I've decided.

poster from: positive-posters.com

While this may be the ONLY thing I have decided on, (what exactly my Music Therapy job will be, when I'm taking the test, ceremony music are all still on the "to-do list") I thought it's a pretty important one. I found this website (positive-posters.com) today. It's pretty cool. A lot of their posters (all designed by different people) are political in nature, and although this blog is not the space for me to express my political opinions, this site has a number of positive attitude posters that are begging to be shared.

I thought that being an intern was a sort of "no-man's land"/"in-between-ville" for a long time, but the place that really fits that description is right after you complete your internship if you don't have a job lined up. That's where I'm hanging out right now. But I will be taking this time to look for/start/plan my Music Therapy move into Birmingham, fulfill some of my creative desires, and finish planning my wedding. I miss the little kiddos, but this extra time for me to get ready just means that I will be that much more prepared to start my Music Therapy program/private practice/whatever-it-will-be. And I'm more than okay with that.

poster from: positive-posters.com

it's The Final Countdown

Hopefully now everyone is singing "bah-duh-bah-duh bah-duh-bah-bah-bah".
You're welcome.

I have 5 days left of my internship. Count 'em: monday.tuesday.wednesday.thursday.friday.
FIVE DAYS


I'm currently in that excited/sad state that comes with the end of anything big. I am excited to become board certified and excited to finish my wedding plans, but I'm sad to go. I love that hospital! It's the bee's knees, and it's wonderful being able to work with kids every day and actually be doing Music Therapy with them.


So much has changed since my first day here (June 13). I have grown as a person and Music Therapy student in a million ways. Way back in June I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish wilst interning in Kansas City. So let's see how I did:

1. be the best intern they have ever seen: well, I'm not sure what they would say about it, my definition sure holds up to this being a CHECK! I have learned a ton of new music, primarily Selena, Taylor, and Justin, and have really expanded my bag of tricks.
2. develop lasting connections with my supervisors at the hospital (and doctors, and nurses...): once again, this is a CHECK! Not so much on the nurses front, but I have definitely "made friends" with my supervisors and one of the doctors on staff. They will never be rid of me now!
3. learn all that I can so that I can start my own program at a hospital one day: CHECK! This was actually the big, fat project I had to complete that I will talk more about later. I had to propose starting a Music Therapy program at a hospital. It was a great experience because it gave me a trial run of everything. 
4. make awesome friends who want to go see Harry Potter with me: CHECK! We were first in line at the showing we went to (NOT midnight)
5. be creative with my new apartment furnishings: definitely check. it's a studio apartment. Creativity is KEY
6. find all the cool, artsy, inexpensive places to visit, shop, eat, explore: so I haven't found all of them, but I have found some. A good number of fun, artsy places in Kansas City are just right up the road from me. So... check?
7. bounce ideas off of my friends who are all in their mt internships: Check! well, more of a small check. We have all been so busy that it has been tricky to talk to one another. 
8. find Alabama fans to watch the games with this season: big,fat, no. I don't think they exist here. 
9. know the bus system like the back of my hand: CHECK! 
10. oh, and finish planning my wedding?: well, I did a little bit... 

I think I did pretty well with my list. I learned a bunch and grew in ways that don't really fit into the above catergories. My internship has been such a fabulous experience, and I am very lucky that I got to intern at my FIRST CHOICE of places.

Pretty soon I will be embarking on the next chapter of my story. The road to MT-BC!!

#AMTA11

This past weekend was the American Music Therapy Conference in Atlanta, GA. And it was SPECTACULAR. Every year the AMTA conferences blow me away, and this year was no different. Some things that were a little a different are as follows:

