For a past assignment, I was tasked with writing a song. While all of my other song assignments were to be written for a specific client or clinical purpose, this song was supposed to be all for me. I was a bit perplexed, as I didn’t know what to write about. One night I was attempting to learn an Olivia Rodrigo song and was failing miserably. I began plucking at my guitar and reflecting on how internship was going so fast by and how crazy it was that I only had 2 more months left. As I plucked, the words “faster and faster” kept echoing through my head. Soon I began putting the words to a me ..read more

My best attempt at recreating the scene from the Inside by Bo Burnham I am required to take part in weekly repertoire checks during my supervision time. Often my supervisors will request particular songs or types of songs for me to bring to my repertoire check. This last week, my supervisors requested I bring in a song that reflected how I am currently feeling. The song I chose to bring in was “That Funny Feeling” by Bo Burnam. To me, the song reflected the complicated way I have been feeling during this time of change with all that is happening in my life and in the world around me. As the s ..read more

For my assignment this week I read the book Big Magic; Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. Gilbert divides this book into six parts; Courage, Enchantment, Permission, Persistence, Trust, and Divinity. Each of these parts focuses on how one can embody each of those things to let go of their fear and to embrace their creativity in life. Gilbert shares many good thoughts on combating fear and embracing creativity in this book, three of these ideas particularly stuck out to me.  Courage In the part entitled “Courage”, Gilbert discusses being courageous in the face of your fears ..read more

A majority of music therapy students have to leave their home areas for internship. This was also the case for me. I am from a small town in Iowa, so Springfield, IL was a big change for me. I love traveling and exploring new places, so I have enjoyed getting to explore Springfield during my time in internship. These are some of my favorite things about the Springfield area. The Stores As stated, I am from a very small town. Something that excited me when I got to Springfield was that there was a large mall and a Target in town! Where I am from the closest mall and Target are a half an hour a ..read more

My new friend, the Q-Chord! Hello all! I hope your week has been going well! As of this Friday, I have one month left of my internship!! During these last few months of my internship I have taken on more and more responsibility during music therapy sessions. Along with this greater responsibility, I have also gotten to experience things that I have never gotten to experience before. During my blog post this week, I will be discussing some of these new experiences! Leading Sessions Alone Last week, one of my supervisors had an emergency situation. Due to this, my supervisor was unable to accomp ..read more

We all have our personal holidays; birthdays, anniversaries, etc. I have my own personal holiday that happened this last week that is a bit peculiar. February 15th marked my 5th annual Rejection Day celebration. A quick disclaimer, this day has nothing to do with Valentine’s Day, which occurs the day before. Rejection Day is the day that found out I was rejected from what I thought was my dream college. I figured this is a timely story to share as many are applying and auditioning for music therapy programs and internships this time of year. When I decided that I was going to major in music t ..read more

Due to Valentine’s Day, love is a hot topic during the month of February. I figured for my blog post this week I would share something that I love, songbooks! With the internet, songbooks are not as necessary as they formally were. However, I find songbooks to be incredibly great resources for discovering and learning songs. Following are some of my favorite song books that I love to make use of during my music therapy work. The Daily Ukulele The Daily Ukulele is wonderful. This book has an amazing range of genres, ranging from jazz, musical theater, rock and roll, and country. The songs in t ..read more

My car stuck in the snow on Thursday morning. Hello all! We had a lot of snow this last week in Springfield. I hope you are staying warm wherever you are at! Snow days are something I thought would not experience anymore after finishing school. However, with the snowstorm that hit Springfield, I had two snow days. As a child, I loved snow days; it was so much fun to have a day to play in the snow and watch movies. Even in college, snow days were a wonderful opportunity to practice selfcare and to get ahead on assignments. However, I found that I don’t quite enjoy these snow days as much as I d ..read more

My team members and I leading a virtual music activity at the WIU Adapted Motor Clinic, spring 2021. Interdisciplinary work has been something that has interested me since I started college. During my time at WIU, I took part in the WIU Adapted Motor Clinic. This was a multidisciplinary project that provided physical education services to local students with special needs. During my time working in the Adapted Motor Clinic, I had the opportunity to collaborate and co-treat with students studying to be educators, speech language pathologists, and recreation therapists. I believe there is much v ..read more

Throughout my internship, I have been tasked with writing and recording songs for my assignments. Prior to internship, I wrote a few songs, but they were mainly songs I kept to myself or simple hello/goodbye songs I used in sessions. I was not confident in my songwriting skills, so I hardly ever shared the songs I wrote out of fear that people would dislike them. My internship at MTC has helped me grow as a songwriter, particularly writing songs for clinical use. Most of the songs I have written, I am now using at the Hope School during our sessions there. Along with writing songs, I was also ..read more