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“Going slow” has never been easy. From rushing through my piano lessons as a kid to rushing through college (sorry, mom and dad!), I’ve always had a tough time accepting a leisurely pace. In a recent piano lesson with Jayjay,  I was given some truly sage advice:

“In all the sessions I’ve done, I have never once been told I’m going too slowly. I have, however, been told to slow down.”

Obviously, this was purely in reference to playing music with older adults. However, in the delirium of end of internship, I have taken this advice to be somewhat- okay, entirely symbolic. There always seems to be an endless list of things to do, places to go, people to see, in our day to day lives. If we don’t allow ourselves to take our time, we will quickly burn out. As I enter the final 48 hours of my internship, I have very little time to “go slow.” Still, making sure that we sleep, feed ourselves normally, and take even just a few minutes a day to breathe, we can protect both our over-worked minds and our over-worked bodies.

As I slowly “grow” my toolkit of interventions, I am constantly on the look out for good blogs and resources for the average music therapist. There are dozens of wonderful publications out there with great, creative ideas. However, one blog which I am never disappointed by, is the one put out by MedRhythms, LLC.

Their tagline is “Music, It’s science!” They investigate neurological music therapy, and share how they have applied recent research to their own practice. I encourage you to check out their webpage (listed below) and see what they’re writing about! From links to great research articles to case-study-like videos, it’s always an awesome read.

http://www.medrhythmstherapy.com/?p=216

I can’t believe that I am already at the end of month three, halfway through internship. It seems like just yesterday that I had moved myself across the country and felt incredibly nervous about getting started in a new setting, new city, with new people. More quickly than I expected, I felt welcome and part of the team here at MTCCA. Things soon started feeling like they were more routine and I truly began enjoying the busy schedule in music therapy private practice. As I reflect on the past three months, here are some of the biggest things I’ve learned:

  • No one expects you to be perfect. There are a lot of adjustments to make when it comes to the beginning of internship: academically, musically, and personally. The team is here to support you and bring out your best.
  • Coursework prepared me academically, but personal experiences are important too. Experiences at internship like learning how to improvise on piano, manage sensory regulation, and try new instruments have positively impacted my clinical experience as a music therapy intern.
  • Embrace new things. I enjoy discovering different areas of town and getting familiar with the city. It is important to take advantage of the things that are unique to San Diego and being a music therapy intern while I have the time to enjoy it!

Now, I am preparing to take on more responsibilities as I become senior intern, and really starting to prepare myself for the final stretch!

-Nerissa

As music therapists, one of the most common questions we answer is, “What is music therapy?” While every professional and student has their own go-to answer to condense the entire profession into a sentence or two, we also come across opportunities to describe music therapy more in-depth through presentations. Next week, Emma and I will be presenting on music therapy to a local college class. With a sufficient amount of time to present, we will discuss what exactly music therapy is and how you become a music therapist, the different domains that can be developed and improved through work in music therapy, and of course, provide musical examples so that our audience can experience for themselves what part of a music therapy session may be like. It is important to look for frequent opportunities to advocate for music therapy, whether it be through giving presentations or networking – you never know who you might inspire and connect with!

-Nerissa

One of my favorite parts of being in the MT field is having opportunities every day to write songs. With our clients, my favorite techniques are piggy-backing on songs they already know and love, or providing opportunities for lyric substitution. Currently, many of my clients are working on their own versions of “If I had a Hammer,” except with their own instruments substituted for hammer. During internship, I’ve really come face to face with the reality of how difficult abstract thinking is for some of our students. Simply coming up with a word, out of the blue, isn’t easy- even less so when faced with the pressure of adding it to a song. It’s our job, as music therapists, to help them come up with those lyrics, and to help them increase their ability to engage in this sort of thinking.

-Emma

This week’s symposium topics including learning and visual supports. One set of resources that I particularly enjoyed was Temple Grandin’s Ted Talk and article on visual learning. Temple Grandin clearly articulates her thought processes and how they differ from the typically-developing individual. For example, an individual with autism may not think logically, but may think in associations. This is why maintaining an on-topic conversation is difficult: once something is said, the individual with autism may already be thinking of something else, instead of an appropriate response to the other person. However, Grandin makes a wonderful case for the benefit and advantage that different-minded thinking can make. In a world where there are visual learners, pattern learners, and verbal learners, different-minded learners should work together and collaborate to achieve the best result. To assist those with visual minds, using visual supports in therapy and in day-to-day life can help. Visual schedules help to keep individuals on-task with a picture of what they are expected to do, and a to-do list organized in the order that things must be accomplished. This type of organizational system helps to provide structure and expectations in day-to-day tasks.

