music, therapy, and me

Today, I am thinking about making some comments on the social media that I consume - not what I create. A couple of years ago, I realized that my social media picture was consumed by music therapy and only music therapy. All of my Facebook groups were music therapy groups. All of my Instagram follows were music therapy accounts. Music therapy was the only thing that was represented in my social media accounts, and I remembered that I was more than just a music therapist. So, I made a concerted effort to enrich what I was consuming via different and various platforms. I started with some paper groups. I made a separate Instagram account - one for music therapy and one just about me. I changed who I followed on my personal Instagram account. I still follow and am part of lots of music therapy groups and accounts, but I branch out into things that just plain old interest me. I try to be aware of how much time I spend in mindless social media use. TikTok is the worst for wasting time. It i...

I think we have started a new tradition at my facility - YouTube Friday afternoons! We spent the last hour of our music therapy day watching 80's music videos (with some videos from other times - we HAD to finish up with the Muppets and Bohemian Rhapsody, of course!). It came about in a silly way, but an organic way, so I hope that we will continue this type of interaction and music sharing beyond these two interns. I love having two interns at the same time, and I really love having interns overlap with two different interns during their time with me. We have had many intern traditions over the years. There were the pens bought by senior interns for their junior interns. There have been chair upgrade ceremonies. We still have the anointing of the senior intern, but this has become my tradition rather than one that my interns share with one another. I had an intern wisdom notebook a long time ago, but that tradition died off - it was my fault completely. I may ask my next intern to...

So, no medical test that could figure out what is happening with my back right now, but I am not surprised. I am very tired because I didn't take my meds until after my discussion last night. So, I will take some more time to prepare for my day instead of being in an hour early. I can't keep my eyes open. I wish it was Saturday so I could just sleep the day away, but, alas, I have to head to work so I can afford to pay my mortgage and not be homeless. I could take the day off, but that would mean a significant deficit on my paycheck which I cannot afford. This is a horrible mess. The week has felt slow again. It is finally Friday, but reaching this day has been a long trek through time. Next week is my favorite week of the year, and I get to do most of my sessions next week because of it! I will spill the beans on Tuesday when it is TME Tuesday time. Since I can't seem to keep my eyes working, I think I am going to end here... 

Hint: So much to celebrate next week!! I get to surround myself in a movie franchise that I have loved since I was seven years old!! Do you know what I am referring to? Not Teacher Appreciation week. Not May Day, but May the Fourth!! If you have no idea what this is, you may want to skip the rest of this post. If you haven't ever watched this franchise, then I'm not sure we can be friends (just kidding, but I may try to convince you to dive into the stories...I'm just saying...) I have arranged to take over music therapy sessions from my interns next week so I can share my love with my clients. I have identified the t-shirts that I will be wearing. I have to get batteries for my robot prop this weekend - my favorite character, by the way. I may have to prepare by watching all the movies this weekend...I wonder if I have enough hours from this evening through Sunday evening to get through everything! Am I vague enough for you? This tends to be the week that my music therapy ...

It seemed like a regular morning. I woke up with a blazing headache, pain in my back - still, and looked across the room at my clock. Quick glance to see what time it was. My light turns on now about 3:40am. I decided that I could sleep in a bit more - my medications are really messing with my level of exhaustion right now - so, I flipped over in an attempt to relieve my head pain and lapsed into a state of almost sleeping. I had a dream about my family and another one about the cemetery at my school and kept opening up my eyes to glance at the clock. I waited until I had about 40 minutes left before I had to leave, and then I used the bathroom and headed downstairs to get my allergy medications and to check my email and all that. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, the clock on the wall stated that it was just 5am. Not the 6am I was expecting. I apparently cannot tell time on the clock that is in my room - this is not the first time this has happened to me with that particular clo...

I am currently in a place where I am spending more time watching interns than doing music therapy, so my boredom is increasing. To be completely clear, the boredom is not at all due to what my interns are doing with our clients but with the fact that I am not doing much client interaction and am stuck in my office, listening and watching rather than participating... The enforced decrease in client contact has the benefit of a surge of creativity that is happening right now. Since I am tasked with listening and responding via observation notes, I have lots of time to sit and think about music, about music therapy, and about what I enjoy doing. I cannot spend time working on my visual aid system really easily because I have to respond to session events as they happen, but I can write notes and jot down ideas for future TMEs while I am watching. I have one group to co-lead today and three groups to observe completely today. This happens every time I have two interns at the same time. They...

Here it is, Sunday again, and I haven't cracked a book to talk about. I did, however, continue a course on Music Education and Special Needs from Berklee yesterday. While most of the information covered yesterday did not have any sort of relevance to my life as a music therapist, I am working on a concept of preparing my students for any future music education experiences that they may have. During the course that I am taking, we are talking about how to prepare as music educators for persons with differing ability levels. I have a bit of a different perspective since I meet kids but not music educators. For this course, I am completing two projects. The first is a communication binder for my clients to use during group and individual music therapy sessions. It will include some activity choices, instrument choices, general communication tools (BIG yes/no), and some music therapy specific choice cards. I am getting ready to do the line drawings for the activity choices and the inst...