Intern’s Corner-Week 7

by Sammy | Sep 16, 2016 | Intern's Corner

To be honest, this was a hard week; I struggled with confidence every day. In previous blog posts, I’ve written about how confidence has been an issue my entire life, but today I had a realization and I hope it helps anyone who is also struggling with confidence.

I decided to take some time for self-care this morning and play my flute.Although I hadn’t played the flute in a while, it came back to me easily. I reflected on my journey with playing the flute and realized that it hadn’t been easy. When I was younger and had first started playing the flute, I hit many bumps in the road and felt like giving up because nothing came easy. I spent hours practicing and perfecting each piece, learning the basics and then the technical skills. But I put in the hard work then, which now makes playing the flute a little easier.

How does this all relate to music therapy and my internship? I felt confident in my flute playing because I had practiced and worked for so many years on it and now it comes naturally to me. During my internship, I am taking voice lessons, learning to play different styles on the guitar/piano, and practicing improvisation. This week, specifically, I beat myself up because I struggled in these areas and was not “perfect.” Just like I struggled with my flute playing at first, which is now an extremely comfortable instrument for me, I will get comfortable with singing, playing those different styles on guitar or piano, and improvising during a session, if I practice them frequently. My confidence will increase over time. It took me several years to be confident in my flute playing, but I was eventually confident, with practice.

You can’t expect yourself to be great at a new skill immediately; that is what I learned this week. Sometimes you just have to get out of your own head and stop expecting perfection. When I first started playing flute, I wasn’t perfect and I STILL can grow and learn new skills even after playing for so long. The same things apply to my internship. I choose to keep learning, growing, trying my best, and being confident that confidence with these skills WILL come with practice.

Life is a fun journey and it’s even better with confidence!

Have a good week!

Sammy Springer

Intern’s Corner-Week Six

by Sammy | Sep 9, 2016 | Intern's Corner

My schedule is officially full and I’m starting to lead more during sessions and adaptive lessons. I’ve also received more constructive criticism, but that is an important part of growing and learning! All of this new information and learning that I am doing and the fact that I am a perfectionist makes it fairly easy to quickly become overwhelmed. Sometimes I feel like there is so much to learn and that there isn’t enough time to learn it all before becoming a professional music therapist.

For those who might be feeling the same way, you might feel like you want to give up and stop trying completely; this is normal and sometimes I feel like I want to shut down too. But perseverance and remembering your dreams and goals is important in pushing through. Remembering that I want to work with children, perform research furthering the field of music therapy, and maybe one day run my own private practice, helps me refocus and continue learning.

During my internship, I have the chance to absorb so much new information and experience every opportunity that arises. I have the chance to learn from my mistakes and work towards being a professional and great music therapist with two wonderful supervisors encouraging me and helping me along the way. As my internship progresses, it will become more manageable and the skills that I am currently learning will become second nature. I just have to get over this hump and the only way to do that is to persevere and keep my goals and dreams in sight. Everyday is a new learning opportunity, and I don’t have to be perfect because no one is perfect!

If you breathe, refocus, persevere, and continue learning then you will become successful no matter what. 

Thanks for reading!

Sammy Springer

Intern’s Corner-Week Five

by Sammy | Sep 2, 2016 | Intern's Corner

Hello everyone!

I can’t believe that I am officially done with my first month of internship! I have learned so much in this past month and am so grateful for all the opportunities that I’ve had so far.

The biggest thing I’ve learned this month, besides everything clinical, is how to be and stay organized. You go from seeing one client or group once a week for an hour during practicum to seeing fifteen or more clients in your internship. It’s definitely an adjustment and extremely important to stay organized. During the past month I’ve figured out some ways to make sure I am organized so that I can concentrate on learning.

I created a song binder that includes every genre of music (music from different decades, movies, Disney, children, pop, hello/goodbye, and movement/instrument songs). When a client wants a specific song and I don’t have my IPad available, I can just look in my song binder for the lead sheet.I also have a binder that has tabs for each day and each client (with just the first initial of their first name) where I keep all my documentation sheets. It’s easier to plan a session when all the information is presented in a concise way under that client’s tab. I also have a binder for each off-site facility that I go to so that I can just grab that binder and go.

Also, I kept all of my notes from college. Inspired by Katey and Rachel, I organized my notes into different categories (such as MT & Medicine or MT & Schools) and placed them into a binder as well. When I go to study for my board certification exam, I’ll be thankful I put in that work so that I can easily reference/review any material.

I know it sounds like a lot of binders, but this system of organization works for me. If you are a current music therapy student or just starting out your internship, I encourage you to create an organization system that works for you that will help make your life easier! My supervisors helped guide me and showed me their methods of organization, which helped me develop mine.

Have a good week!

Sammy Springer

Intern’s Corner-Week Four

by Sammy | Aug 26, 2016 | Intern's Corner

Hello!

This week, I learned all about time management! In order to effectively take time for self-care, it is important to be conscious of how you spend your time. In college, I waited until I got home from class to do assignments and barely worked on them during my breaks throughout the day. The evening was always when I could concentrate the best anyway. However, so far during my internship, I have learned that this method will not always be the best way to get things done and it prevents me from having much time for myself.

