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!!

Blame it on the goose...

I have a kid who I love to pieces. A teenager, I love working with this pt. My friend has made such tremendous steps since I first saw a session, it is incredible. Today... started off a little rough.

The session began a little late because pt. was upset (understandably so and totally normal) about being in the hospital. It sucks having a TBI and being stuck in the hospital away from you friends and you can't convey what you want to say because of this pesky little thing called aphasia. The PT I was working with kinda led the first interaction with this pt, so she gave him some time to calm down before therapy. We started with him selecting a song from the ipod to listen to while he walked on the treadmill. Slowly he started bobbing his head to a Lil Wayne song (very slightly). Soon he was ready for another tune, and selected one that he picks a lot: "Blame It" by Jamie Foxx. You could tell as he was walking that he started singing it in his head a little. His hands started moving to the beat, and that carried through his whole body and demeanor. THEN we hear from someone working with another pt in the gym, who had not been a fan of therapy today, to turn it up so this kid could sing along. No more talking about the pain this pt was in, it was all about this song for a few minutes. One of my other friends in the gym stated singing along too, and it was just a little jam session.

From there, my pt. was in a better mood (not all bright and smiley) and decided he would like to do some drumming. Now we know he has access to a CD player, and naturally I put this song on the CD I burned for him.

So this is my "thank you" to Jamie Foxx for releasing such a ridiculously catchy song that it got one of my pts. to feel a little better and want to do some therapy AND got all the other kids in the gym to sing along. From all of us in the MT department at my hospital, thank you Jamie Foxx, thank you.

iPad Nation

I promised to post about this lovely piece of new technology a while ago. Sorry it has taken so long!

 Our MT department now has an iPad to share between all of us for use in sessions. We live in an era obsessed with technology, and many of the kids we see have seen an iPad before, or love computer and video games. What I really love about the iPad is that you can do everything by just touching the screen, which is great for kids with limited UE use, or the use of just one hand, etc. And, since many kids are so used to computer games and the like, it makes for a GREAT distraction tool during Botox treatments and dressing changes, especially because the kids want to know what comes next, and what that pig is going to do if you tap on it. But, what does this have to do with Music Therapy?

Well.... there are a ton of awesome music-related apps for the ipad that are great for working with kids and teens alike. Some of my favorites (and a bunch are free!) are:

• Songify- Record yourself saying something, and the program puts in autotune and turns it into a song! This is especially great with computer-minded kids who are working towards articulation and speech volume goals in ST.
• Falling Stars- You click on different icons and drag to make different vines across the screen, then click on stars. The stars fall, hit the vines you made, and make music!
• Rhythm Racer- You move a spaceship around to catch different colored balls of light to get points. There are 2 different ways to move the spaceship. One way is to drag your finger across the screen (fine motor) and the other is to tilt the whole iPad (gross motor). Both are pretty tricky!
• Garage Band- On the iPad it's a tad different than on the computer. They have some pre-made loops, but it's more about you making your own beats, tunes on guitar, piano, or bass, and recording your own stuff. I especially like using it with teens.
• "Old MacDonald", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", and "Wheels on the Bus"- all interactive song books. I absolutely love them. Kids (and adults) can touch the different animals, people, and buses, and they move, make noises, etc.
• Tap Tap Revenge (and all its incarnations)- tap on the different colored balls when they hit the right spot. With three different lanes, it requires a lot of concentration and fast finger movements to get it right!
  

I also really like using the iPad with teens. Remember my "less-than-enthusiastic" friend? The iPad is a great reward tool for him, and garage band on the iPad gets teens to be a little more creative than just regular garage band, because they can compose their own beats to add to their songs.

As wonderful as it is, I want to be clear that it doesn't work in every situation, and it is JUST a tool that we can use. I love it, but in this day and age, it's hard to keep it from being your "go-to" item, so I often use it as my back-up plan, rather than my number one tool. Unless of course, it has worked well in the past, or is a good reward tool for a teen. Music Therapy is really so much more than taking out an iPad during procedural support, but it sure can be awesome!

Struggles...

Power struggles, that is. This post is mainly for everyone who thinks that music therapy is nothing but rainbows and sunshine. It is much, much more than butterflies and flowers, even at a children's hospital!

