Snow!

Alright, so I lied, I'm going to push back my reactions to my interview with Ryan Sprague until later this week. However, this weekend brought more excitement!

Snow! This picture is from Sunday. It pretty much snowed all day. This was very exciting for me as it's only the second or third time I've ever seen snow fall. I was pretty entertained.

Turns out this continued throughout the night and it was still snowing when I drove to work this morning. Nothing major, but it was still really cool seeing snow on the side of the road and falling around my car as I drove to work early in the morning. I think I made every class today sing "Let It Snow!"

Outside of that excitement, today was rough. Some serious behavior issues from students, gave me some good behavior management practice today. Then for just about every class my iPod decided to just freeze, before deciding to die altogether before lunch. Luckily I was able to reset it, and hopefully it won't continue it's bad behavior. Behavior modification techniques don't work on iPods. After I got it working again, I had a student pull it out of the dock in the middle of a session and chuck it against the floor with all his strength. Thankfully it still worked. What a day.

The break's coming, and I'm pretty excited!

Interview with Former FSU football player and father of a child with special needs, Ryan Sprague

Readers, this is an interview that I'm VERY excited about. First, a little background:

Many of you know (or have deduced from my Twitter account) that I'm a HUGE fan of my school, The Florida State University. Awhile back, while browsing Twitter, I stumbled across the account of a man named Ryan Sprague. Mr. Sprague is a former football player for the Seminoles of Florida State. He walked-on to the team in 1996 (meaning he did not have a scholarship to play), and earned a scholarship spot the following year. He earned a lot of playing time in 1997, 98, 99, and 2000. In fact, he was the starting tight end on the 1999 National Championship squad.

Needless to say, this was a Twitter account that I had to follow. Through Mr. Sprague's Twitter, I found the two blogs he writes. One of these immediately grabbed my attention. It's called "Nobody's Normal" and it centers around Mr. Sprague's son Caedmon. Caedmon is six years old and has been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy.

This blog is fascinating for many reasons. For one, Mr. Sprague details his son's therapy with videos and descriptions of different procedures. As a music therapy intern, it's always educational and enlightening for me to watch a seasoned occupational or physical therapist work.

But perhaps most importantly is that you get to see this therapy process from a viewpoint many of us don't get to see: through the eyes of the parent. For someone like me who works in the schools, I rarely get to meet the parents of a student. Many come to school on a bus and leave on a bus. It can be easy sometimes to lose sight of the fact that these students don't live at school, they go home to families who know and love them more than anyone. That being said, I was thrilled that Mr. Sprague took the time to share his perspective with me and help me in this learning process.

So enough with my blabbering! Without further ado, I'm honored to introduce Mr. Ryan Sprague:

Tell us a little bit about your son:

Caedmon is 6 years old, he loves telling stories and making sure that everyone around him knows what's happening, he loves sports (believe it or not he loves the same teams his dad does), he loves to wrestle, he will eat any and every food, Caedmon has 3 little brothers.

What kind of therapies does he receive, and what kind of goals are these therapies addressing?

He receives Physical, Occupational, Speech, and Hippo-therapy. They are all working towards the macro-goal of independence and mobility. Each might have micro-goals but the big picture is independence. He has also done OT and PT while in his Therasuit.

Going through these therapies must be very tiring for Caedmon. What are his biggest motivators?

He does well. He has the benefit of youth to help with fatigue, but he loves to "show off" and that motivates him so when family shows up to watch him he really excels! He is an inherently hard worker and has a strong desire to do things on his own, he has had that for as long as I can remember.

Do you have any experiences with music therapy?

A little. He did a music together class with our family. He has also listened to the neurologically enhanced CD's during some of his therapy sessions.

Coming from the parent’s perspective, what advice would you give to a new therapist (physical, speech, music, any kind), going to their first day on the job?

Love your client. Try to understand them. Nothing is more frustrating than to watch a therapist assume they know what's going on but not take the time to understand the child. For example, Caedmon uses a form of sign language and, as I mentioned, loves telling stories. We have had a PT who would chastise him for trying to communicate to her because she refused to acknowledge that he was signing or trying to say something. She would assume he was complaining or being defiant... she's lucky she didn't get slapped by my wife :). Therapy is a means to an end. The end is dictated by the child's current condition and future dreams, not a textbook. There is an intimacy that is developed between the therapist and patient and I believe that the therapist needs to acknolwedge and respect that. In terms of the relationship, think like a dance partner. In terms of the skills, think like Mr Miagi (from the Karate Kid). He would push Daniel hard but not just for pushing sake. The goal was to develop Daniel as a whole person and the skill or discipline was the means to that end.

What have you learned by going through the therapy process with your son?

