STOP!!!! Stop what you are doing right now! Take a deep breath. How did that feel? Pretty great, right? Take another one. A slow, deep breath. Remind yourself to simply breathe and take a second to step away from everything. Close your eyes and take another deep breath. You’ve got this. When I feel myself starting to tense up and my shoulders slowly creeping toward my ears, I remind myself to stop, take a moment. Breathe. Remember, to breathe. Previously, I’ve talked A LOT about self care in a series called “Love Yourself”. However, it’s soooo important that I’m going to rehash it now. Take at least a little time out of every single day to…you guessed it… Do something (literally ANYTHING) for yourself. We get so consumed in the tasks we “have” to do every day that we simply forget to take care of ourselves. We forget that in order to care for our families, help other people, or be successful at work, that we first have to take care of our selves. We have to make sure our proverbially batteries Read More
Tag: goals
2016: Simplify, Streamline, Selfcare
After a very long and productive meeting on Tuesday, Rachel and I established three key words for the new year. Simplify, Streamline, Self-care I have been in an constant state to growth, movement, and just trying to keep up over the past several months and needed to take a moment to assess where I’m at and what the next steps are. Personally, I think the business will continue to grow and develop without much extra work, which is good because I’ve run out of hours in the day to add new tasks. That’s not to say that I won’t be working, but that I’m attempting to not take on anything EXTRA that will distract from the awesome growth that is happening and instead use any additional time I have (outside my normal work load) to focus on enhancing what is working and eliminating or adjusting what is not. In 2016, I believe we can ALL benefit from is implementing the words above. I have decided to adopt these words as not only a work motto but as a personal theme Read More
Happy New Year – Looking back at 2015
After our wedding in September 2014, life for Chad and I was supposed to slow down. I remember telling myself every day leading up to our nuptials that it would “be ok, you’ll have plenty of down time when you get back from your honeymoon”. Never have I been so wrong. As soon as we got home from our honeymoon, life resumed it’s hectic pace but at an even faster speed. Even though it’s been busy, it has been the most crazy, fantastic ride! Two years ago this week, Rachel Rambach and I sat down to talk about the holidays, our favorite books and plans for the new year over a casual cup of coffee at Target (both of which are still big parts of our routine). We talked about life and how great it would be to open a music therapy clinic space. And that was just the start… Within months, Rachel and I had formed an LLC and started renting space from Capitol City Music in Springfield, IL. We created early childhood classes that have take off Read More
We Are… Goal Oriented
GOALS & OBJECTIVES! Those are two key words in the realm of music therapy! GOALS is even an essential word in the AMTA definition of music therapy: “Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.” After an assessment, music therapists create individualized goals for each client. One of the biggest misconceptions I deal with is the thinking that these goals are music oriented, like learning to play an instrument, when in fact nearly all of the goals are non-musical. Major goal areas include, but are not limited to, the following: emotional well-being physical health social functioning communication abilities cognitive skills motor skills These goals can then be addressed through music-based interventions such as: music improvisation instrument playing receptive music listening song writing lyric discussion music and imagery music performance learning through music MTs continually re-evaluate their clients’ needs, assess their progress, and modify goals as needed. MT interventions and interactions are all directly based on the Read More