I am really excited to announce that my colleague and friend Tim Oesau, MT-BC and I have launched our own podcast! The podcast is “Thoughts on Music Therapy,” and our hope is to speak about music therapy in the news as well as conduct interviews with creative arts therapists who may or may not work with music therapists. You can find the first episode at Thoughts on Music Therapy. We soon will have a more populated website, but for now, please e-mail me at erin.lunde@soundmattersmusictherapy.com with comments and/or questions. Thank you!
Missing voice
I have entirely lost my voice. I woke up this morning with nothing. I tried to make a phone call to cancel one of my sessions, and was embarrassed that it sounded like a prank call; I’m sure the person on the other end was confused by the silence.
I spent the day working on e-mails and organizing my Dropbox folders. I follow Michelle Erfurt‘s Project Professional Update, and had hopes of tackling her newest e-mail inbox challenge, but did not. Alas, I did get a few hours’ worth of administrative tasks accomplished.
I hope I find my voice tomorrow.
Monday matters: Podcast list
I haven’t gotten to any of my podcasts this week, as I’ve been absorbing audiobooks (I really can’t call it “reading”). However, there are quite a few podcasts that I take in regularly, both directly having to do with music therapy, and indirectly, too. Here are some of the non-membership podcasts that are in my rotation.
MUSIC THERAPY SPECIFIC
CREATIVE ARTS
BUSINESS
Wall Street Journal on Small Business
OTHER
Voices in the Family (thank you to Roia for mentioning this podcast one day)
What am I missing?
Monday matters: Miscellaneous
Welcome to 2014. I hope it’s pleasant.
I have yet to see clients in this calendar year; I took last week off, and today the whole state, pretty much, was closed given the -22 degrees we had at the start. For that reason, I have only a couple of miscellaneous items to share.
Songza is a site and app that provides songs curated for the time of day you’re listening. For instance, the app knows it’s Monday night, and provides options such as, “bedtime,” “love & romance,” or “studying.” Click on one, and it gives more options, all culminating in one playlist. I was happy to find Sara Bareilles singing, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” in the “acoustic pop songs” selection.
Once I find some good artists in Songza, I go over to Rdio to decide whether or not to buy. Today, I’m listening to The Avett Brothers’ album, “The Carpenter.” (I got to see them live at Red Rocks last summer.) 
New projects are about to be launched. That’s a good thing.
Happy January.
Meditate on it
Yesterday I wrote about some struggles I’m having coordinating a demanding home and work life. I got some really useful feedback from a fellow music therapist* here in the Minneapolis area. She suggested pre-session meditation, which immediately got me thinking about this fantastic app I have been using over the past several months. The app is buddhify and is coined as the “mobile mindfulness app for modern life.” What I love about it is that the guided meditations are only ten minutes long. I did try to meditate shortly before my last client this evening, and as hard as it was to do, I think I benefitted from the attempt.
Do you meditate? Are there other meditation apps that you like? What other feedback do you have to help dig out? Please leave a comment below.
*Oh, and that fellow music therapist can be heard on her podcast, Urban Therapists.
Some of the blogs I follow
Every so often I’m asked about what blogs I read and follow. Now that I have a baby and seemingly much less time, I don’t spend much time reading. I do try to get to some of these on a weekly basis, though.
My favorite blog right now is not written by a music therapist, but rather a psychotherapist. Martha Crawford, LCSW, writes what a shrink thinks.
There are 64 blogs that I follow written by music therapists about music therapy. I won’t list them all here. Some that I’ve been gravitating toward in the past few months are The Mindful Music Therapist, music, therapy, and me, and Rhythm For Good, all for very different reasons.
Whom do you read? Do you subscribe to podcasts? Which do you prefer, blogs or podcasts?
Triumphs and struggles
Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot about people’s qualms with social media, in that what is shared is often only the good stuff of the day. I had a decent, busy day today, with two new clients and a group and two more individuals. Even though it was a fulfilling day, I didn’t feel as good about how I am as a therapist as I did yesterday. I didn’t exactly expect to feel so great on a recurring basis, but it is hard to come off of a day when I felt like I really was making progress. Anyway, I think acknowledging our daily struggles can be embarrassing, just as celebrating our daily triumphs can be as well. The more I share (that is non-specific and not client related), the more connected and even supported I can feel.
I’ve started tweeting my triumphs when I think of them. I’ll tweet some small struggles, too. If the thought occurs, do the same with #musictherapytriumph or #musictherapystruggle. I’d love to see what the day-to-day ups and downs can be.
Updates
In the next couple of months, I’m planning to add a logo to my site, change the layout and look of my site, and possibly start sending out newsletters. All in time for summer, where things will be slower until the arrival of our first child. Hopefully by July, all will be changed, and set for more change. We’ll see how it goes!
Two small business resources
I drive a lot. I try to write all of my progress notes between clients and sites, and to do that, I use my iPad. Just in case you out there who are in private practice and who drive do not know about Evernote, I’ll take this moment to say that it’s been really handy for me. I have a number of notebooks where I keep my categorized notes, and they’re all filed and synchronized between my iPad, iPhone, and laptop. That’s it. That’s the most appealing aspect of it– its synchronization.
Though I’ve had my Square account for months, I’m just now finding it useful. I find a satisfaction in going to the bank and depositing checks, but it does take time and scheduling. Square frees all of that up, and deposits on the next day.
I wonder what other apps or methods you private practitioners use for notes, paperwork, and payment.
Contributing blogger
I am excited to announce that before the end of the month (and this calendar year, for that matter), a piece I wrote will be posted on a child development site that I will link to once the site goes live. I will be contributing blog posts on a variety of subjects regarding childhood development and how music can aid in such a process. Please feel free to offer any topics on your mind that you believe would be beneficial to offer an international audience. I do have a series of pieces pre-composed, but am always looking for more fodder.
Once the site goes live, I will be sure to link to it. Let me know your thoughts!