Gotta few hours? I have learned about CP, about the brain, about mutliple kinds of therapies, I have learned about insurance laws, medicaid,horses, blogging, etc...

What’s been one of the best experiences you’ve had going through the therapy process?

Each milestone that he reaches is wonderful, especially if he has been working hard for it. I love knowing that his therapist might be more excited about it than I am (see above). I have loved watching his story impact others in a positive way.


Finally, as a huge Florida State football fan, I couldn’t let you go without a couple football questions. What is your favorite football memory, and how cool is it to hold that crystal football?

The 1996 FSU win over UF when the fans stormed the field and tore down the goal posts was pretty awesome to be on the field for. My first, and only, TD against Miami in 1999 was cool too. Holding the crystal was fun, but not as awesome as I anticipated. I bet it was different for the seniors, but we were so quickly redirected towards next year that it took a little away from it. The reward was sharing it with teammates, friends, and family.

Again, my thanks to Mr. Sprague for his time and insight. I'll post my reactions to his answers over the weekend. I encourage you to visit both of his blogs (he is a very compelling writer). You can find them at:

www.nobodysnormal.wordpress.com
and
www.gowatchtheants.wordpress.com

Be sure to also look for Ryan Sprague's new book, "Grateful," which is on sale now. If it's not in a bookstore near you, you can purchase it through his website (www.ryansprague.com).

Comment away with your thoughts!

Time flies...

Time has been flying by at my internship. Between all the work that comes with interning and trying to apply for graduate school at the same time, I can't even believe how quickly the weeks have passed by.

Some updates: This past Friday I had my mid-term evaluation. It went very well. Lots of constructive comments and some great "feel-good" compliments. A nice little pep talk.

This Monday I also had my first day taking over the full case load of students at one of my schools. This also went very well. I was a bit worried that it would totally drain all my energy, but so far I like it more than just leading half of the classes. It allows you to get into a rhythm better, and the day flew by. It's kind of like when a football team uses two quarterbacks. The criticism there is that your QB can never get in a good rhythm and doesn't play as well. With leading every class I felt like I fell into a groove and sessions had a great flow to them. Hopefully that continues.

Today my supervisor was ill, so I was able to go to a school that I don't normally see (one of my co-intern's schools) and watch them go caroling. About 12 special needs pre-school students went to an assisted living facility down the road to sing holiday songs for the residents. Needless to say, this was beyond adorable. It was a really cool thing to watch, because you're really providing therapy for two very different populations at the same time. The students benefit, and the seniors at the facility also reap the benefits. Very fun.

Stay tuned later tonight for a VERY exciting post, something I've been anticipating for a while now.

Mega Boomwhacker!

In case you didn't know, taping 3 Boomwhackers together gives you 1 giant mega-bass boomwhacker. Awesome.

Today was my 1st day flying solo, as my supervisor was gone for national conference (which, may I point out, that all these #AMTA10 posts on Twitter are making me quite jealous. Y'all need to knock that off.) So it was all Mr. Andrew running the show today. And I must say, I'm pretty proud of how it went!

Now granted, all we were doing was rehearsing our holiday show material, so I didn't really have to do a lot of planning. However, in some ways this was more difficult. Each class is doing 2 songs in the performance, and our sessions are 45 minutes. So this basically means we spend 20 minutes on each song, and this has been going on for several weeks. That means repeating the song over, and over, and over, and over...for 20 minutes. Try keeping a class of students with Autism or emotional behavioral disorders on task on the same song for that many repetitions. I'd say I did pretty well for my 1st time running the show. Pat on the back, Andrew.

Critical Mind

A friend of mine brought this short, yet thought provoking, article to my attention. Forgive the crassness of the title: "Should Science Education Be About B.S. Detection?"

The author, at the very end of the article, states that "there are intersections (with science) with any life path or profession one would choose." Couldn't have said it better myself! Which is exactly why I brought this article to the blog.

Now there are the obvious intersections with music therapy and science (in fact, I believe you could fairly classify our field as a behavioral science), but the main thing that grabbed my attention here was this sentence: "the most useful skill we could teach is the habit of asking oneself and others, how do you know?"

This is something I find myself doing as a music therapist (intern) on a daily basis. How do I know this particular intervention will accomplish this objective? How do I know that music therapy works? How do I know that this child's diagnosis will cause these deficits? These are all questions we must ask ourselves to be successful therapists, and questions we must answer in our research to expand our field.

I believe this comes easier perhaps to the MT intern than the professional MT, simply because music therapy practice hasn't come naturally for us yet. When you first learn to do something new, we have to put all of thought process into every aspect of the task. It's like when you first start learning to play an instrument. For months (years, even) every little movement requires your intense focus and concentration. You play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" with great attention to detail, carefully thinking about what finger will go where next, and why.

