon phenomenon personally). She said things would just become difficult to explain or talk about, and she would check the calendar. This topic is on ...
Seeing things through a medication haze It is the last week in August, and I have started my September sick already. There is something about September that has brought out the allergy/cold/cough stuff in me for the last 13 years. This year, it started early. I spent most of Friday wishing I was medicated. Today, I am. This is a good/bad thing because the medication that I take has a 24-hour adjustment period where I am extremely tired and dizzy. After that initial 24 hours, I am able to function with a slight level of drowse. So, I have to start the medication on a day away from clients. It kinda defeats the purpose of having a music therapist who snoozes through music therapy sessions. Today, I spent some of the day at the car dealership getting an oil change and having a tire patched. I then spent the rest of the day sleeping. My brother woke me up with a phone call. I am now tired, but awake, and doing some thinking about therapist wellness. My illnesses are not life altering or se...
IT's the End of the World as We Know It... And, I'm not sure that it's all that fine. Last Thursday, I found that my computer hard drive had crashed, just as I was getting ready to backup all of the wonderful things that I had traveled to CO to find. The disc is toasted, and I, now significantly poorer, am waiting for my next paycheck to finance a possibly fruitless expedition into the murky depths of the disc to try to mine some of the files. So, I am becoming resigned to some changes in my life. At the moment, I am looking for a MONDO external disc drive to accommodate all of my files in backup forms and will be more faithful in backing things up! My current school projects and business proposals will also have to change, especially if I cannot find them on the toasted disc. Happy New Year!!
Touristy Things I left the hotel at 6:15 this morning to explore the Fort Collins area. I started off for Poudre Canyon and made it a good distance before I started to react to the pines and the altitude. I had a chance to dip my toes into the river and watched my first ever fly fisherman. The drive was eventful - cattle in the roadway around turns. I had to keep my eyes open and my foot near the clutch at all times. After I started the allergy reaction, I turned around and leaded for Laramie, Wyoming. When I told my dad this, he asked, "Why would you go to Laramie?" My answer was that it was only 70 miles away, and I had never been to Wyoming. All I can say is that it was a pretty drive. The actuality was not as thrilling as the idea, but now I have been to Wyoming. I got back to the hotel and went to the "First Ever Fort Collins Irish Festival." It also sounded bigger than the actuality, but it was fun. I had a chance to look up the only confirmed Irish name that ...
Wading through History So, my sojourn through the music therapy archives has ended with around 200 pages of information scanned into my computer, ready for further digestion. I probably have enough for two separate papers - one on competence development in interns, and another on the history of internship programs themselves. Like I said in my last post, the archives are very user friendly and everyone is helpful. I highly encourage everyone to dive into the archives at least once in their careers. I have some pictures from a scrapbook assembled in 1965. There are pictures of therapists, clients, and music therapy dignitaries. I do not know who assembled the scrapbook, but they did everything that I've been taught to do in my own scrapbooks. It was interesting to look at, matted well, and had wonderful front pages for each of the sections. It was humbling to realize that the scrapbook was older than me (Can you tell I work with folks who have some egocentric outlooks on life?). Thi...