Here are two things that I learned this week about time management that I discovered to be helpful:

1) Leave work at work.

I struggle with this because I concentrate better at night time. However, this week, I learned that if I plan for the next day when I get home at night, I don’t have any time for self-care. I get home late every evening and when I should be relaxing and winding down from the day, I’m planning or working on something. Don’t do that! Plan, document, and prepare at work; only work on minor preparation tasks and practicing repertoire at home. This week, I realized that utilizing the preparation/documentation periods that are built into your schedule during the day to the fullest potential, means that there will be less to do at night, which means more time for self-care. If you take care of yourself, you’re better able to help others.

2) Don’t over plan.

I’m a planner and like to plan out every single thing that could possibly happen during the day or in a session. However, like most of us know, plans leave little room for flexibility and may not fit the needs of the client for that specific day! Of course it’s good to be prepared for everything that could happen and have an outline of the interventions that will be used to target the client’s goals/objective, but every single detail doesn’t need to be planned out; this week, I’ve learned that being flexible during a session is SO important. When something goes differently than what you expected, it is important to have those back pocket interventions you can use, that way the client is always working towards their goals.

Thanks for reading my thoughts!

Sammy Springer

Intern’s Corner-Week Three

by Sammy | Aug 19, 2016 | Intern's Corner

Hello!

I’m wrapping up my third week as a music therapy intern and I am starting to feel more comfortable with Springfield as well as with my internship. I have the chance to work with so many different people at multiple sites and I feel truly blessed that I am in this environment surrounded by respected and talented professional music therapists! Even though this week I started to get more involved in the students’ sessions and I have loved every minute of it, I’ve encountered some struggles that I am slowly working through.

Confidence. It’s an issue that I have been dealing with recently. Like most other musicians and people in this world, I strive to be perfect in everything that I do and when I am not perfect or succeed in doing something, I lose confidence. This often leads to me not being able to progress or learn a new skill. I realized this week that nobody is perfect and I will never be perfect; it’s okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them.

I often lose my confidence when I’m singing. When I sing in my car, I sing like no one is watching because literally, no one is watching. But when I sing in front of my supervisors or in other places, I lose my confidence because I am afraid of sounding terrible, which actually makes me more nervous. This in return ruins my breathe support and creates an airy sound and the cycle continues.

If I just think to myself that nobody is perfect and sing like I sing in the car with all the confidence in the world, I can accomplish amazing things. Confidence is an issue for me, but it doesn’t have to be a detrimental. I know that I have the skill set required to sing as well as to be an effective music therapist; I just have to believe in myself and have CONFIDENCE. I’ve started to work on it this week and will continue to do so throughout my internship. I’m excited to look back at this moment six months from now and see how much I’ve grown.

Thank you for reading!

-Sammy Springer

Intern’s Corner-Week Two

by Sammy | Aug 12, 2016 | Intern's Corner

Hello! I just finished my second week of my internship and I feel that I have learned a significant amount in a very short time. That being said, I am excited to see the amount of knowledge that I will have learned by the end of my internship!

One of the hardest things that I have dealt with in the past two weeks is getting adjusted to living in a new place. I’ve moved around my entire life and while I attended college in Michigan, my parents lived in Georgia and North Carolina; that being said, I am very used to living far from my family. However, since I did live so far from my family and couldn’t see them for months at a time, I built friendships as well as a support system with the friends I met in classes, extracurricular activities, and at different jobs. Moving to Springfield has been interesting for me because I no longer have that immediate support system physically surrounding me. I know that I can always call friends and family on the phone or on Skype, but sometimes life gets busy.

There are some things that I have learned in these past two weeks that have helped me cope with living in a new place that might help students looking at internships far away or other interns who are going through the same thing as me!

When you’re not at your internship, make sure you get out of your apartment/house.

This is the hardest for me because I don’t like driving in new places. However, it is extremely important! A person can only watch Netflix or do paperwork for so long. Leave your apartment and go exploring. If you’re living in a city, walk around downtown or explore a nearby mall. Look online for things to do in the city or town where your internship is and make sure you get out and do the ones that interest you!

Get Involved.

Find a hobby! Volunteer! Do something that you love and get involved in anything. It’s a perfect way to meet new people and start developing that support system away from home or college. I am looking into options to volunteer right now and have started going to church and getting involved that way in order to meet new people. This has been the biggest challenge because in college, you’re forced to meet new people every day. However, in the “real” world, you have to find ways to meet new people without relying on class or a job.

Be open and honest.

When you feel overwhelmed about being in a new place, make sure you’re open and honest to your supervisors or call up a friend or a family member and share with them about how you are feeling. Living in a new place is scary and it’s important to know you are not in this alone!

I have found those three things to be helpful with getting adjusted to moving to a place where I know absolutely no one. It’s scary at first, but I am excited to meet new people and start getting involved with different activities!

Thanks for reading!

-Sammy Springer