Music Therapy and Beyond

A few tips and tricks for creating a work/life balance:

-Play to your strengths

-Prioritize your time

-Know what time of day you are most creative and productive

-Do what you love! This is especially true for musicians. Finding time to make music for yourself.

-Be realistic about your workload and capacity. 

-Step out: Whether this means simply going for a walk, getting out of the house/office, or just closing your laptop for just a few minutes to give yourself a break. Find what works best to help your brain turn off for just a few minutes. 

-Manage your mind: I have talked in previous episodes about the fact that I find going to see a therapist as a therapist is very important. But, this can also mean picking up meditation or yoga as a regular practice. Whatever works for you!

-Take a break: Are you using your PTO effectively? Do you know the warning signs that your body gives you when you are feeling overwhelmed? Maybe take some time to reflect on these as well and notice the signs your body tells you when it needs a break. 

-Have that holiday: Take that vacation! You deserve it!

Resources:

https://www.roche.com/careers/our-locations/asia/india/service/folder/20_tips_for_maintain.htm 

Lori F Gooding, PhD, MT-BC, Work-Life Factors and Job Satisfaction among Music Therapy Educators: A National Survey, Music Therapy Perspectives, Volume 36, Issue 1, Spring 2018, Pages 97–107, https://doi.org/10.1093/mtp/mix015

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Stay in touch at https://www.musictherapyandbeyond.com

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Resources:

CBMT Scope of Practice Document: 

https://www.cbmt.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CBMT-AMTA-Scope-of-Music-Therapy-Practice.pdf 

Music Therapy Practice Domains: https://www.cbmt.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/CBMT_Board_Certification_Domains_2020.pdf 

Music Therapy Advanced Competencies: https://www.musictherapy.org/members/advancedcomp/ 

Article: "Advanced Competencies in Music Therapy" (K. Bruscia): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275144845_Advanced_Competencies_in_Music_Therapy

Thank you for listening. 

We appreciate your feedback, please rate and review wherever you listen. 

If you like the show, please subscribe and share with a friend! 

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Stay in touch at https://www.musictherapyandbeyond.com

Follow us on Instagram @musictherapyandbeyond 

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Helen Oosthuizen, MMUS (MUSIC THERAPY), Katrina McFerran, PHD, Playing With Chaos: Broadening Possibilities for How Music Therapist’s Consider Chaos in Group Work With Young People, Music Therapy Perspectives, Volume 39, Issue 1, Spring 2021, Pages 2–10, https://doi.org/10.1093/mtp/miaa024

Helen Oosthuizen

Helen’s Google Scholar Bio

Voices: A World Forum For Music Therapy

Dr. Katrina McFerran Bio

https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/5042-katrina-skewes-mcferranHow Music Can Change Your Life Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/music-life

Book (Adolescents, Music, and Music Therapy): https://www.amazon.com/Adolescents-Music-Therapy-Techniques-Clinicians/dp/1849050198

Returning from the dark side of music | Katrina McFerran | TEDxStKilda

Trauma Stewardship is being fully present with others in their pain, trauma, and suffering without taking it on as our own. It is a long-term approach to tending to our own wholeness so we can be helpful to others in our full integrity. 

term founded by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, the founder and director of The Trauma Stewardship Institute.

Primary Trauma: when you yourself survive something that fundamentally changes your worldview. (E.g., losing a parent to cancer, natural disasters, chronic illness

Vicarious Trauma: exposure to someone else’s trauma over time also known as: compassion fatigue, empathic strain, and secondary trauma.

16 warning signs of the Trauma Exposure Response:

Sense of doom/hopelessness

Feeling the weight of systemic oppression (“I can never do enough”)

Remaining in a state of hypervigilance/hyperarousal

Decreased creativity/increased need for structure

Inability to embrace complexity

Minimizing your own suffering

Chronic exhaustion/new onset of physical ailments

Inability to listen/deliberate avoidance

New onset of dissociative moments

Feeling a sense of persecution

Guilt

Fear

Anger and Cynicism

Inability to empathize/numbing/feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated

New onset of addiction/relapse of former addiction

Grandiosity/inflated sense of one’s work (work = identity)

Steps towards Trauma Stewardship 

Step 1: Explore our own values and purpose, feelings and emotions, and past experiences and the meaning we continue to make of them.

Regularly check in with yourself.

Notice where you are holding pain and suffering in your body

Step 2: Seek support from others

Seek peer supervision from clinicians who are doing similar work.

If your work environment is unhealthy, you may need to do some serious reflection about whether or not you can continue in that environment long term.

Step 3: Create healthy boundaries and practice self-care.

Create a mental compartment for your work.

Create a routine that helps you put that work away each night.

Find practical ways to care for yourself throughout the day.

Sources:

Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, the founder and director of The Trauma Stewardship Institute

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel VanDerKolk, 

In the Body of the World by Eve Ensler

Other podcast episodes that compliment this episode: 

Episode #1: Trauma Informed Care - A Review and Call to Action

Episode #6: Clinical Strategies Through the Lens of Trauma-Informed Care

Episode #9: Attachment - What Is It and Why Is It Important?

Episode #11: 5 Ways to Care for Your Physical Wellness Everyday

Episode #12: Music and Trauma-Informed Care

Episode #14: Polyvagal Theory and Music Therapy

Episode #16: Stress Cycle, Connection and Rest

Episode #20: The Importance of Rest and How to Make It Happen! 

The Music Therapy Podcast 

Episode #15: Transitions Series - Part 1: How Transitions Affect Me, Others, and Us

Episode #17: Transition Series - Part 2: Strategies and Music for ME!

Thank you for listening.

We appreciate your feedback, please rate and review wherever you listen.

If you like the show, please subscribe and share with a friend!

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Stay in touch at https://www.musictherapyandbeyond.com

Follow us on Instagram @musictherapyandbeyond

Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/musictherapyandbeyond

Resources:

Link to Song Visual: "Big Feelings" Song by Ellisa Morris, MT-BC

MP3 for Song Learning: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UxdY7fQyTnjHpjQJp25dQViNzNnYsAeM/view?usp=sharing

Link to PDF Version

Procedure:

For each "verse" there is a face for each emotion "Sometimes I'm ______" (TEACHING)

Then show all the emotions for the first chorus "We have lots of feelings"

Then you repeat how each emotion feels and how it presents- "If I'm______ I might _________" (TEACHING)

Repeating part one of the song ("Sometimes I'm..."), use a musical cue for the client to point to the cued emotion when given 2 options- (TESTING/IDENTIFICATION)

Repeat for the second group of feelings. Feel free to add your own or pair down the information as appropriate! 

***Note that for each emotion, I mimic the sound of the feeling with my instrument to further teach the contrast between emotions.***

Adaptations: 

For appropriate clients you may sing/ask: If I’m smiling, I might feel…” or show the picture and sing “If I’m ____, I might smile!” for lyric fill in. Lastly, for any clients using an AAC device you could have them name the emotion word or match the image. 

You can also cue them to simply imitate the emotion, for expression and nonverbal clients. 

And of course, for pre-verbal or nonverbal clients I would encourage you to use sign language and perhaps this is simply vocabulary/language teaching song.   

For simple emotion identification when singing about each emotion you can sing the cue: "Do you feel_____?"  for the client so simply answer "yes" or "no".