Most kids who get music therapy really enjoy it, but what happens when you get a patient who gets MT as part of his or her therapy who is... less than enthusiastic about doing things that may be more difficult than he or she wants to do? I'm not saying that MT is the problem here, rather doing things that make this kid work a little harder so he or she can go home is. How do you work with kids who literally stalemate and shut you out in therapy when they need to have it?

Story: Met with this kid for a session (and not the first) and we were doing an UE movement task. Things were a little slow and full of complaints, and then out of nowhere, this kid stops. For about ten minutes pt. just sat there not wanting to finish the number of reps. Eventually, the pt. completed task, but it was... quite a power struggle between us for a little while.

So my latest project (and things have been slowly getting better) has been to find new interventions that this kid will like and will work toward our goals, as well as providing the right reinforcers. But for everyone else out there, How do you help someone who doesn't seem to want to help themselves?

this is not kim kardashian's botox...

.... okay, actually it is the same thing BUT these kids need it (and not in their faces)!

Botox paralyzes muscles. That's what it does! The way muscles work (for those who don't know) is that each muscle has an opposing one that allows us to move our bodies. With each movement, muscles oppose one another. In many people with cerebral palsy or other illnesses that effect their muscles, they experience contracture with some of those, where one (or many) muscles in a limb are too tight to stretch. Botox is injected into those muscles, which relaxes them and allows for stretching and physical therapy to take place. It takes about 7 days to take full effect. In our rehab clinic at the hospital, kids come in every 4 months or so to get those injections.

Our body is full of TONS of muscles, so the kids who come in usually need multiple shots. Even though the needle is tiny, it still hurts, and the muscles that need the injections are so specific that the kids have to be entirely still during the procedure. Why am I telling you all this? Because today I spent the entire day doing procedural support in this clinic, and it was fantastic!

The kids who come in typically get EMLA cream where the injections will be, which helps to numb the skin. The only thing about that is that it takes 30+ minutes to really take effect, during which the kids are sitting and waiting. in anticipation. of shots. That's where the Music Therapists (and interns) come in! We start by building rapport and playing/doing music tasks before the procedure to help calm the kids and provide some fun distraction, and then we stay through the needle sticks to help that calm environment and provide more distraction during it. As someone who had lots of scary needle sticks growing up, I can say that music helped distract me, but being held down was the WORST part.

It was a little strange being on the other side of those shots, and being there when the kids are crying and screaming (because really, needles hurt and nothing we do is going to keep a kid in pain completely calm), but it was wonderful being there and seeing those kids look up at me and reach toward the guitar or ipad (more on that later) and just have that moment where even though they are NOT happy, they have something they can focus on that they like. As my first kid (a 5-year-old veteran of botox) said when I walked in, "yeah! and you stay here the WHOLE TIME!" with a huge smile on his face.

That's why I love procedural support in this unit. I get to be the "music lady". I'm fun and they trust me, and that little bit of extra support during those needle sticks helps!

rehab rounds

Lately I have been talking a lot about going with the flow of your pt. and being flexible. There is one place where things are a little bit different: rehab.

I am currently on my rotation in inpatient rehab. If a kiddo is in this unit, it means that physically they are not able to go home safely yet. It is mainly comprised of kids with TBIs (traumatic brain injuries) and SCI (spinal cord injuries). Rehab is also an incredibly structured unit. Every kid on rehab gets 2 hours of PT and OT each day, as well as ST and MT, which gives them a pretty full schedule. Sometimes those sessions may get started a little late, but they will happen unless a kid is really sick or another clear cut medical reason. Being tired is not an excuse to not have therapy because the purpose of all this is so that the kids can get stronger and go home.

One very cool thing about this unit is "rehab rounds". This is where the doctors, a representative from nursing staff, Child Life, PT, OT, ST, MT, social work, nutrition, psychology, and chaplaincy all get together once a week during lunch and go over their goals for the pt. for that week and what they have accomplished, etc. It's really interesting to listen to the other disciplines talk about each kid and what works well, progress they have made, and it lets other disciplines know any issues they might be having. This is all so that the kids we see can get the best care possible. THIS week we had 7 kids to talk about. That is a beyond huge number, and we are going to be getting more, soon. So with an hour and a half to talk about all these kids, everyone had to be super succinct and quick with their goals and notes.

On rehab services we have very specific goals that we work toward, so the sessions tend to be more structured than in other areas. Instead of choices between tasks, the choices are between what we do first or last. We also do LOTS of co-treats with other disciplines! This week I have had 2 co-treats with ST and OT, and I have observed a few more with OT, ST, and PT.

