What I Would Love to Share with Music Educators

At Drury, we are blessed to learn and work very closely beside our friends and colleagues who are majoring in music education.

I spend a lot of time thinking about music education and music educators, because every single current or future music therapist is able to do what they do because they had positive experiences in music education at some point. Our first formal musical learning experiences came from music educators.

That fact alone means that music therapists should have a vested interest in the continuing well-being of music educators and the vitality of their curriculum.

And on that thought, here some of the things music therapists know that I would love to share with music educators.

Advocacy

Music therapists know that our profession depends on advocacy. This is no less true for music educators. People go into education and therapy both because they had positive experiences in music education. It's a self-perpetuating profession. Advocacy is essential, but it seems like many educators learn how to advocate effectively after they are already teaching. And when you find out that your band program may be in danger is no time to learn advocacy strategies. I really wish that music education curricula would include more specific instruction on the most effective strategies for advocacy.

Transference and Counter-transference

 As I wrote in a previous post, clients can bring a lot of rough stuff to sessions with them. We are prepared for this - that's why our clients are seeing us - the rough stuff! Even though someone is a music educator that doesn't mean students won't bring tough subjects with them to class. Music educators are not insulated from the harsh realities of students' lives that have nothing to do with music. So, I really wish that more attention could be given to the issues of transference and counter-transference in music classrooms.I would love to see educators receive more preparation for their own emotional reactions to students' personal difficulties.

Self-Care and Burnout 

 The music educators I know spend a lot of their time stressed out and emotionally drained. That's not to say that music therapists don't spend a lot of their time that way, too! It seems that music therapists hear a lot more about self-care than educators do, however. I would love for more educators and therapists both to take self-care to heart and to really be vigilant against the dangers of burnout. It is true that if the educator or the therapist is not at his or her very best, students and clients aren't going to get the very best treatment or education possible. 

Resource Sharing

Finally, I would love to see educators and therapists put our heads together a little bit more than we already do. Students with disabilities are frequently mainstreamed in music classrooms because music is so very accessible. But music education curricula do not include a large amount of information on students with exceptional needs, as a general rule. Are we making music educators aware that they can collaborate with music therapists in their music classrooms? Are we teaching educators how to make music therapy part of the IEP for a student? Additionally, what educational strategies do music educators have that music therapists aren't aware of and could benefit greatly from? Where can we get our heads together more?

For the all the music educators out there, what would you share with music therapists? How would you most like to see us collaborate with one another? What are educators doing well that therapists could do better? Please feel free to share your thoughts!

Networking for Students: Is it Really So Scary?

Like "advocacy" the word "networking" gets thrown around a lot as something that music therapy students need to learn to do to be successful. And frankly, like "advocacy" it's a word that can scare the daylights out of music therapy students.

But is it really that hard to start making connections with professionals in our field? Sure, as a student, it can be very intimidating to walk up to someone who authored your textbooks and introduce yourself, but it is also doable, and very rewarding.
 Here are some of the strategies that I have found most helpful for getting connected to the bigger music therapy world.

1. Start Online
 If the thought of actually shaking hands with a well-known and respected professional makes you shake, maybe it's a good idea to start by building an online presence with sites like Twitter or LinkedIn.
Both are free and easy to use. For Twitter, I suggest starting out by following AMTA and then go by the suggestions Twitter gives. Follow anyone who includes "MT-BC" in their information. Follow the people they follow. And so on! Also check out the #musictherapy feed to see what is going on with music therapists on Twitter.
LinkedIn is great, too. Once you make a profile, you will have suggestions for professional contacts with whom to connect, as well as having the capability to search for specific people you know (or would like to know).
If you would like to get your name out there even more, it is very easy to start a music therapy-themed blog just like this one. Just because you are a student doesn't mean you won't have any thoughts worth sharing with the larger music therapy community. 
2. Come Prepared
I went to the AMTA annual conference last year for the first time, and I was totally overwhelmed with all of the amazing MT-BC's I met. And I was shocked that after chatting with people for a few minutes, they often wanted to exchange contact information with me. I felt silly pulling out my notebook and scribbling down my information for someone who could someday be my employer.
This year, I came prepared with some simple business cards. Many services like VistaPrint will allow you to make business cards inexpensively. A lot of local print shops will also do student discounts. It doesn't have to be fancy, and having those cards in your pocket can make you feel much more confident approaching someone at conference. 
3. Remember That Professionals are Still People
Jayne Standley, PhD, MT-BC, is very well known for her work and research with the NICU. She's one of our better-known names. And I got a hug from her at conference. A hug. From Jayne Standley. I was nervous going up and introducing myself, but obviously from her reaction, she was very approachable. In my experience, professional music therapists rarely are "too busy" or "too famous" or "too anything" to talk with students. In fact, professionals are usually very excited to share their resources, knowledge, and wisdom with students. So if you see someone you recognize from a journal article, textbook, or news feature, remember that they were once completely unknown students, and chances are, they would really like to share their experience with you. Just. Go. Talk. To. Them.
4. Be Grateful 
Always thank conference presenters for sharing their knowledge with you. Do this in person and then follow up with a thank-you email. Most of these people have their contact information online and it's not hard to find. Don't be scared to send an email and thank them again for their presentation.
5. Follow Up and Keep Doing It
Finally, keep track of all the business cards you have collected, the names of the conference presenters you heard from, and all the internship directors you spoke with. Within one week of meeting them, send a follow-up email reminding them how nice it was to chat with them and let them know you are interested in staying in touch in the future. Touch base with these people as appropriate, usually no more frequently than every 6-8 months and no less frequently than every year or so.

The rewards of getting connected with professionals now instead of later can be great, so don't let "I'm just a student" hold you back.

Go forth and network!

Music Therapy: Time to Be Ourselves

This weekend, Dr. Dena Register of the University of Kansas (see http://music.ku.edu/programs/memt/faculty/register/ for her bio)  came to Drury University's Center for Music Therapy to discuss the process of getting state recognized licensure for music therapists in the state of Missouri. Colorado just introduced a bill with licensure language, and two other states passed either licensure or registry bills in 2011.

It has been a record year for music therapy developments with unprecedented coverage in the news, and media such as the film "The Music Never Stopped" and Jodi Picoult's novel "Sing me Home."

Things are moving and changing.

In the past, music therapists have sought the important process of licensure alongside or underneath the umbrella of other therapy and helping professions, such as in New York state where music therapists are licensed under a Creative Arts Therapist license.

This is not the direction we'd like to see music therapy licensure take in MO. Oftentimes, when someone asks us, "Music therapy? What's that?" we respond by saying, "We do this that's like occupational therapy, and this that's like psychotherapy, and this that's like speech therapy, and this that's like physical therapy, and, and, and..."

Dr. Register proposed that while this is a useful way to communicate with people who have never heard of music therapy, perhaps it's time we begin to stand alone because none of those other professions work across the life-span with any and every diagnosis like music therapists do. We love and respect our peers and colleagues in the other helping professions, but as Dr. Register pointed out, you are not likely to see an art therapist working in the NICU, or a dance therapist working in hospice and end-of-life care.

The other therapists tend to define themselves by the area they practice in: speech, occupational, physical, development, psychology.

We call ourselves music therapists because music is the main overriding factor that ties all our work together. Music can be clinically beneficial to every age and diagnosis, from labor and delivery through the very last seconds of life.

It's time that we chose to stand up and be counted as an independent, fully-functioning profession. The other professions have worked hard and deserve the state recognition and understanding that they receive.

Music therapists are music therapists. Nothing more, nothing less, and it's time that we be ourselves.