Watch the TED Talk here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF4sP-uC-yI

-Nerissa

Two weeks ago, we began our spring semester Jam Sessions. It’s pretty wild to think that I’ve already seen one round of Jam Sessions and am now headed into another one! My perspective of Jam Sessions has changed as I’ve experienced more of them. I still look forward to them every week. However, now I have the great opportunity of deepening my understanding of what we’re doing.

My favorite part of Jam Sessions is that they are designed to reach individuals regardless of their levels of functioning, socially or cognitively. Some of our participants need the “social skills” part of the night (kindness, conversations, self control, etc.) in order to learn a new skill. For other participants, these skills are learned through the interactions with volunteers. And finally, for some, both the songs and the interactions cement their learnings.

It has been so great to watch our participants grow over the past 5 months, and I can’t wait to see how much more their grow during this new semester.

-Emma

Every music therapist has their own unique style when it comes to the way they lead sessions, set goals, and take data. Something we learned about at this week’s symposium was SOAP Notes – a type of assessment. The acronym “SOAP” stands for Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan. Here is an example of what information goes into a SOAP Note:

Subjective – Information about the client, including diagnosis, history, and any other self-reported information.

Objective – What the clinician observes (something measurable), and can include what interventions were performed.

Assessment – In medical settings, this is where the diagnosis is determined. For music therapy purposes, this can include what interventions were performed, and perhaps how successful the client was in reaching their goals in those interventions.

Plan – What to do next; revision of goals.

This is a very logical way of assessing, as it provides the framework for both subjective and objective data. In addition to a frequency count or duration recording, the music therapist has the opportunity to write comments regarding what worked well and what can be improved in the next session. I hope that this gets you thinking about how you can use this type of assessment in your own practice!

-Nerissa

It’s crazy to think that we’re already headed into February! Time is truly flying by here at MTCCA.

As an intern, there is never a shortage of things on my “to-do” list. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and forget why we do what we do, as Music Therapists. Of course, our clients are always there to remind us of the power of music and the effect that music has on their quality of life. With this in mind, the one thing I never skip on my “to-do” lists is practice. The difference between practice now and practice back in school is that practice no longer means “perfect.” Now, as an intern (and soon as a professional!) practice means the difference between being some lady with a guitar and an ipad and a highly trained clinical musician, ready to respond to whatever musical cues my clients throw my way. By practicing and becoming as fluent on guitar, piano, and drums as possible, an MT is able to use their brain power more effectively in sessions. Rather than worrying about what the IV chord of F is, an MT can respond to the rhythms the client is playing.

This past week, the team got together with Jayjay Lim at Greene Music to have an improv workshop. Jayjay shared with us a few easy tips for teaching adaptive lessons, and even more helpful tips about how to accompany a client. Though all of us were floored by his talent, (and many of us were thinking “I could never do that!”) it was a great reminder of the importance of practicing. Music doesn’t just happen, and music isn’t one-size-fits-all. As an intern it’s always easy to forget to practice, or to run out of time, but I do really believe that, while no one will ever be perfect, practice definitely makes us thousand times more effective as therapists.

Today’s symposium meeting was on teaching adapted lessons. Having just finished my student teaching, I was really interested to learn more about working with students with special needs. Everyone had some great resources and tips to share, so I will just talk about some of the highlights:

  • There are many educational books and method systems for teaching music theory and piano in a simple and fun way. The key to these books is that they include lots of visuals, interactive activities, and songs that are enjoyable to play!
  • Teaching music doesn’t have to just come from a book. Interactive activities such as coloring and using a whiteboard, iPad, or even play doh can make music theory fun and easy to understand because the student is learning through different modalities, including visually, aurally, and kinesthetically.
  • The internet is really your friend when it comes to finding creative ways to learn and teach music! A website that we learned about was http://www.musictechteacher.com and it includes lessons and games that make learning about the piano and music theory lots of fun!

I encourage you to use a variety of resources when teaching adapted lessons – in most cases, the more fun you have, the more you learn!

-Nerissa