Anyways... rehab is tons of fun, and is very different from the other areas I have seen so far!

different strokes for different folks

I am going to touch very briefly on a topic one of my fellow MT interns did, which is Music Therapy is not for everyone. While I have not met anyone who fits this subject yet, I have met some who.... usual MT techniques don't necessarily work for. This kid is going to require us to be very creative.

Every patient we see is different, and they all have different needs. Sometimes a pt. is very active and wants to get up and run around, sometimes the pt. is sleepy, or confined to his or her bed. And sometimes.... they just want to sing! I've said it before and I will say it again, the key to this internship and Music Therapy in general is being flexible! If you want to intern in a hospital and you lack this trait, brush up on it fast, cause MT is not the profession for you if you don't have it, and an internship will drive you crazy!! Anyways... back to my original story, my very first week of my internship I saw a pt. and last week I saw her again. We did some instrument stuff, like with the Q-chord (love that thing), but mostly she just wanted to sing along with me, so we did some of that. Okay, we did a lot of that! I have never before learned a song on the spot with a pt, but I did in that session, because she really wanted to sing it. It was Rihanna's "Take a Bow", and I got her playing a drum along with the beat. And then we sang Justin Bieber's "Baby", and by that I mean the chorus and Ludacris's part, because that's all I could remember at the moment. It was epic. Point is, I had planned some other stuff to do, but singing was what she really needed, and I have never seen her so interactive and smiling so much! I was still able to focus on my goals for her, just with a different approach.

Speaking of being flexible... this week I am starting my second rotation, where I will be in the inpatient rehab unit and providing procedural support in the Botox clinic. So far the rehab pts. we will be seeing this week are all male, and 15,16,16,&17 years old. That's, um, VERY different from the babies-and-oldest-patient-being-12 thing I had going on in my last rotation. It's time to flex those working with teens muscles again!

flyin' solo

In the words of a former Sunshine camper, "What a great day, what a great life it's been..."

This week (and last week) I have been pretty much on my own leading sessions. Ashley is back this week, so she observed me in some of them, but a lot of times I have been seeing kiddos all on my lonesome! And it has been fantastic. This week I also got my very own pager. woot.

I had a pt. I have been following for about 2 weeks, so I got to put in an assessment for her AND get to address those goals in a session (which does not always happen). It was so cool to see her grow and change while in the hospital, and a lot of that had to do with Music Therapy.

Kids are all so funny and different. There are those who tend to give you a hard time to get a session. They really make you work for it, but once you get started they love it. Then you have those like my one friend from this week. Literally jumped out of his skin when he saw me coming he was so excited. This kid had one of the biggest smiles ever when doing music, and then that affect totally switched when a doctor came in. It's crazy.


Last week I got to lead an intervention in a different MT group, got to go to my first rehab rounds, and I got my orientation to the Botox unit, but more on that later. I have also been seeing a lot of babies lately! I love working with babies, from the itty bitties to the less itty bitty. I got a smile out of one today who never smiles. Ever. Tomorrow will be my last contact with babies for awhile because next week I start my second rotation. This rotation will be in the Botox unit and with Rehab kiddos. I'm excited to get some new experiences under my belt and to meet some awesome TBI kids.

So forever ago I made a list of goals for myself for this internship. One of them was about using the piano and getting more comfortable with it. I can say that yesterday I used piano in every one of my sessions with pts. Not so today, because I pretty much just saw wee ones. Another one of my goals was to make friends in time to see Harry Potter. Another check off my list! Bah I can't believe it's all over. It makes me a little sad, but I'm glad I got to see it all the way through and really be there when it all happened.

Well that's all for now!

Broadening Horizons...

This past week has been absolutely crazy. I have been leading all my own sessions, documenting the sessions, and starting an assessment of the patients I have seen... including an 11-year-old girl who is tired, sick, in pain, and doesn't want to do much of anything. Which brings me to today's topic: Broadening your Horizons.

By that, I mean your Musical Horizons. Unfortunately, I have not yet met a kid whose favorite artists are Mumford and Sons and Adele. Shocking, I know. When you are working with kids, you need to use music that they are going to be able to sing along to and recognize, and like the girl above, they are NOT going to play with you if it's a song they have never heard before, isn't ridiculously silly, or doesn't have some other goal with it (counting, relaxation, etc.) Example: I FINALLY got her to strum the Q chord with me after playing through a verse of Katy Perry's firework. Do you think she would have done that for Weezer's "Say it Ain't So"? Not likely.

