I'm a Music Therapist

I found a brilliant conversation starter on twitter last year that I’ve used from everyone to family members to complete strangers and I always get an interesting answer. The question, “What’s something about your job that seems obvious to you that isn’t obvious to the general public?”

In my role as an educator, my answer would be something like: my job is so much more than showing up for class. So many of my responsibilities happen outside of the classroom, and often go beyond my formal job description as the Clinical Coordinator of Music Therapy. Even though I’ve spent eight years in higher education as a whole, there are so many little details and tasks that professors have that I never appreciated as a student. So, as the school year wraps up for me, this post is a small tribute to the 2018-2019 school year, and hopefully illuminate some real world details about being in academia as a music therapist.

6:15a: My alarm goes off for the first time. I’ve given myself plenty of time to get up, but as usual I turn on the latest episode of the NY Times’ The Daily podcast by rationalizing that I’m just starting my day on an informed foot (while staying under the covers)

6:45a: My second alarm goes off. Michael Barbaro’s voice lulled me back to sleep but I get up this time and head to the shower.

7:37a: I get into my car with some coffee in a travel mug. I didn’t have a chance to eat since my hair took forever to blowdry. The coffee should hold me over until I can grab a bite between classes. I’m getting a slightly late start for my 45-minute commute.

8:20a: I arrive at my first practicum session of the day at a preschool. My two practicum students are already there. It’s the last session of the semester so we have a few minutes to talk about explaining to the preschoolers that we’re taking a break for summer and I have the students quickly run through the new repertoire they’re leading.

9:20a: Session ends. Me and my student have about 15 minutes to talk about what happened during session and reflect on what the students have learned over the past semester before I have to run to my first class.

9:45a: I walk into my first class, Clinical Processes II. This is the last day of class, so the last portion of the students are doing clinical role plays. I make some end-of-semester announcements and hand back graded assignments before turning to floor over to the students.

11:30a: After class, I have a one-on-one meeting with a student regarding her music therapy proficiency exam coming up during finals week. We do a dry run of her proficiency exam and I offer her some last minute tips on how to practice before the real deal in a few days.

12:05p: I finally have a minute to myself. I check my school email quickly and reply to the ones that take a few seconds to answer. I remember that I have a bagel in the office freezer, so I walk over to toast the bagel and get a refill on coffee from the Keurig. On the way back, I pop into my co-faculty’s office to say hi and remind her about music proficiency testing starting in two days.

12:50p: I’ve been checking Facebook, but ten minutes before my next class starts, I remember I have to make some last minute copies.

1:00p: Time to teach my second class, Clinical Processes I. More clinical roleplays, but this class is much smaller so we’re done with role plays with about 30 minutes of class left. We spend the rest of the time reviewing the final exam study guide and then I have the students write down their class schedules for the fall semester. I’m hoping to have the next semester’s practicum placements assigned by the end of May (we’ll see…).

2:35p: Clinical Processes I ends and I head right to my office to pack up for my next practicum session, but a student stops by to have me sign an add/drop form for a class conflict next semester.

2:55p: I arrive at my second practicum site, at an older adult community a few minutes from campus. My student is already in the lobby, and we only get 5 minutes of prebriefing time. For this practicum, we do individual room visits and my student already has the plan laid out. We do three “mini-session” wrapping up the therapeutic relationship, because we’re taking a break for summer.

4:00p: We get more debriefing time this session and we get to dig in a little more about how the student has learned from doing individual sessions for the first time. We also have a quick chat about how she’ll structure her data collection graphs for her final progress report due next week. After the student leaves for class, I run into the other music therapy supervisor and we have a chat about her students’ progress and some new supervision sites I’m lining up for the fall.

5:00p: I stop by a grocery store to pick up something for a “Faculty and Staff of Color” gathering this evening. I settle on a bag of popcorn because people always bring too many sweet, dessert-y things to potlucks I’ve been to recently. Glad I don’t have to sit in my office to wait out rush hour traffic tonight.

6:08p: I arrive sort-of on time to the reception and I’m the third person there besides the host. More people arrive soon and I get to meet an Occupational Therapy faculty member that’s really cool. When I get up to get another drink, I meet the Health Sciences librarian who is really interested in music therapy. I suggest that she come observe a session after summer and she’s really enthusiastic about seeing music therapy in action!

7:15p: I’m an introvert, so I give myself permission to leave after an hour or so. Glad I don’t have to worry about cooking dinner tonight. Traffic’s pretty clear on the drive home so it takes an abbreviated 40 minutes. I listen two Planet Money podcasts on the way.

8:00p: I get home. I check my work email and answer the ones that require a more in-depth response before tidying up my apartment. It’s Reading Day tomorrow so I don’t have to set my usual alarm! I watch some Frasier while I input the students grades from the role plays this afternoon.

10:30ish: Finally, I get to bed anticipating the craziness of finals week.

Granted, these were my Tuesdays this semester, and every day looks slightly different. But, I think this is a good representation of what I do as a Clinical Coordinator with a nice balance between teaching and clinical supervision. Still, being in academia means a lot more meeting, emails, and planning that happens outside the classroom. And the days can be long, but I’m looking forward to the summer so I can focus on more personal projects. Let me know what you think of this blog format, and I may do some more in the future :)