Pretty soon, you build muscle memory, and you don't have to think about it anymore. I don't have to think about what fingers to use to form a D chord on guitar anymore, it just happens. As any musician can tell you, this is frequently where you run into problems. You start to develop bad habits and never notice them because you're not giving that intense focus to every little detail anymore. It isn't until you play in front of someone or video tape yourself that you notice your mistake, and it becomes VERY difficult to break these habits.

And so it is with practicing music therapy. Again, I'm a newcomer, but from my perspective this is what I see. A seasoned therapist can develop a sort of "muscle memory" and go through the motions of planning and implementing interventions without asking the all important question: "How do I know?" How do you know this will work?

Back to the original quote, I like that the speaker says we must "teach the habit of" rather than simply "the skill of." Habit suggests a repeated pattern of behavior that becomes ingrained in us (if you'll forgive me for exhibiting my Behaviorist bias). By putting ourselves in the mindset of "How and why?" on a daily basis, we can form strong, positive habits, rather than the bad habit of going through the motions in our careers.

Go forth and be critical!

Had to brag a bit

Thought I'd share a picture from my garage band days, mentioned in the previous post.

Ahh, those were the days...

Hats and Where You Got Them

Before jumping into this post, I want to announce that I am now proudly listed on the Erfurt Music Resource! Be sure to check out this awesome website, it's chock full of excellent music therapy resources (which now includes your's truly!)

Been quiet around here lately. I've been crazy busy with everything. This week, I begin taking over half the caseload, which means planning whole sessions rather than just a few activities per session. This means a whole lot more time management for me during sessions, which is tough for me.

I visited Tallahassee this weekend, which meant 10 hours on the road this weekend. This let me catch up on one of my favorite podcasts, The Music Therapy Round Table. In episode 8, Rachel, Michelle, and Kimberly discuss the many "hats" music therapists wear (clinician, researcher, advocate, etc.)

Listening to this, my mind began to wander, as it is known to do when facing 300 miles of highway (don't worry Mom, I was still focused on the road), and I came up with this question: What non-academic life experiences have taught you skills that you never realized would be so useful in the future?

For me there are two. One would be my most recent job, and the other would be my garage band in high school.

During my last two years at FSU, I worked as a tour guide for the University. I gave countless tours to prospective students and their families. Each tour lasted about two hours, and I probably gave well over 100 of them while I was employed there.

I loved this job for many reasons. Of course there's the obvious reason, I was getting paid to talk about how great The Florida State University is! Pretty easy for me. But there's also the amazing life skills it taught me, namely the ridiculous amount of public speaking experience it provided.

On a daily basis, I gave a two hour presentation to groups ranging from 1 person, to upwards of 40 people. Some of my internship supervisors have commented that I'm very comfortable jumping in front of the group and modifying my plans on the spot. I attribute my comfort level in front of groups to that job. I was even asked to sing the FSU fight song on the spot in front of the entire group multiple times. Being in front of groups doesn't raise my anxiety levels at all, and I'm very thankful for this.

The other experience that taught me skills I never knew would be so useful is the experience of starting a band in high school. Around my sophomore year, I started a ska band with six of my best friends. We called ourselves "Go Play in Traffic." I played saxophone in the group. Our band was more successful than most of us had ever imagined it would be. We headlined local shows, packed venues, recorded a full length CD and sold around 500 copies of it, even went on a week-long tour! I met so many people through this experience. It was an absolute blast and it will always be the defining memory of my high school years.

But it also taught me some amazing business skills! It really was like running a small business. We had to manage the money we made. Once we made a handful of money, we decided to invest it in some stickers with our logo on it. That in turn made us more money. We took this money and invested it in t-shirts with our logo on it. This brought in more money. So we got more shirts. Then we started saving money to record our CD. We got 1000 copies printed and made more money off these. So we saved up again for our tour. This is where I learned first hand about investments and profits and how this fits into running a business.

We recorded our CD by ourselves in our drummer's bedroom, and this is where I learned about types of microphones, how to use recording software, mixing and mastering a recording, and how to maximize the quality of a recording.

I don't know how it happened, but the responsibility of designing and ordering merchandise fell into my lap as well. I learned how to use high quality design software that I've used countless times since. I made the designs for the shirts and stickers and assisted my band-mates with designing our album art as well. I made some pretty cool looking logos, if I do say so myself.

I learned some great song writing skills as well, and more team work skills than I could ever imagine. Time and time again, I'm reminded about how helpful this experience was. And at the time, I thought I was just playing some rock and roll with my friends.

So what non-academic experiences have proved more useful than you could have ever imagined? I'd love to hear your stories.

Writer's Block

I have a confession: I frequently suffer from what can only be described as "Music Therapy Writer's Block."