So to be a good Music Therapist, you have to put your prejudices aside and be able to play and sing a variety of styles, or you won't connect with your pts. Thank GOODNESS for my little knowledge of some T Swift songs and Bieber (shout out to the CeeTLes!), but it's not enough when working with an adolescent girl. So I am currently learning some of the lovely Selena Gomez's stuff for my next session with the aforementioned pt. I'm definitely not going to listen to her all the time, but it's not awful.

Now, with 2 Selena songs under my belt, a handful of simple piano techniques, and a score of T Swift by my side, I am prepared for tomorrow's session!

Repeats and Retreats

There is so much learning going on in my internship it is absolutely ridiculous. I have already lead so many different sessions that were awesome and some pretty challenging ones.

To the challenging ones straight away. I had a session today with a kiddo and 2 siblings. 2 very young, excited, loud, and attention-demanding siblings. It is so hard to discipline them and yet still focus on the patient while making it a positive therapeutic experience for everyone. Needless to say, by the time I left I felt a little cross-eyed. I handled it, but it was TOUGH. I got a few handy tips from my current mentor that I will be trying out next time I pass by that room, though.

Today I learned that 2 patients I saw earlier in my internship are back, and they are not ones with CF or another chronic illness, and that happens sometime. It brings back the feelings when they left ("yay they are going home"/"i am gonna miss their cute faces!") and turn to, "Why are you back???" and, "darn it, if you are going to be here you are getting music therapy!" So hopefully I will be able to get in with them later this week.

Oh yeah, this week is me kinda on my own with the MT-BC I was shadowing now shadowing me to make sure I don't fall flat on my face/help if something crazy happens. But next week, I will be all alone. Me, all by myself, doing what I want to do for the rest of my life!

I did my very first bedside intervention with piano today. I was very nervous going into it; piano is not my forte. The two sessions I used keyboard in went well, but I am all for learning new ways to integrate that into my interventions, besides just accompanying myself on it (although that is probably something I could work on, too). Bottom line- piano makes me want to run away and forget it exists. If anyone knows any pointers, I can use all the help I can get! It is just something I have always found a little intimidating. I am much more comfortable with guitar, drums, ukulele, umm.... recorder. haha. Ah!

I may potentially be working on some guitar teaching with one of the cuties I got to see today! Yay guitar!

Ghost Hospital & the City

Happy 4th of July!! It's the day that America gave a well-written 'buzz off' to the Brits. It's also the first Independence Day that I have spent all professional like and not wearing an American Flag bandana in a few years; quite a switch.

Today I went into work at the hospital (Intern Day!!) It was lots of fun to see some more areas of the hospital, and see one of my own pts. And I got to sing in Spanish! But... there was hardly ANYONE there today. It really was like a ghost town. No people = no line at the Cafeteria, though, which was nice.

LAST week... I went to see The Band Perry live, and for free! Kansas City, like most cities, has a free concert series during the summertime, and every Thursday is a Country artist. I'm not a big fan of country, but I do like the Band Perry, and they were fantastic live. I actually wrote a blog post about them last year right after I bought their EP. The concert was great but crowded, so we didn't get a great view of them, but it was okay! Anyways, the show was tons of fun (it included a cover of 'Fat Bottomed Girls' by Queen, Free-Falling, American Pie, Love the Way You Lie, and a bunch of others) and they sound live just like they do on their CD. Kimberly (lead singer) has a great voice, and I love that the band is made up of siblings. If you do not already listen to them, you totally should.... Find out more about them at www.thebandperry.com

This Friday (the plan anyways) I am going down to the Plaza to check out possibilities for me to head down there and busk on Friday nights! We will see how it goes. One of my current projects is to find all the best Happy Hour deals around me. Tomfooleries on the Plaza has a TON of food for just $4, including spicy chicken soft tacos. Yum! I still have lots of places to go though. Stay tuned so you know where to go should you ever visit the lovely Kansas City, MO.

Activity of the Week!

This is my "activity of the week", although I cannot promise that this will become a trend. I came up with this activity because my toddler pt likes multi-step activities, and the end portion of it is an activity I knew that she liked. This little shin-dig works on motor skills, body part identification, color identification, and following directions.

