music, therapy, and me

It is horribly hot in the room where I am staying right now, but that's pretty much the way things go at the moment. There is no place that is cool in this region, so I am just sitting in front of a fan while doing my morning routine. I bet my mother will not emerge for another four hours, so this is my alone time. It is quiet at the moment. I enjoy my quiet time in this house. I spend most of my time trying to figure out how to entertain myself when I am visiting this place. I am going to be moving around to different places in the next week, so this is good practice for being a pleasant house guest. Meanwhile, I am sitting here in the midst of my mother's paper crafting supplies and tools. I come by my hoarding tendencies due to nature and nurture. My grandmother (Mom's Mom) was also a collector of art materials and teaching stuff, so both my Mom and I have been shaped into the packrats we are. I am going to play with paper while I am here - Mom will never miss the stuff ...

I am currently about 900 miles away from home, sitting in a hotel room, and waiting for enough time to pass so I can get the complementary breakfast that is offered. Why? You may ask? Well, my mother wants to see her best friend, my sister wants me to visit, and I have little to no time constraints at the moment. So, I am hurtling towards my family at speeds of up to 85 mph in order to get there, get on a plane, fly back across the country, and visit someone that has been my mother's best friend since kindergarten. That's why, This is definitely a nostalgia break, for sure. My mother's friend is impressed at how I put together our itinerary. (For gracious' sake, Aunt M, I am 56 and have done this a time or two before!) We are going to fly across the country (over my house) and visit. After that, I have about a week before my friend arrives at where I will be staying. I am trying to set up some music therapy meetings to ask questions and see what my future might hold for...

Nothing seems to be working right now, and I'm starting to take it personally! Do you ever have times when every technology thing that you touch just goes kaput? My sister and I tried twice to talk this morning and got cut off. Threads is struggling. Instagram is struggling. Facebook is struggling. Coincidence? I doubt it, but still, I wonder what is going on in the cyber world. My AC stopped cooling things earlier this week, and I spent about 4 hours with the HVAC specialist who gave it a tune up and wash and then did not charge me anything. My website will not update with the new PayPal buttons that I need to get things working again - I think that is a way for my hosting company to squeeze more money out of me. I can't seem to figure out what is going on with the electronic things around me, but I am hoping that it will sort itself out pretty soon. Things are starting to sort themselves out on my Meta apps. That's good because I use those often. I can't figure out wh...

It is Friday, right? That's what the calendar says at least, so I bet it is actually Friday. My day started the way most of my working days started - early but rested. It was a nice change from the way things have been going lately. I am getting ready for a trip. I will travel across the entire country twice and across half of the country twice as well. There is lots of travel in my future, and I love that, but it brings some additional tasks and things to prepare that do not usually come up. My desk is littered with reminders and things to move into my various planners. I tried to do some work in my next planner yesterday. I wanted to decorate my personal planner and get started with the new year. I messed up every page that I tried to complete. After fixing some of the mistakes, I just gave up because nothing was working the way I wanted. At all. I was very frustrated with myself. Frustration is one of those emotions that can color your entire day. I experienced this over and ove...

Yesterday, when I woke up, my house was sitting at 80 degrees F. For someone who has hot flashes and asthma and heat related health issues, this is WAY too hot for sleeping. So, I did what I usually do, tinker a bit and then call for an HVAC specialist to come out and see what was going to happen. I had visions of AC replacement and the draining of my already strapped funds. My sister offered a loan from the Bank of Sister which helped a bit, but I hate having to get money from other people. Fortunately, I ended up just needing a tune up on my unit, so I ended up not having to pay anything! My bank account is breathing a sigh of relief right now. I spent some time talking to my HVAC technician, and I found out that he has a daughter on the spectrum who loves music and talking. We also talked about the knowledge that he has that I do not have about HVAC systems and repairs, and it got me thinking about a current project that I am working on - interpreting the AMTA Revised Competencies t...

 Gotta Gonna Go On a Trip Purpose : To develop concepts of life-long leisure planning; to reminisce about travel; to assess group members’ ability to sequence, plan, and act in logical manner; social interaction; geography awareness; travel; abstract thought development Source : Original Song. © 2009 by Mary Jane Landaker, MME, MT-BC Materials : Accompanying Instrument; pictures of objects people pack for a variety of trips (for example: keys, money, wallet, shoes, coats, others as appropriate for the types of trips to focus on. Some trips might be long vacations. Others may be errands to run around the town.); OPTIONAL: suitcase; actual items (rather than pictures); map or globe   Environment : Group members need to be able to hear and see the therapist   Song/Chant/Words : See sheet music attached. i                           ...

Let's dive into the archives for this week's post. Here we go in our way back machine... There are so many ways that we, as music therapists, can adapt and apply music and different elements to support our clients' journeys towards their therapeutic goals. I find that writing things down helps me remember the options available to me when singing and playing a song in sessions, so this is how I think of music. This particular format is not something that everyone relates to, but it fits my brain very well. Each of the elements of music that I know about is on this chart, and I think through my options. When I am using songs in therapy sessions, I can think through the work I've already done, and that thinking helps me be a more effective music therapist (in my opinion!). So, this song, Old Friends , performed by Simon and Garfunkel, is one that is not familiar to many of my clients. If using it in a session, I would first need to introduce the song to them. I do this by ...