What I mean is that I will sit for hours staring at a blank lesson/session plan racking my brain for what I should do. For some reason, I have the hardest time coming up with activities. This is something I struggled with during practicums and recently as well.

So how do I solve this? One way I've come up with recently is to just adopt the brainstorming strategy. Whenever an idea pops into my head, I write it down. Doesn't matter if it I think it's an awesome idea or a terrible idea, I write it down. This has been working pretty well for me. Sometimes when I come back to the idea, it really comes together and forms something pretty cool. Other times, nothing really comes of it. But that's okay. The idea is that it gives me a really wide range of ideas to start with, which is sometimes the hardest part.

Just this morning, I was awoken by my alarm radio by the song "Do You Feel Like We Do?" by Peter Frampton. For whatever reason, I thought about using this song in an activity involving recognizing emotions. I wrote it down, and a few hours later when I came back to it, I was able to form it into a workable plan (one that I'm pretty excited to try out. In fact, depending on how it goes next week, I'll do a write up on here.)

Professional MT's, do you ever find yourself suffering from music therapy writer's block? What are some successful strategies you employ to overcome this?

Sites I Love: Justinguitar.com

How's that for a good title for this series, Sites I Love? It works.

This would be installment #2 for Sites I Love (last month was "Beyond The Music," in case you forgot). This month I want to plug an amazing guitar resource called justinguitar.com.

The site is run by an English gentleman by the name of Justin Sandercoe, an excellent musician and songwriter. I found the site through youtube, I happened to be searching for a video on how to play a song and stumbled across one of his videos.

His website is the most in depth resource of online (and free!) guitar lessons I've ever seen. Lessons ranging from beginner guitar to advanced. Blues, jazz, and rock lessons. Information about guitar gear, tutorials on how to play your favorite songs and sound just like the recording, it's awesome!

The site is super easy to navigate. There's a navigation bar on the left side of the page with everything you need. One of my favorites is the song tutorials. Towards the bottom of the navigation bar, click on "songs." He's got a whole list of lessons on how to play various popular songs. Each lesson has an accompanying video, where he breaks down everything you need to know slowly and in a way that even guitar newcomers can understand.

He's got great material on improving your technique, learning to improvise, what and how to practice, all sorts of cool stuff.

Since I don't take private lessons on guitar (would love to, but an unpaid internship makes that a bit difficult currently), his website is the first place I go to when I have a question or am struggling with something.

So check it out! Learn something new!

www.justinguitar.com

The Whole Day Through

One of the great and therapeutic things about music is that it means so many different things to so many people. What one person hears as total noise, another hears as soothing music. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say something "isn't music." That usually means they don't like it or don't understand it (Sadly, hip-hop and metal are the most frequent victims of this close mindedness, in my experience). It's art! If someone says it's music, than it's music! John Cage wrote a piece entitled "4'33"", and it is literally 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. Guess what? It's music. Why? Because he said it is. My brother loves this band called Lightning Bolt. I can't stand them. But I would never go as far as to say it's not music, because music is art, and it can be whatever people want it to be.

However, there is one indisputable fact in the music world. Something that is not open to debate, i's just the truth. And it is this:

The state of Georgia has THE BEST state song in the U.S. In case you're unfamiliar, it's "Georgia On My Mind" made famous by the great Ray Charles.

Now I hear what you're saying: "But Andrew! What about my state's song?" Sorry, "Georgia On My Mind" blows it out of the water. This is coming from a proud Floridian, and Georgia's song most definitely is better than my home state's anthem.

If you live in Indiana, you can take solace in knowing that your state's song is a solid 2nd place, but that's mostly because of the awesome tradition it's part of.

So kudos to you, Georgia, my temporary home. You nailed it. Now I'm off to the Braves game! Beat the Phillies!

Pep Talk

Quick update tonight. Time is flying by.

I had a great day today. Lately, I've been feeling like everyday I've been improving. I don't mean that to sound cocky, but I feel like at the end of the day I can look back and pinpoint what I did and learned that made me a better music therapist than when I started. It's an awesome feeling. It's like when you first notice the results of a work out program or diet.

I realize everyday won't be like this. In fact there will probably be days or whole weeks where I feel the exact opposite of what I feel now. But for now, I'm just enjoying the progress.

I've heard both former FSU coach Bobby Bowden and current coach Jimbo Fisher say this: "You're either getting better or getting worse. You never stay the same." I like that. It's tough to stick to sometimes, it's always easy to fall into a routine and be happy with the status quo. Trust me, it's something I struggle with frequently. So I'm going to make my best effort to keep up the progress, even when it gets a lot more difficult.

Show Your Work

No update for almost a week? What's wrong with me?