Materials: 

• small egg shakers
• 2 boomwhackers
• bucket
• your lovely singing voice

My little ditty: (numbers are scale degrees)
1                 2   2       3    1     1  5     5      4        3  2   1
(Pt's name) has a (color) shaker to shake, shake all around.
 3       3   3   3       3                                 4     4  4   4      4                        
Shake it by your (head, toes, belly, etc), shake it by your (same as before),
5       5   4     3    2     1
now send that shaker home!

Procedure:

1. Put the eggs on the floor next to pt.
2. Sing song.
3. Right before, "send that shaker home", pick up bucket or drum upside down and hold boomwhacker so it is a tunnel from the pt to the bucket.
4. Motion for pt to send egg down the boomwhacker and into the bucket.
5. Jump a little when it the egg hits the bottom of the bucket.
6. Repeat until all eggs are in the bucket.

This little game did wonders for the pt I worked with. It got said pt to follow directions to shake the egg all around because the pt LOVED sending it down that tube and the sound it made when it hit the bucket. There are lots of ways to extend or adapt this activity. You can also get the pt to send two eggs down two different boomwhackers at the same time.

So... yeah! I hope you liked my activity and get a chance to use it at some point.

Holy Goodness it's July!

I have survived almost a month of my internship and half of my first rotation! Crazy!! 

So this week was full of fun, new, exciting, and nerve-wracking moments for me as I started doing more things on my own. Right off the bat I lead the weekly group session by myself. I got to plan for it, so I planned about a billion activities and ways to do them for all different age groups... and I ended up with a 2yr old and a 3yr old. Which was awesome, because they were great and I got to try out a bunch of things with the younger crowd. I got to see one of them the next day for an individual session which went fantastically. It was awesome. Because of that awesome session with my nonverbal little one, I have decided to share an activity with you all. But more on that later. I also ended up leading a whole session just sort of on the fly and made up some pretty good songs, but alas, as quick as they cam they went, and I have forgotten all. :( I have 2 kiddos to see on my own on this lovely 4th of July!

This week (and the coming week) was Camp Sunshine back in GA, and it's the first time I have missed it since I was 8 years old. Since 1997!! It has been pretty tough not being there, but the pain was softened a little because this week I had the chance to observe a session with one of my people! (kiddos with cancer) woohoo! He was a cutie, too. And he loves Music Therapy.

One of the things I learned this week was that sometimes, it's okay for a session to not really involve any music. Sometimes that kid needs someone to talk to, and you as a MT are that person. Music may get you in the door, but it's okay if every once in a while that's all it really does. And, sometimes it's okay to just jam with a kid who knows what they are doing, which brings me to the next thing I want to talk about: my new personal goals. They are:

1. Learn more about the bass guitar! Sometimes that is the instrument that really gets you working with adolescents, and I need to be able to at least look like I know something about it when working with them.
2. Brush up on my Spanish. There is a pretty decent Spanish speaking population here, and word got out that I took Spanish in college, so if we ever should meet someone who does, I better get it together. I wrote down a couple of helpful phrases that I will use when talking to a pt or caregiver who only speaks Spanish, because that translator is not always going to be there!

Those are just the latest additions to my goal list. Now the fun stuff, the activity I promised will be coming at a later time. I really feel it deserves its own post!

Two Weeks

It is hard to believe that I have completed 2 weeks of my internship! It feels like I just got to Kansas City, let alone start working at the hospital. I have learned a ton and I know I will be learning a lot more. Although I have led a few interventions/activities with different kids and group, next week I get to jump in even more and take over group on my own. Exciting! Here are just a few of the things I have learned (or re-discovered in some cases):


Reasons why the Ukulele is awesome in interventions with kids:

1. It's small enough so kids can hold it and play it
2. The 'C' chord is just pressing down one string
3. You don't have to use a lot of pressure to hold down the strings
4. Kids love it and can be successful pretty easily
5. They get to accompany you and get to control the song

New (& not so new) instruments I love to use:

• ukulele
• kalimba- if you do not know what this is, you should check one out because it is so fun to play and see kids play it!
• boomwhackers- did you know that kids love to look through these and talk through these. Talking through one of these suckers got one of my nonverbal pts with a flat affect to smile!
• the quacker- it's this annoying little shaker type instrument that when you shake it or hit the top, it makes a quacking noise. It is a favorite of the little ones, but it is a PAIN to disinfect, because the slightest touch causes this huge QUACK! and people look around trying to figure out what that awful sound was
• ocean drum- I love it and I think I need my own, just for my own therapeutic purposes

