Monday matters: Anticipation

We had our monthly peer group meeting tonight, and the intention we assigned our improv was “anticipation.” The feelings I have surrounding anticipation are positive (challenge, achievement) and negative (anxiety, possible disappointment, stress). I’m anticipating fluctuation in my practice. I’m anticipating growth in my clinical knowledge. I’m anticipating a lot of transition and movement, which is exciting and distressing.

I’ve been feeling shaken a lot lately. I’ve felt shaken loose, ungrounded, and definitely unstable. I’ve been lonely out here in private practice. I’m anticipating the need to further connect with therapists, and though I’ve secured at least one accountability partner, I might benefit from clearly stating my goals for the week here.

My Monday Map for this week:

  1. Register for the GLR Conference
  2. Catch up on my billing
  3. Learn one new piece of repertoire/write one song

Where does your map go this week?

I anticipate success…

Monday matters: Stepping back

My consideration for February is what to do and what not to do to establish good self-care. I think the most important piece for me to remember is what I shouldn’t do. I tend to want to take on as much as I possibly can. I love the idea of being busy. Being too busy, though, makes me really unhappy. I think I’m just so accustomed to being busy that having free time is too foreign. This all being said, I’m going to relieve some of the pressure and post to this blog only once a week.

What don’t you do?

Monday matters: Distillation

dis·til·la·tion

[dis-tl-ey-shuhn]  Show IPA

noun

2.
the purification or concentration of a substance, the obtaining of the essence or volatile properties contained in it, or the separation of one substance from another, by such a process.
I’d like to distill. I’d like to separate volatile properties from my clinical practice. One way to do that, I’m supposing, is to get out of my own way, but I’m not sure how to do that just yet. (I am the most unforgiving boss.)
Another way to distill is to say No. I’m finding I need to make more of an effort to do such a thing.
This being said, I’m pretty sure I’m going to say Yes to a songwriting challenge put forth by Megan Resig and Wade Richards of On-the-Go Studio podcast. I write a lot of songs, but I don’t actually get on to record them. Here’s hoping.

The week wrapped up

I have continued on through this cold, cold week. My Tuesday was very full with clients, and so was today, but yesterday was not. Yesterday therefore proved to be really rough. I’ve decided that my Fridays are now my office days, and I plan to spend some time tomorrow planning out the hours of the week more carefully. Yesterday I wandered around aimlessly. I had the baby with me for much of the day, so I accept that he pulled my attention, but wow. I think I looked like a zombie, ambling around the house.

I hope next week is warmer. A string of 82-degree days will work out for me. The only trouble with vacations is that you have to come back.

The importance of the music

Today, I was reminded of the triangular relationship that the client, the therapist, and the music have while in a music therapy session. I have a client who tends to enter into the therapy space and sit down, apparently waiting for direction from me. This behavior isn’t unreasonable, but I’ve been encouraging this client to explore some of the instruments I leave available while we sing our hello song. Today, she moved to the ocean drum, and for the first time in several weeks I observed this client transitioning very fully into the sound that she made with the drum. I accompanied on the guitar, and soon found the ocean drum to complement the guitar, and vice versa. At times, we introduced vocalizations, but for more than 10 minutes, we simply used the music. I did hear a little voice in my head saying, Time to move on. Why aren’t you moving on? What if she gets bored with the ocean drum? Why don’t you stop playing before that can happen?, etc. However, I trusted (thank you for putting that word in my head, Lindsay) that the music can hold its own in this context. That is why I’m a music therapist, in fact.

Every so often I need to acknowledge more readily the importance of the music. Do you ever have that problem?

Monday matters: Continue on

I’ve just returned from a fantastic few days in Key Largo, Florida. The weather was perfect; 80 degrees and sunny. We Minnesotans wore plenty of sunscreen, so luckily there was no burning involved in this trip. However, coming home to 10-degree cold and frozen driveway barricades was really difficult.

February. February in Minneapolis. This month is so uninteresting. Finding something to look forward to is a challenge, in my opinion– the holidays are over and summer is so far off. My consideration this week is continuing on. I will think of ways to reinvigorate and re-inspire my clinical practice. Being that it’s a Monday, and 24 hours ago I was all encompassed by warmth, I am having trouble finding excitement in much, to be honest. However, every day is new. Perhaps tomorrow will melt the snow.

How do you continue on? Do you set up things to look forward to on a daily basis? Or do you rather have events happening months in advance?

Don’t forget: Submit your words by February 15.