I was going to do another status update on what I've been up to (which has included some good stuff, like getting to observe speech, physical, and occupational therapists work with students), but I read an article tonight that I wanted to critique on here. It'll be a good change of pace. By the end of this week I'll be drowning in IEPs (that's Individual Education Plan) and writing goals, so I'm sure I'll have plenty to say then.

When I was in school, my math and science teachers would always tell me "show your work." I hated it. Sometimes, I could do things quickly in my head, and I didn't need to show my work. But that was the rule. The reason for this rule was that if I came up with an incorrect answer, I could see where I went wrong. This same adage can be transferred to music therapy. You must "show your work."

I found this article via Twitter. It was posted by a music therapist I follow, Rachelle Norman. Rachelle runs a private music therapy practice called Soundscape Music Therapy, running out of Kansas City.

Before reading my response, you may want to read the article. It's titled "The Illusion of Evidenced-Based Practices", by Michelle Dean. In the article, Dean takes issue with the heavy emphasis on evidenced-based treatment (EBT) in education and healthcare practices today, and how art therapy doesn't really fit into this model.

Before I begin, let me make my bias very clear. I am in full support of evidenced-based treatments. This is what I was taught at FSU, and it's what I believe is the best route. I feel that the only way you can administer a treatment fairly to a client, is to prove to them scientifically that it works.

Now I take several issues with this article. One of the first arguments Dean makes is that the success of art therapy is predicated upon the relationship between the therapist and the client.

"...when symbols or people in a relationship are taken out of context they lose their meaning...those relationship qualities that are so elusive to measure."

She claims that in order to measure the benefits of art therapy scientifically (without bias), one would have to remove the regular therapist that the client sees. Thus, the client/therapist relationship variable would be removed, and the effectiveness of the therapy would be stifled.

I take issue with this for several reasons. One is that just about every treatment and therapy you can think of, outside of chemical treatments, is reliant on a successful relationship between the client and the therapist. The health of the client/therapist relationship plays an essential role in the success of psychology, psychotherapy, speech, occupational, and even physical therapy. If you change the therapist in any of these fields, you will more than likely reduce the effectiveness of the therapy, at least until this new therapist establishes a relationship with the client. This is especially true with special needs children, who thrive on routine and structure.

All of these fields cannot simply disregard EBT and abandon having to prove and document the success of their treatments, just because they rely on the client/therapist relationship. In fact, I don't think you need to remove the therapist to scientifically measure the effectiveness of these therapies. Granted, this is a variable. It would be difficult to judge if it was solely the treatment having the positive or negative effect on the client. But you'll never be able to remove all of the variables in any kind of behavioral science. That's just the nature of the beast. There are far too many variables to control. How is the client feeling that day? Did they have breakfast? Did they sleep well the night before? You just can't control everything the way you can in a biology or chemistry lab. It's always been this way though, and that hasn't deterred behavioral science very much.

Dean also makes the argument that art therapy does not fit into the EBT model because it is very symbolic in nature. The creative expression is the therapy, and that is difficult to measure.

"Although objective observation may be desirable in evidenced-based therapies, it is not truly possible in this relational, creative, and symbolic context."

I believe this sells art therapy short. The benefits extend far beyond the opportunity for self-discovery or expression. Certainly this is very important, but look at the big picture. Look at the motor skills benefits, both gross and fine, painting has. Look at the object identification opportunities, or the academic and pre-academic lessons you can transfer into an art session. I feel that Dean is only focusing on one goal, and it's a very limited goal.

The Fulton County MT's all have a poster with their music therapy supplies that I love. It says "How can I use music to ________?"I believe the art therapy field can ask this same question: How can I use art to _______? To practice following directions, to increase social contact, to teach colors, to exercise fine motor skills, etc? Simply looking at the expressive aspect limits the field so much. It'd be like a music therapist who only ever worked on the goal of mood elevation. Just, "let's play some drums and talk about what we're feeling." This is definitely a very important goal in MT, but there are thousands of others that are equally important.

I also interpret Dean's words as saying that you cannot measure these expressive and symbolic benefits of art therapy, and I disagree with her here as well. I don't believe there is anything wrong with good 'ol self report. Doctors in the hospital use it all the time. Think about every hospital room you've been in. I know all the rooms I've seen have a Likert scale on the wall, usually numbered 1-7 or 1-10, of the patient's current pain perception. The doctor asks how the patient's pain is that day, and they let him know on that scale. The lowest number would be "little-to-no pain" and the highest would be "unbearable pain." This is a very important tool in helping doctors assess a patient.

You can use the same concept to judge the effectiveness of an art therapy session on a clients emotional state. A simple pre-post self-assessment using a Likert scale. This isn't any less valuable than any other data collected in an experiment. It's a simple, fast, and effective way to collect quantitative data on a phenomenological experience.