One of the most fun/newest things for me has been working with babies who are not in the NICU. These are babies who are recovering from surgery but not quite ready to go home yet or in dialysis or have left the NICU. I love working with them on more developmental goals like passing a shaker from hand to hand across midline. The other day I got to see music therapy co-treat with physical therapy, and the physical therapist asked to co-treat with us! That was very cool. We were working with a baby and the PT is working on getting her to sit up (with support) and working on bending those knees and moving those legs! Since the pt is in a crib all day and the surgery she had, she cannot be on her stomach and even try to crawl, so it is important for that PT to help her reach those other developmental milestones so when she is physically able to crawl, she will be able to do it!


It's great learning other people's ideas and I love to modify them to work for me/ make up my own songs to use with them. The muse has been upon me these past two weeks and I have come up with about a dozen new songs on such vast topics as tapping a drum, hello, egg shaking, etc. Deep stuff. :D

Always learning

So yesterday I mentioned that Music Therapy is under the Child Life umbrella at CMH. Every so often the Child Life department offers inservices on different topics related to what they do, and as MT is under that, we get to go, too! This week it was all about working with adolescents and how to establish rapport and other things to be aware of when working with them. After talking about the problems and issues specific to adolescents in the hospital, the Child Life Specialists who were leading this one, gave us a lesson on what sort of people and things teens would be talking about. 


The first part was a slide show of a bunch of pictures of actors, actresses, and musicians that adolescents are familiar with and might talk about. They were just pictures with no names, and out of the thirty or so they showed, I am happy to say I knew all but two! And one is local to Kansas City, so he didn't really count. I owe it all to camp and the Juvenile Detention Center.


Then we went through a list of some current slang/lingo that adolescents might use. Some of it was a little disturbing, especially all that concerned drugs. We went over the slang terms not so we can use it and look like total dorks to the teens we will be working with, but so that we will know what they are talking about and be able to bridge that generation gap better, and know what sort of things they are dealing with at school. And we want look entirely stupid when they say some of it.


So it was a very cool and informative inservice. I have not yet in my internship worked with any adolescents one on one or observed that interaction, but I cannot wait until I get to!

Today I got to observe some co-treating with Music Therapy and Physical Therapy, as well as MT with Respiration Therapy. It was pretty cool to see how the other hospital staff values co-treating with Music Therapy.

Flexibility...

... is the backbone of a Music Therapist, especially one in a medical setting. The way the Music Therapists (MT) work here is by talking to the Child Life Specialist (CLS) on the floor and they tell us who music therapy would be good for today and a little about them (family present, procedures they have had done recently, etc). Some days you could have six kids to see on a floor and you get there and they are ALL asleep! So then you go to another floor and see a few kids there, then head back up to the floor you started on to see if any kids are awake. If not then you try again later! I had planned an intervention for a patient (pt) I had seen last week, but found out that she was discharged last night. Such is the life of a medical MT.

Then there is the group session. The one we had today is once a week on a particular floor and all are invited-if they're not in isolation. So one week you might just have siblings because all of the patients are in isolation, or you might just have one, OR you might have a toddler and a 15-year-old. Or like today, you may have a big mix of pts, siblings, and a variety of ages. I got to lead an activity and the hello song and it went great! It went so well that I get to lead the group session by myself next week!! Woohoo, I'm pretty stoked. Stay tuned for a post on the CL inservice on adolescents that I went to today!

Week One: Adventures and Interventions

Week one of my 6 month internship is complete!! Woohoo! I survived and only got a little lost in the hospital one time. The week started off with a bang with me reading a ton of policies, but also getting to observe on day one. By the end of the week my eyes were have crossed from reading, BUT I got to lead an activity on the ukulele with a girl in isolation and hold or play the guitar with the babies. good stuff!

Now on to the adventures portion of this little post.... I ride the bus to and fro every day and have the schedule pretty much worked out. Naturally, I thought I missed my stop the first day and almost made a DISASTROUS mistake because of that, but it all turned out okay! Today I tested out the bus ride to and from Target, and once again, there were almost horrible consequences of me not being able to find my bus stop to get picked up there. Google maps was wrong. W-R-O-N-G about where it was located. Luckily I was ready to go thirty minutes before I needed to be so I had plenty of time to wander around while mom told me where it should, SHOULD, be.

