by Sammy | Sep 23, 2016 | Intern's Corner
This week has been crazy (in a good way of course)! I’ve started to lead more in all of my sessions here at Music Therapy Connections as well as at the hospital and I’ve been pushed out of my comfort zone so many times. From these experiences, I’ve learned that there are some things that I should’ve practiced more during college that would have made my life a little easier now.
In college, I should have spent more time:
Building a HUGE knowledge of repertoire.
Typically, I only learned the music that I needed to learn for my practicum sessions. It wasn’t until this summer that I started pushing myself outside of the popular music realm and now I’m quickly realizing how important it is to know songs from each genre and decade of music. At the hospital, I meet with a lot of families and patients who have such a wide range of music preferences and I should at least be able to talk about or play the music they love the most! However, it’s literally impossible to learn every piece of music ever written, but having a general knowledge of a few famous bands or knowing how to play a few hit songs from each decade will be extremely important. Also, for current music therapy students, learn the National Anthem. You will never know when someone might ask you to play it. In general, it’s also just a great song to know.
Practicing playing in different styles.
Just like having a huge knowledge of different repertoire, it’s important to be able to play in different styles. Again, it wasn’t until late last semester and this summer that I started picking on the guitar and playing different songs with contrasting styles. I have started practicing simple songs such as “Twinkle, Twinkle” (or any simple song that I know the chords to really well) and trying to play it in different styles. This has helped me tremendously and something that I wish I had started practicing sooner.
Practicing the things that scare me the most.
Public speaking scares me. My brain gets all the words jumbled up whenever I have to give a presentation or talk to someone I don’t know. However, as a music therapy intern transitioning to a professional, I’ve had to talk to so many different people. I wish that during college I had pushed myself out of my comfort zone and talked to new people instead of avoiding it. We’re asked every day what music therapy is so oral communication skills as well as people skills are extremely important. One way that I am practicing becoming more comfortable talking to people is by striking up conversations with new people I see throughout the day such as having a quick chat about someone’s day in the line at Meijer. That being said, find something that scares you and face it head on every day!
Even though I did practice these things before my internship, I should have challenged myself even more. Thankfully, I am in an environment where I can challenge myself everyday to learn these skills, grow, and continue pushing myself outside of my comfort zone so that I can continue to effectively transition from a student to a professional!
Have a great week everyone!
Sammy Springer
by Katey Kratz | Sep 23, 2016 | Business Bits, News
As we wrap up another awesome week of music therapy at MTC, I wanted to tell you a little more about how we’ve been advocating for music therapy this week. If you follow our Facebook page, you’ve probably heard that it’s Illinois Music Therapy Week. To celebrate, we are working even harder to put out the word about music therapy.
On a weekly basis, Rachel and I record live videos on Facebook with songs, resources, and ideas for music therapists, students, and teachers. This week we covered the topic of being an advocate by simply talking to anyone and everyone about music therapy and getting out in the community.
Whether it is the chatting with a cashier at Walgreen, informing the doctor in a hospital, answering your waitress’ question at lunch, speaking at a community event, having coffee with a friendly neighbor, etc, the more people you talk to about music therapy, the more word spreads and curiosity grows. Think that for every one person you tell, they possibly tell another five, ten, or a dozen people.
We also challenged our intern, Sammy Springer, to share her own definition of music therapy and how she is becoming more of an advocate every day. She explains in her video the importance of having an elevator speech and being able to be concise in talking about music therapy.
On top of everything else this week, we had the incredible opportunity to be featured on our local news! What says advocacy more than the words MUSIC THERAPY being said or shown on the local news multiple times!!!! What a blessing and a joyful moment in our week.
We hope to see you advocating for music therapy and are always happy to answer any of your questions! Happy Illinois Music Therapy Week!
by Rachel | Sep 20, 2016 | Resources
It’s Music Therapy Advocacy Week here in Illinois, so we are upping our game when it comes to spreading the word about our work and the power of music therapy. In addition to making appearances in community publications and on our local news this week, we also wanted to share some of our favorite resources for becoming an expert advocate.
There are MANY ways to step up to the plate in this arena, so do what works for you! Here’s a quick roundup of articles, videos and podcasts on the topic of music therapy advocacy.
5 Do’s and Don’ts for Advocacy in the Community
Efficacy of Music Therapy
Finding Our Place in Music Therapy Advocacy
Making CONNECTIONS Every Day
Music Therapy Advocacy: Tell Your Story
by Katey Kratz | Sep 17, 2016 | Business Bits
Things are always busy at MTC, but the past few weeks have felt even more intense as we continue to move through our season of transition and change. School starting back in August is like the start of our new year. With that new year comes new students, new policies, new contracts, and tons of awesome new ideas!!
I know that it can get confusing for everyone (myself, team members, and families included) because we are shifting things around and have several balls in the air. So, I wanted to share a few ways we stay organized and on the same page as a team and share some ideas you can implement as well.
- Know Your Role – I say it time and time again. Rachel and I make a great team! We work constantly to clarify and simplify our roles so that we can each play to our strengths and accomplish more within our company without repeating work. Knowing that I handle most of our internship details and HR topics while Rachel handles more of the PR and family contact/communication allows for us to easily designate who needs to handle new tasks and gives all of our team members a better idea who to talk to about certain topics.
- Write It Down – I was out of town last week and was without Wi-fi for an entire week. Coming back on Monday was a little bit of a shock to my system after having been away but it was made easier by the fact that Rachel kept a running list of what happened each day. Reading through that document was a quick and easy way to brief myself for the upcoming week and get back in the swing of things. This is a practice we started over a year ago that I am so thankful for! We also keep pretty detailed meeting notes and communicate throughout the day via Slack
- Honest, Clear, and Concise Communication – Being truthful and timely helps us to keep things moving. Even though we have a scheduled Tuesday meeting to talk about business matters, you will find Rachel and I in and out of the office using whatever little face-to-face time we have to quickly answer each others questions or have small discussions. I write down what we need to talk about so that we can communicate more effectively and move forward as quickly as possible. We also encourage regular communication with all of our team members and have an open door policy so we can address most issues and celebrate victories as they occur.
- Check out our facebook live video from earlier where I share secret number four and delve further into how we keep things running smoothly.
We are looking forward to sharing more of the projects we are working on in the very near future! Stay tuned by following us on facebook or becoming a VIP member!
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
by Alisabeth Hopper | Sep 14, 2016 | Resources
Here at MTC we love to use singable stories. You may see us using them with our Listen & Learn groups but did you know that we also use them in 1:1 music therapy sessions?
Singable stories are a great tool for
- Increasing sight words
- Improving enunciation of vowels and consonants
- Reading full sentences or more independently
- Improving reading comprehension
- Identifying letters uppercase and lowercase
- Increasing vocal range in inflection
- and so much more!
These are just a few of the specific objectives that we work on every day with our clients here at Music Therapy Connections! Do you know somebody who could benefit from music therapy? Register them in services below!
Questions about services for someone in your life?
Contact us at info@musictherapyconnections.org!
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
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
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
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