• I presented my very first session (which means that I got a super awesome presentor pin!!) with another MT student who is also a cancer survivor. This was our chance to provide MTs with tips and insight to what it is actually like to be a cancer patient and everything that comes with it. We had a good turnout, especially when you consider that our session was at thesame time as a number of MT greats from across the country. Megan and I both got a lot of positive feedback (even the day after the presentation) from students and professionals alike on how much they learned and enjoyed our perspectives.
• Celebrity guest: Ben Folds attended this year's AMTA conference because he wanted to learn more about Music Therapy. He wasn't there to toot his own horn, but to learn about this amazing profession. Here's hoping that he learned a lot and shares it with all of his friends!
• Twitter was on fire. I am relatively new to understanding the power of twitter, and it is amazing to me the sense of community that has come out of all the Music Therapy people I follow. Someone had the brilliant idea for everyone to add #amta11 to every conference related tweet. Smart person!! Did I mention that twitter is pretty much the reason Ben Folds decided to check us out??
• My very last conference as a student. It will be even weirder in Chicago next year when it will be my first conference as a professional! In this transition state, I decided to attend the Southeastern Region professionals meeting to get a bit more acquainted with that side of things and my future colleagues.

I always leave a conference feeling extra motivated and excited about Music Therapy. Not only does it let me reconnect with friends and meet my Music Therapist idols, but it is also a great opportunity to network and to learn about anything and everything related to MT (creating an online presence, end-of-life care with hospice patients, pre-schoolers and movement, just to name a few!). I got to attend some fantastic sessions this year that reignited my passion for different populations. My one beef with conference is that there tend to be 15 sessions I want to attend at the same time. That being said, the ones I was lucky enough to attend were great this year, and I fully intend on getting notes from people who went to the sessions I missed.

Conference was great, and there is too much for me to say about it for just one post. So look out for #AMTA11 part 2, coming soon!!

Baby Face

One of my most favorite populations to work with at Alabama was the premature infants in the NICU. Now, on my third rotation in my internship, I am once more hanging with the babies!

What's different here, is that this hospital has a Level III NICU which holds the medically complex babies who need multiple surgeries and things, as opposed to "just" being premature. The NICU I did my practicum work in Tuscaloosa is a Level II, which has premature infants who don't need all of the extra surgeries. So of the babies I see, some are term with various congenital defects or diseases, and others are premature with the same problems.

I love this rotation. In Tuscaloosa, we did a lot of multi-modal stimulation (with those babies who it was appropriate for) and soft singing and guitar because research shows that babies who get that while they are in the NICU leave on average days sooner than those who don't. Here it's a bit different. Since most of the babies I see are older with recent heart or intestinal surgeries or have tracheostomys & other tubes, strict multi-modal guidelines don't always work or aren't what the babies need. At this hospital we work on a lot more developmental skills and motor skills. Lots of the ones we see are at an age where they want a lot of face-to-face time with caregivers. We work on visual tracking (which doesn't always work because they are pretty entranced by our faces sometimes!), body awareness (we do some modified multi-modal and sing about body parts), and work toward other developmentally appropriate skills like babbling, batting and reaching/grasping objects.

Depending on the baby, sometimes they are left in their cribs, and sometimes we take them out to hold them or place them in a swing. It all depends on what is best for the little one and if there is a nurse to help you move them if they have a bunch of tubes and things.

I love the babies! It's so great to get to work with a different population of itty bitties than I already have. This internship is really providing me with some fantabulous experience!

Safety Dance

Until this internship (and I bet this is the same for other MT majors), I had not been in a situation where I needed to worry about a pt's. safety. The closest to that was with the babies in the NICU, but the only thing I had to do was not drop them. Not too hard.

Here... it's a lot different.

In our textbooks, there is a little bit about kids with lots of lines and tubes, but what happens when you are working with a 2 year old who wants to run around & twists those cords all around himself or presses buttons on his IV pole? We talk about impulse control in a verbal sense all the time (saying the first thing that pops into your head, no filter, etc.), but what happens when that impulse control translates to a 16 year old (who absolutely towers over you in the height department), who walks with someone holding onto his gait belt because of balance problems, decides to stand up and walk to the CD player with no warning whatsoever. I'll tell you what happens: this intern jumps up like someone lit a fire under her.

Situations like these call for some "creative positioning". For the first friend I mentioned, sometimes distracting him while throwing a blanket over the pole works. Out of sight=out of mind. For my other friend, I had to stay pretty close to him at all times so that I could jump up and grab that gait belt, and there were a lot of verbal reminders to this kid to get him to remember to say something before he stands up.