This morning I visited this lovely little shop called, Sheehan's Irish Imports, which is right up the street from me. If any of you know me, then you know that I am a wee bit obsessed with Irish culture and history, so this shop was love at first sight! One of the women who worked there brought me some Irish tea as I perused the lovely merchandise, ranging from jewelry to pottery to musical instruments to books to religious medals to Irish blessings to clothing to wall hangings to food to... pretty much anything you could ever want from Ireland. Except maybe an accent, although they did have instructional books to help you learn to speak Irish! I will be making many more trips back there, as well as to Browne's Irish Market. KC has a HUGE Irish/other obsessive people population here. They also gave an Irish music school. I might just have to take a few tin whistle classes!

Another place right up the street (and two doors down from Sheehan's) is Bethlehem Bakery, a Middle Eastern bakery and eatery. I have had some of their handmade pita bread, and it is fantastic!

Anyhoo that's all for now. I have things to plan for the session I get to co-lead next week. woo!

Kansas City...

… is great!

I am mostly moved in to my little studio apartment; just a few more things to unpack! The building is originally from 1949- and not too much of the apartment has changed since then. Haha. It’s small, but it’s quaint and I love it, and above all else, the location is FABULOUS. It’s in a sort of residential area in the city and looks relatively safe. The hospital is in midtown, and is only a short bus ride away! (the bus stop I need is right in front of my building). A few other things within walking distance of my apartment:

• Country Club Plaza- think summit, except better, and modeled after the plaza in Seville, Spain. This place is the bomb.com. It has every store you could want, from J Crew to Old Navy to Urban Outfitters, plus TONS of restaurants, designer brand stores, cafes, and Barnes and Noble. Good old B&N will be my destination for internet access until Time Warner cable sets mine up on Wednesday. And there is a movie theatre here, so I will have no trouble going to see Harry Potter! Anyways, the plaza is gorgeous, drivable, and walk-able, but if you want a different kind of tour of the place, you can always get a carriage ride. Want any more romance? You can also take a ride on a gondola!
• Westport- it’s the oldest area of KC. Back in the 1800s, Westport was the place to be if you were headed west. All the major western trails met at Westport. If the Plaza is like the Summit, then Westport is more akin to Atlanta’s Little Five Points.
• A HUGE Catholic church. And a Presbyterian church. And another Catholic church. And an Episcopal church. Limestone is native to this area of the country, and almost all the churches are built of it entirely. They look like castles. Needless to say, I will be church shopping over the next couple of Sundays. I have always wanted to go to a church that looked like a castle!
• A liquor store. Actually, TWO liquor stores. I can see one from the other one’s parking lot.
• Cancer Survivor Park
• A huge Sun Fresh grocery store

There is also a Target and actual mall on the bus line!

I think I will survive my stay here. Tomorrow is the big first day of my internship. Holy goodness I am excited and scared all at the same time. Even if this week is absolutely horrid, I get to look forward to the Irish Street Festival on Saturday!! Haha, but I know my internship will be great. 6:00 is going to come a little early, but that’s okay. I can’t wait!

t minus seven days...

UNTIL I START MY INTERNSHIP!!!! woohoo!! In just a few days I will be moving into my studio apartment in Kansas City and getting ready to start the busiest, scariest, and most exciting 6 months of my life. This is going to be a crazy time for me, and an exciting adventure! While I am there, I have a few things I want to check off my list.

1. be the best intern they have ever seen!!! By that I mean to throw myself into this internship and be the best I can be (cheesy, I know) and learn all sorts of Justin Bieber, other kids songs, etc, and step out of my comfort zone and go for it!
2. develop lasting connections with my supervisors at the hospital (and doctors, and nurses...)
3. learn all that I can so that I can start my own program at a hospital one day
4. make awesome friends who want to go see Harry Potter with me! haha
5. be creative with my new apartment furnishings= I'm thinking of a 'Bohemian palace' feel. Lots of pillows, and not much furniture- because furniture takes up too much space in the car....
6. find all the cool, artsy, inexpensive places to visit, shop, eat, explore....
7. bounce ideas off of my friends who are all in their mt internships across the country.
8. find Alabama fans to watch the games with this season!
9. know the bus system like the back of my hand
10. oh, and finish planning my wedding?

