Music Therapy Musings

Another great week of work! I can’t believe how much I gain from the work that I do as a music therapist working with older adults. Each week brings something new and I always feel blessed at the end of the day for what I provided my clients and what they bring to my life.

About a year ago I started a bell choir at one of the facilites I work for. This group is wonderfully talented and they perform for the residents and staff about 3-4 times per year. It has been a great addition to their facility and both the residents and staff are thrilled to have the bell choir. About 6 months ago, the choir also started to play at monthly memorial services. We were asked to provide a couple of hymns and end each service by playing “Amazing Grace”. They do a great job.

Yesterday we had one of the memorial services at which the bell choir performed. I sat in the dining room as residents, staff, and families began to gather. One of the residents with whom I work, she is not in the choir, entered the room and saw me sitting there. As she approached me she reach out her hands to stroke my cheek and say hello. This lady is very quiet and somewhat reserved. I responded by saying hello and helping her to find a chair. I then went back to waiting patiently for the memorial service to begin.

As I waited and sat something came over me and my eyes began to well with tears. Just a simple touch from my resident brought tears to my eyes and I felt a connection to her that reached far beyond the music therapy session. I felt blessed and warmed by the connection to another human being.

Now, if I felt this so deeply simply by a touch and a smile, can you imagine what the residents must feel when they connect with others? Can you imagine how important such connections to others is in their lives? It really made me think.

Blessings in my life. See what I mean?

It has been a very busy couple of months. During the last 60 days or so I have been working hard to expand my passion for music therapy through a variety of means. First, I have been growing my company through collaborations with other music therapists to provide music therapy services to as many older adults as possible. Meetings with long term care and Alzheimer’s facility administrators has been very exciting. As I speak about my own passion for music therapy with older adults I seem to ignite excitment in the administrators I speak with. I can feel the excitement all around. It is electrifying.

I have also been working hard to finish up my book. I met with my editor last week to embark on plans to put this book out into the world and begin helping music therapists and other creative arts therapists build successful practices. As I met with my editor I found myself, once again, sharing my passion for what I do. Not only did I express my passion for music therapy, but I also voiced my desire to help my professional colleagues build private practices. I saw myelf as a catalyst for expanding creative arts therapies throughout the country. This is indeed an exciting prospect. A prospect I wasn’t consciously aware of when I started this journey.

It truly is an exciting time in my career and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

I am working on a book about how to start and run a successful private practice. Initially I wrote it from the perspective of a music therapist building a music therapy practice. However, I would like to expand my readership and write for a variety of creative arts therapists and expressive arts therapists.

If you are a music therapist, art therapist, drama therapist, dance therapist, or any type of creative arts therapist, I would like your input on this book. Please post on my blog and let me ask you some questions.

Kathy Lindberg, MT-BC