I don't think you'll find many music therapists who will belittle the importance and impact that the Journal of Music Therapy has had on our field. Having research support our field opens up jobs and new opportunities for music therapists everyday. It may be inconvenient at times, but the only way to protect and expand our career field is to back it up.

Show your work.

Photo courtesy of Flikr user Kevin H.

From spellin' names to Gucci Mane

The last few days have shown a HUGE amount of variety. We started off Tuesday morning observing preschoolers with developmental delays and started off today with high schoolers with EBD (Emotional Behavioral Disorder). We saw low functioning and very high functioning and everything in between.

Starting off with the preschool kids, I mean, how can you not love 'em? Everything you do and everything the therapist pulls out of her bag is so exciting and fun to them they can barely stay in their seats. Then you have a group like we saw this morning, a very high functioning high school group, with some major "cool issues," meaning "I'm not going to participate unless I deem this cool enough."

And that's not to say I don't enjoy those groups as well. I do, very much so in fact. Teenagers are a lot of fun. They like cool music, it's easy (for me at least) to speak on their terms. I just kind of feel like it adds a whole other facet to your activity planning. Not only are you having to think about your goals and how you can use music to meet these goals, but you also have to think about "are they going to buy into this?" It's a great challenge.

I thought one of the therapists we saw today had a great activity for her middle school EBD group that nailed both of these challenges. The students were making a soundtrack to their lives. They had to think of songs and music they listened to as little kids, what their parents like, what they like right now, even their 1st musical memory. They used a website to find and listen to the songs before writing them down (learning functional computer skills through music therapy? Check.)

I love hip hop and rap, so I was deemed our resident expert for this genre today in the group. I helped a 7th grade boy find some of the music he had picked out for his soundtrack, including one of my current favorites, "Lemonade" by Gucci Mane. Nothing like nodding heads with a 7th grader to some Gucci Mane to make you think "Dang, this is an awesome career field (and I'm just getting started)!"

However, the musical choices of some of the students raised a question that has interested me for awhile. What do you do about inappropriate content in the preferred music of your clients?

It's easy to find edited-for-radio songs or just edit out the questionable content on your own using Audicity or a similar program, but curse words aren't always the only problem. A lot of popular music these days deals with themes or have allusions and innuendos to violence, sex, or drug use.

You certainly wouldn't want to encourage these things, but at the same time if you put a blanket ban on ALL music containing any kind of questionable material, you may find yourself with a very small amount of client preferred music to work with. Then you risk alienating your client, or using music they don't enjoy. And as I mentioned with the teenage groups, this can do some serious harm to your all important "cool factor."

One solution I've found helpful is the instrumental tracks of songs. Then you still have the beat and music, just no words. This can actually lend itself to all new activities, like writing new lyrics to the song (maybe discussing why the previous lyrics were inappropriate and what a better solution is). These instrumental tracks are especially easy to find in the hip hop genre, as artists frequently remix songs, creating high demand for instrumental/a capella tracks.

As the therapist running the group today told me, sometimes the group doesn't even put together the innuendo. Sometimes they just take it for face value, and if you don't make a fuss about it, they'll never know. I had a teacher at FSU once who told me they were surprised to hear "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" by The Beatles was about drugs. Did I just blow some of your minds too? I always thought that one was pretty obvious.

I suppose it all comes down to the group you're working with. If you work in hospice, my opinion would be to go for it. If someone wants to cuss like a sailor towards the end of their time on this Earth, I say have a blast. It is palliative care, after all. Or maybe you have an adolescent group that possesses the emotional maturity to know that just because Lil Wayne says something in a song, doesn't mean they need to emulate that.

That's all I've got for now on that. What are your thoughts? Any seasoned MT's want to share their thoughts and experiences? Lay some knowledge on us newbies and leave some comments!

By the way, this was way longer than intended.

Day 1 of observations

Today began our observations of the Fulton therapists in action. Tasia and I were on the same schedule, and we live fairly close to each other, so we decided to carpool. Being that we had a 50 minute commute in Atlanta traffic, we decided that leaving an hour and half early (6:30AM) should give us more than enough time. This meant waking up at 5:45. Fun.

We hit the road at 6:30 in the morning and this is what greets us:

Gridlock. This early? Is it like this everyday? According to the radio there was a big accident on our route, which would explain 20 mile long string of brake lights. Took us 1 hour and 15 minutes to go 16 miles. Yikes. But we only ended up being about 15 minutes late, and our supervisor was very understanding.

We went to 2 different schools and saw 6 classes aging from around 1st to 5th grade. It was a very interesting experience. I really learned how important it is to have everything you need ready before hand. These groups come in practically 1 right after the other, and to keep the students engaged you need to limit downtime as much as possible. That's going to be a skill I'll need a bit of practice to master I think.