There are lots more things I am going to do, and want to do while I am there, but those seem to be the biggest and most important ones.

I can't wait to start working at a children's hospital! It is going to be awesome.

What a long, strange trip it's been...

I know it's cliche, but I just went to my little brother's high school graduation and it seemed appropriate. It really got me thinking about a lot, but two things especially: first, how much things have changed since I graduated high school, and second, how this year's senior class at the University of Alabama really got something special taken away from them. I will start with the latter first.

Pretty much everyone knows about the tornadoes that swept through Alabama in April and destroyed a good portion of the state and Tuscaloosa. What you might not know is that, although the university was not hit, the University of Alabama decided (and rightly so) to cancel classes and finals so that students and faculty could focus on rebuilding and helping in our community. This year's commencement ceremony was also canceled and moved to August. Though a long and many times boring ceremony, graduation is a time to reflect on what has been and look to what is coming in a big "woo hoo!" kind of way. While I was not planning on walking, I would change that now to walk in August if it was possible! I hope that as many of fellow classmates that can attend do. I would be right beside you if I was not going to be in Missouri!! This ceremony in particular will be a testament to our fine institution and the amazing sense of community that Tuscaloosa has, especially in the wake of the heartbreaking tornado. Someone needs to tell me all about it!!

Now on to the other part. I cannot believe that I am about to start a 6 month internship that will end my undergraduate education. It's crazy!! So much has changed since I was only a mere high school grad. People you hung out with all the time are now only acquaintances, and you talk to people you never expected to keep in touch with. people you thought you would be best buds with at the start of college are little more than facebook friends, and you ended up getting closer to someone you initially hardly talked to. oh and I totally never expected to fall in love my freshman year of college and be engaged right now. weird....

This time in two weeks I will have started my internship and will be working full time at a children's hospital (which is something I have wanted to do for forever)!!! It is a little scary and a bit hard to believe! But I can't wait to see what other changes are in store.

What Winnie the Pooh can teach us

"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called. ~A.A. Milne

don't forget to enjoy the little things; the journey as well as the destination!

preparathon

So I am approaching my 6 month music therapy internship.

How do you prepare for something like that??

Well I asked my internship supervisor if there is anything specific I need to know, and she suggested I have a good knowledge of children's songs. umm... there are only a billion of those. Luckily I've had multiple practica in this area and worked at Camp Twin Lakes for two summers where I played at countless meals. That should give me a good basis. I probably should brush up on my Justin Bieber pretty soon...

Another thing I am working on for this is ASL or American Sign Language!!! woo!! I am teaching it to myself via a "Sign of the day" thing. Today's sign: good. Infinitely important in the music therapy world when many of our clients communicate through sign language. Maybe I will work up to colors soon....

Another thing about moving to Missouri that I have to prepare for: finding a place to live. Luckily there is this nifty little website www.roommates.com that can match you up with someone else based on your profiles, kinda like an online dating sight. Let's hope that works out so I don't have to take over an on-call room. Pretty sure the medical staff would frown on that.

Well I have sufficiently procrastinated long enough this afternoon. Those songs for the guitar proficiency aren't gonna learn themselves!!

Raise your hand...

I am officially THE WORST at updating this thing, but no worries. Soon I will be done with school and in my internship and I will have motivation to keep this up!! Again, apologies.

Raise your hand if you are surprised that it's April! Everyone raised their hand, right? It's absolutely crazy that I am a Senior in college and about to move to Kansas City, MO for 6 month. Yes, you read that right. KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI. I think I was a little crazy to accept something so far away! Don't let me fool you though. I am quite excited about this internship.
What is this fantabulous internship that is getting me to move out to Missouri? I will be interning at Children's Mercy Hospitals there, and it looks to be absolutely wonderful. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to work in a children's hospital, and now I have the chance. Woo!! When I am there I get to work in:

• NICU
• Oncology/Hematology
• General Peds
• Rehab
• ICU
• Burn unit (when they get referrals)
• and tons of other places!!

Needless to say, I am ready for it!! There is still a good bit left in the semester, however, with Relay for Life (this Saturday), the CMTA Luncheon (this Saturday), a wedding to attend, Easter, 2 requiem performances, Camp Dance, and finals! Good luck to everyone else whose semester looks like this. I know I am going to need it.

Until then, please enjoy this lovely photo. It makes me happy.