Now both of these kiddos had one-on-one supervision at all times so that they didn't hurt themselves, but that can be a lot to handle for just one person! I can assure you that my reflexes have never been sharper. Above all, when working with someone where safety can be an issue, proximity is KEY to keeping those kids from inadvertently hurting themselves. These issues are just another thing that my brain is learning to make room for in addition to the Music Therapy portion of the session. Like, if you are playing the guitar and singing and dancing with your little friend, how are you going to move it out of the way quickly enough if your pt. decides to pull out his PICC line?

Just some food for thought on this lovely Monday.

The Best Purchase Ever

This post is all about one of my most treasured possessions and best purchases outside of my instruments! It's my "Musician's Notebook". 

I got this from Barnes & Noble about 2 years ago. This lovely little journal where I write down all the little songs I make up for my Music Therapy sessions. There are 40 pages that look like this:

.
There is a place for the title, a staff for the melody, 3 lines for words in multiple verses, guitar chords, guitar tab, and piano accompaniment. I don't use the last two things very much, but they are an option if you want to! Also, at the back of this book there are about 6 lined pages where I write the words to all of my "piggy-backed" songs.

At the bottom of every other page, there is a music quote by some of the most prolific musicians and songwriters of our time, talking a bit about their process or beliefs. These are some of my favorites:

~"Those first five or six songs I wrote, I was just taking notes at a rock concert that was going on inside my head. And once I had written the songs, I had to sing them."- Jim Morrison

~"A great song is more than just words and music. It's like a thumb pressing against the pulse of living that relates a simple truth about a very complicated process."- Jimmy Buffett

~"I don't want audiences to feel a specific thing- I just want audiences to feel."- Paul Simon

~"I wish it would last forever, but as long as I am able to sit with a guitar on me lap, not even to sing to people but just sing to myself, then I'll be alright."- Noel Gallagher

I love this notebook. It is pretty thin, so you can take it anywhere, and it is PERFECT for all of my Music Therapy friends. I am pretty close to filling mine, and I will definitely be getting another one! Also, it cost $5.95. That's it. Less than 6 bucks and you have a notebook that is designed to hold a bunch of short little songs and compositions! And it's on recycled paper. Write music and save the earth? This is a no brainer, people.

"My music will go on forever. Maybe it's a fool to say that, but when me know me facts me can say me facts. My music go on forever."- Bob Marley

the Middle

Hello Friends! Now I am on my third rotation, yes third, and I am working with a lot of little ones and babies. "Hi, friend!" is how I start a lot of my sessions.

As of over a week ago, I am halfway through with my internship! It is absolutely crazy to think that I have been living and working in Kansas City for over 3 months. In honor of reaching my midway point, I thought it would be fun to come up with a list of things all future interns should do or have BEFORE they start. Some of these I had, some I didn't. Here it goes:

1.  Practice guitar regularly, and for more than 15 minutes at a time: I feel like everyone says that, but it's true. Especially when doing procedural support, I play a ton of guitar. It's important to build up those callouses on your fingers so they don't feel like they are going to fall off by lunchtime!
2. Have lots of layers: Super important when you are working anywhere that has multiple units, different classrooms, etc.
3. Have comfortable, sturdy, washable work pants: So far I have been drooled on (a lot) and had IV fluid leak onto me, so washable and not super expensive/nice pants are ideal! Having to get those suckers dry cleaned would have been no fun.
4. Comfortable shoes or insoles.
5. An open mind about everything, especially music. No matter where you are in your internship, you are going to have to know a number of different genres! I have had kids request everything from Justin Bieber to Johnny Cash. And Patsy Cline.
6. A big, fat notebook: You need a place to write down songs, tasks, interventions, ideas, etc that you might come up with off the top of your head, and things you will learn from your supervisors or other interns.
7. A journal or some way to record the awesome moments you are going to have in your internship
8. A way to de-stress. Sometimes your day is not going to be perfect and bright and shiny, and being a music therapist full time is way different than only having one or two practicums a week. It is important to have something to do to unwind that is positive. Or make a book of things that make you happy, like positive quotes, memories, and Music Therapy moments!

I know, they are pretty much what you hear from everyone, but they are important things to have. I wonder if my other intern friends have any tips they would like to add...

Happy preparing!!