Tomorrow we get to do it all again, but with a much shorter commute this time around (thankfully. Or rather, hopefully). Time for bed.

Website Recommendation

Today I wanted to introduce the first in a series I plan on continuing throughout the next seven months of blog, websites, and other online resources that I enjoy and find helpful. I'm going to have to think of a more catchy title than "Website Recommendation" however. I could always borrow from Stephen Colbert with the "Colbert Bump", but somehow "Littlefield Bump" just doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Oh well.

First up is fellow FSU Music Therapy Intern Michelle Strutzel! Michelle and I have been in the same classes for years, and she's now in the middle of her internship in Tallahassee. She is the author of "Beyond The Music", an excellent blog full of song and activity ideas. Michelle was kind enough to answer a few questions about her blog and internship for me:

Name/Name of Blog:

Beyond the Music

Internship site:

Tallahassee Memorial Hospital Behavioral Health Center

Blog description:

Beyond the Music is a resource for music therapy students, interns, and professionals. It provides activity ideas and information relevant and adaptable to a variety of populations.

What drew you to music therapy?

It was by chance that I discovered the field of music therapy. I first came to FSU wanting to be a performance major. When I learned about music therapy through some fellow classmates at the College of Music, I quickly changed my major within two months of my freshman year. I think I was in a place in my life where I really wanted to reach out to others and help someone other than myself. With this and music as my priorities, music therapy seemed like a perfect subject to study. I have loved it from my very first Introduction to Music Therapy class.

Biggest lesson you've learned so far?

The biggest lesson I have learned is that there is always more to a person or situation than what first meets the eye. It is a challenge I face everyday to assess where a patient is at mentally. A music therapist has to be able to recognize how a patient is functioning and why it is they're functioning that way, then develop a way to improve that level of functioning. In trying to understand people's behavior, I am beginning to realize now why we are called Therapists and not simply Musicians.

Best non-MT related lesson learned so far?

Everybody needs a healthy set of coping skills. In the psychiatric population, we teach a lot about coping skills, which are techniques we use to handle difficult situations. In your career and in life, the best way to manage stress is to engage in activities you enjoy. I leave my work at work, then go home to be with my family, ride my bike, swim, or read a book.

Why should people read your blog?

People should read my blog to expand their repertoire of songs and activities related to the music therapy field.

There you have it folks! In case you missed the first two links, you can find Michelle's blog at www.beyondthemusic.blogspot.com Give it a read!

Fun times in the ATL

Not to be forgotten in the flurry of excitement that was my first day, I went to the Braves game last night with a friend of mine from FSU who now attends Emory University here in Atlanta for grad school (Ellyn, your requested shout-out) along with four of her fellow classmates at Emory. They're all majoring in things I can't even begin to comprehend or describe. Smart peeps.

Few quick pics from last night. The poor Braves got crushed, by the way. Here's to hoping for a Wild Card spot in the playoffs.

First Day is in the Books!

One day down, folks!

A lot to process today. The day started of with the commute, which I expected to take about an hour but ended up taking only about 20 minutes. I think I'm starting to figure out that in Atlanta, you either have to get somewhere an hour early, or be on time/risk being 40 minutes late. Think I'll go with an hour early.

I meet the other interns in the lobby of the school where the meeting was held. Their names are Kaylee, Tasia, and Laurie. All super nice people. We all headed down to a conference room where an amazing homemade breakfast was waiting for us (will this happen everyday? I can get used to that), made by our internship supervisor, the wonderful Amber Weldon-Stephens (who I already LOVE. One of the nicest, funniest, and most charismatic people I've ever met. Can't wait to learn from her and pick her brain.)

This is when the overload started. We got a big ol' notebook full of schedules, forms, and assignments. Add to this the fact that our supervisor (Amber) talks a mile-a-minute, and I think all four of our heads were spinning. We met principals, school psychologists, and social workers (all of whom were very nice as well.) The music therapy program, and really the school system as a whole, seems extremely well supported, which is great to see.

The basic breakdown goes like this: the next two weeks I'll spend observing. After that, I start easing into sessions (starting with 1 activity per session, then two, then three, etc.) They slowly take the training wheels off, which I like. After winter break, we're pretty much flying solo. This is apparently where it gets crazy. I'll be at four schools a week, and thankfully, I spend my entire day at each school.

After all the meetings, we went out to lunch with all twelve (TWELVE!) full time MT's in the Fulton County School System. Awesome to meet them all.

So all in all, a bit overwhelming, but definitely in a good way. I never felt like "Oh Lord, what have I gotten myself into?" but more "This is a lot, let's get to it!" I think all the Fulton MT's, and especially Amber, have something about them that instills that excitement and confidence in you. Their enthusiasm is very contagious, which is something I want to emulate. Those are my favorite kind of people. What a great way to go through life, you know? Looking at challenges as an exciting opportunity rather than an inconvenience. I think that will be one of my goals throughout the internship, to emulate that attitude. Definitely makes going through life a whole lot easier.

