music, therapy, and me

It's Brass Week in my music therapy clinic. What does this mean? It means that everyone who wants to gets to play a trombone or a trumpet. It amazes me how many of my students can get a good, full sound on the instruments with just a small bit of instruction - blow a raspberry into the mouthpiece. Of course, I am sure that there are people who will be complaining about the noise, but who cares? This happens once per year and is something that I love and that my clients seem to enjoy. It's a chance to make some noise and use an instrument other than the handheld percussion that we usually use (that most of the classroom staff members refer to as "toys" - shudder!). I wish I had enough instruments for everyone to play simultaneously, but I just plain old don't. Next month will be woodwind month, probably. That's a bit less satisfying than brass month because of infection control, but I do have some instruments that can be played and easily cleaned - harmon...

I am in the center of an ethical dilemma that I will have to stand my ground on. It has to do with releasing information about a client to another music therapist in a manner that is not quite clear and feels a bit fishy to me. I am having to go into the AMTA Code of Ethics to justify my stance on this issue. I've run into this situation before. A music therapist from an outside agency sends me a non-confidential email requesting personal health information (PHI) with the assurance that the therapist "has a release that allows me to talk to you." The problem? I don't have such a release. My view on this issue is that I don't release information about clients without a copy of a release form that explicitly states that I may do so. Other people seem to see this as a problem. I've stood my ground before and will continue to do so as long as this is an issue. There is a simple fix for this situation - a release form given to me that states that I may talk t...

It's Sunday again. Today is church payday, and a normal Sunday since the pastor is back from study leave and is taking back his responsibilities. I don't have to do the sermon and everything today. I just have to do my regular job. This is the sigh of relief emanating from my corner of the world - siiiiiiigh! It's time to come up with a topic for this post, and I am just sitting here, watching Bunheads , and wondering what to write about. I'm spending time lately designing CMTE course modules - thinking deeply about the songwriting process and how to reintroduce the concept to adult learners. In the rest of my "spare time," I am cutting watercolor paper into cards for a retreat I am going to in May. I am making large pieces of paper into 2 3/8 by 3 3/8 of an inch rectangles. My life is a combination of specificity and creativity. None of this has anything to do with a post about Just a Song. So, shift, MJ, shift. The purpose of these posts on Sundays i...

Today is the anniversary of my parents' wedding. My entire life, I've had to explain that they chose this day (typically known as April Fool's Day here) to be married because it was the first day of my Dad's Spring Break from college. They had an entire week for a honeymoon before he needed to get back to school. Mom was already working, and she could have a vacation as well. So, April 1, 1967 was the day. My mother's mom traveled from Springfield, Pennsylvania with my mother's best friend for the wedding. The entire way across the country to Lawrence, Kansas, my grandmother thought that she would find the entire thing to be a joke. I know she knew better, but the thought kept going around and around in her mind. She was the only one who could afford to make the trip, so Mom had a surrogate father walk her down the aisle to my Dad. Mom and Dad ended up having two wedding receptions - one with Dad's family and one with Mom's family. In between the two...

I think I'm still getting used to this entire time change thing. I've slept in twice this week and am exhausted. You would think that I would have acclimatized, but, no. I think the pattern of Spring Break (AKA, not having to get up at all, much less at a time when I could get ready for work in a relaxed manner) messed up my routine. As a result, I have a handy situation on which to blame my less-than-stellar therapy sessions this week. Actually, that's not really fair to me. I only really had three less-than-stellar sessions. The other 11 sessions were fine, and there were some great moments in there as well. Why do I tend to go straight to the negative? Hmm. Anyway, the 11 sessions that went very well are the ones that I want to focus on right now - moving myself away from the negative and towards the positive. This week, two clients used their communication devices to direct me towards specific interventions. One of the clients typed the name of a song into the iPa...

Just because I can... Enjoy!  

I did it. I engaged in a crucial conversation yesterday, and I was able to express my feelings and attitudes about the situation I was forced into. I was also able to get a firm decision by my administrator (at least, she told me that the decision was firm - we'll see if she remembers the other part of the discussion - the notification of the faculty about the decision). I was able to get a clear path forward on the schedule and how things will work next year. I was not able to remain rational - I cried a bit. I still got what I needed from the situation - a change in schedule that makes sense to me and allows me to have what everyone else in the facility has - a set schedule that doesn't have to be changed to accommodate someone else's schedule during two months of the year.  I'm glad that is over (for, at least, the moment). I didn't sleep very well last night. A short cat-fight woke me up at 12:47:52am, jarring me awake, and then the storms started roll...