The past couple of weeks here have been a different sort of challenge than what I've experienced so far. Instead of trying to figure out how to focus on everything and keep myself from getting overwhelmed, I'm able to handle things - but I'm trying to find my own voice, my own music therapy style, my identity as a music therapist.
One of the challenges for me is that of finding balance at this time. My supervisor and I have talked a lot about this balance that I feel like I have in some groups, but not in others. I am working on finding the balance of being comfortable and confident, instead of too timid... without overcompensating and being too overly assertive or even aggressive. I tend to give too many options and too much freedom to patients, and I need to balance that by being more decisive and direct in my leadership, but in the past I've sometimes overcompensated and been a little too in-your-face about it.
I also am working on how to handle patients with really different functioning levels being in the same group and how to account for that. It's not always easy figuring out how to accommodate for everyone's vastly different goals and needs. I've got a group this term with folks all over the spectrum so it's been interesting and challenging for me to figure out how to help reach their needs and help everyone be successful in group.
My individual music therapy sessions with my case study client have been going tremendously well! This client has had an extensive history of substance abuse problems for around 10 years prior to being arrested and hospitalized. He has identified music as a sober leisure skill for himself and as a coping skill to use when he's out of the hospital to keep him sober. When we had an initial meeting, I asked him why he thought music would be useful to him. He answered, "I've had more fun playing music than I ever did doing drugs. When I get out of here, I'm going to have a lot of time on my hands. It would be so much better to use music to keep me from getting bored than what I used to do."
For the first month or so, most of what we worked on was just on playing guitar. The past few weeks, however, have delved a little deeper into what's going on. The past two sessions have been really great as far as talking about the patient's insight into his mental illness and substance abuse issues, as well as him opening up to me more on a personal level and showing me some stuff he's written (which he refused to do before!). I had a chance to do a music therapy assessment on him - which I felt like went pretty well - and have been learning lots of new songs on guitar to teach him. He has been really excited about learning guitar and has also been really insightful on a deeper level. Overall, I think it has been a really successful experience for both of us.
As of yesterday I have less than 200 hours left! Currently I am at 847 hours completed. I'm excited to be seeing my family who is coming to visit for Thanksgiving and getting in today :)
One of the challenges for me is that of finding balance at this time. My supervisor and I have talked a lot about this balance that I feel like I have in some groups, but not in others. I am working on finding the balance of being comfortable and confident, instead of too timid... without overcompensating and being too overly assertive or even aggressive. I tend to give too many options and too much freedom to patients, and I need to balance that by being more decisive and direct in my leadership, but in the past I've sometimes overcompensated and been a little too in-your-face about it.
I also am working on how to handle patients with really different functioning levels being in the same group and how to account for that. It's not always easy figuring out how to accommodate for everyone's vastly different goals and needs. I've got a group this term with folks all over the spectrum so it's been interesting and challenging for me to figure out how to help reach their needs and help everyone be successful in group.
My individual music therapy sessions with my case study client have been going tremendously well! This client has had an extensive history of substance abuse problems for around 10 years prior to being arrested and hospitalized. He has identified music as a sober leisure skill for himself and as a coping skill to use when he's out of the hospital to keep him sober. When we had an initial meeting, I asked him why he thought music would be useful to him. He answered, "I've had more fun playing music than I ever did doing drugs. When I get out of here, I'm going to have a lot of time on my hands. It would be so much better to use music to keep me from getting bored than what I used to do."
For the first month or so, most of what we worked on was just on playing guitar. The past few weeks, however, have delved a little deeper into what's going on. The past two sessions have been really great as far as talking about the patient's insight into his mental illness and substance abuse issues, as well as him opening up to me more on a personal level and showing me some stuff he's written (which he refused to do before!). I had a chance to do a music therapy assessment on him - which I felt like went pretty well - and have been learning lots of new songs on guitar to teach him. He has been really excited about learning guitar and has also been really insightful on a deeper level. Overall, I think it has been a really successful experience for both of us.
As of yesterday I have less than 200 hours left! Currently I am at 847 hours completed. I'm excited to be seeing my family who is coming to visit for Thanksgiving and getting in today :)
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