music, therapy, and me

I asked my sister, the second grade teacher, for a topic for today's Thrifty Therapist post, and she suggested that I talk about the importance of laminating and having a laminator. Now, I am going to take this and make it my own, but know that I purchased my own laminator as soon as I possibly could because none of the methods that I had to use before I bought my laminator worked well for me. They work well for others, but not for me for some reason. On this post, I will talk about inexpensive ways to laminate visual aids (and then I will talk about the pitfalls that I have found with each of these materials - I hope that you will have better experiences with this than I do!). Technique #1 - Clear Contact Paper - You can find this for about $6 USD if you do some bargain shopping. Make sure that you make note of the width and the length of the rolls to ensure that you are getting the best deal for your money. Clear Contact Paper is very good for covering large visuals. It is flexi...

I am working on a project that I have been developing, writing, then getting very uneasy about over and over again. I think it is a good idea, but then my inner critics start up, and I get frozen.  NO MORE! I am pushing past those critics to publish my Music Therapy Internship Manual.  I am looking for a different title, but I don't know what it will be yet. This project is fun and a labor of love. I have felt, for a very long time, that we need to offer more to music therapy students to make the entire process of being music therapists less confusing. Since I cannot find what I want to offer to my interns, I have decided to write what I am looking for. I have published the first three chapters now. The first chapter is all about the process of finding an internship. The second chapter is about how to prepare for the starting date. The most recent chapter , released yesterday, is about the first day of internship and goes into a bit about time management. I am going to make ...

Today is the first, official day of my Fall Break, and the second day of being at home. Since everyone finished their progress reports, we were able to work from home yesterday, and I DID! I started off the day with some blogging (before work hours, of course!), and then followed up with some TPT exploration as I worked on a list of things to include in my next visual aid creation. I started with looking to see what sorts of music schedules are out there, and there aren't many. I remembered that I had purchased one from TPT that merged music education with special education, so I went back into my purchases and found all sorts of things that I already own. That started a marathon printing session, and while printing, I also remembered that I wanted to find some different language "goodbye" phrases to go with my "hello" phrases. I ended up spending $13.30 for four different resources that I will print out when I get to work. After the printing was finished, I sta...

It is the first day of the last break of the summer - what I like to call my Fall break even though Autumn is still two months away from officially starting. We get to work from home today, so I am going to spend my time putting together a new tool for my music therapy room - a visual schedule. I have never used a visual schedule for my group sessions because I do not often have a set session strategy for what I do with my clients. I often change my mind when each group walks into the room to accommodate how my clients are interacting with me, with the music I play, and with each other. So, I have never really had a good way of making a visual schedule that covers last minute adaptations. I think I have found a way to do this now. I am going to use generic terms for the types of things we do in music therapy. This will allow me to have a basic structure while still allowing for changes to occur in the moment. I will also use this format in a general manner for most of my groups. Being ...

For those of you not in the "School-Based Therapist" know, ESY stands for "Extended School Year" and means that I have to work summer school whether I want to or not. Today is the last day of our ESY session, and I am more than ready. After tomorrow's  "progress note" day, we have 12 days before we have to report back to start the regular school year. I have one medical appointment, but that is the only obligation that I have for break. Other than that, I plan on working on my library and that is about it other than my usual self-care stuff. I have three groups today because there is an all-school movie during the last group time. Someone walked into my room yesterday to actually test the temperature and to tell me that there was someone else showing up to evaluate the computer system that controls the temperature. They interrupted a group session, but I am happy that someone is actually acting like they are doing something. Only three groups to run in...

It is Wednesday, so it is time to talk a bit about what I am reading these days. To start, it is easier to talk about my personal reading than my professional reading because I have not been doing much professional reading lately. I will start with the professional reading, though, because there is not much to talk about. This morning, I walked into my library where I have currently stashed all of my professional textbooks. I selected one from the shelves that I have purchased but not even opened yet. The book that drew my attention was Group Analytic Music Therapy  by Heidi Ahonen-Eerikainen (sorry that I cannot figure out how to do the umlaut over the a on this program).This book was published by Barcelona Publishers in 2007, and it was part of a sale order that I made a couple of years ago. I picked it because it is part of analytical music therapy, a form of music therapy that confuses and intrigues me, but also because it concerns group music therapy which is my primary servic...

Today, I am starting up the official post series for The Thrifty Therapist. I am trying my best to make all sorts of efforts to share tips and techniques for saving money as a music therapist. I think that there might be someone out there who will benefit from these posts, so here we go. I have some things that I have learned over the years about making inexpensive instruments, getting as much spending from every bit of my money, and making difficult decisions because I don't have much room in my budget for buying new things. So, my intention is to write a bit about these tips and techniques on Tuesdays. I almost forgot today - I was home due to being dizzy and not able to move around. I think I am better, so I plan on going to work tomorrow, but I did not do my usual morning blogging routine today, so here we go! Let's talk about being thrifty. Part of this consideration is the underlying fact that music therapists are not often well-paid. Many other professions are in a simil...