That's all for now! Stay tuned, I'll be starting an ongoing series soon. It will be a short profile of other music therapy blogs I enjoy. First up will be fellow FSU intern Michelle Strutzel's blog,Beyond The Music. I may do this tomorrow, but no promises. Tomorrow is the single greatest day of college football games in ten years, so I will be occupied. It may get pushed to Sunday.

Before I sign off, let's start a discussion: MT-BC's and MTI's, what do you remember about your first day of internship/new job? Leave a reply in the comments!

The power of a poster

Apologies for the short, non-music therapy related posts, but I don't officially begin my internship until Friday. I promise after that I'll have more music therapy thoughts than you can shake a boomwhacker at.

Today I had a whole day to myself. My parents left yesterday and all the roommates were at work all day. Just me, a dog, and three cats.

I only had one errand to run, so I finished my goals for the day fairly early on. This of course, led to a bit of boredom, which in turn led to a teensy-bit of homesickness (common, who can blame me? My brother and all my closest friends live 5 hours away, my girlfriend 7 hours, and my parents 8 hours.)

So I decided to stay busy and continue the room set up. One of the first things I decided to do was put up a poster. But not just any poster. Oh no. The 2010 Florida State Football poster. (which, by the way, they completely ran out of. I only have one thanks to my awesome-former-boss Lisa. Shout-out!) Right away, I felt better.

Now, you could blame my borderline unhealthy obsession with all things FSU for this, and you'd be partially correct. But more than that, I think the familiarity of the poster made me feel so much more at home and comfortable. Here I was with a million things running through my head about loved ones, my internship, finances, etc. and the poster served as my therapy for the day. A piece of home to hold onto.

So the lesson (or "transfer" if you'd like) for the day, fellow interns, is to never underestimate the power of the poster. Or perhaps it's not a poster for you, but some other piece of home that brings you comfort. Putting something in your living quarters that you had back home can be a big boost to your morale. And my recommendation is to put it up right away. Nothin' beats home, so bring home with you.

Quick Update

Quick update tonight, I just got moved up today. Just two things to say so far:

1) If you ever want to feel very materialistic, may I suggest moving? Nothing makes you feel like you have far too much junk than having to pack it into a car.

2) It's jacket weather already in Atlanta in the evenings! Very refreshing.

More updates to come, thanks for reading!

Welcome!

Welcome to MTI in the ATL! My name is Andrew, and on September 10th 2010, I will be starting a 7 month internship with the Fulton County Schools in Atlanta, Georgia.

This blog will serve as my senior project during my internship. My hope is that music therapists (interns, students, and professionals) and non MT's alike will find it to be a valuable resource.

I'll spare you the details of my life story (you can read all about that under "About Andrew", a fascinating read, to be sure) and jump right into my vision for this blog. I want this blog to serve as a tool for other interns or those getting ready to intern. I plan on covering everything; from the big issues to the mundane.

So some days you'll find activity ideas or great song suggestions for sessions. Some day's you'll find tips for finding a place to live, cheap dinner recipes, or ideas for experiencing your new city. I have plans for interviews with other interns, professionals, and whoever else is kind enough to let me pick their brain as well.

But I would also like this blog to serve as a place for me to write down my thoughts and experiences during the next 7 months. I know for me, and I imagine for most other interns, starting this journey will be one of the most challenging transitions in my life. For the first time in my life, I won't be living the "student life". And trust me, I adore the student life (no class till 10 and I'm done at 2? Woohoo!) But alas, that's all over now. Just like that, it's time to move to a new city and work 40 hours a week. Time to buy some more ties and dress socks. When you've been a student for the last 17+ years, that can be scary! So I fully anticipate this experience to be as challenging as it will be rewarding.

With that in mind, I also want to be as "real" as possible with my thoughts here. I don't want to just blow smoke. When I have an awesome day, one of those "ah-hah!" moments, I'll write all about it. When I have an awful day, one of those "why didn't I get a business degree?" moments, I'll write all about that too (depending on how football season goes, there may be some Sunday morning "I can't believe we lost to so-and-so" moments as well). I want to be as honest as possible, because that's what I wanted to read and hear about the last few years as I thought about my internship.

So enough with the rambling! Let's get started! I've got some great ideas that I can't wait to dive into. So thank you for joining me. Please, leave lots of comments! I crave feedback. And if you enjoy what I put here, please pass along a link along to others! The greatest reward I can imagine getting out of this blog is to have someone enjoy it enough to share it with someone else.

That or a sweet job offer when I graduate...