By Sarah Sparrow, MT-BC
The privilege of bringing life into the world is a gift that is impossible to describe justly in words. For MT-BCs, this also introduces a series of interesting career decisions. I originally wanted to work part-time after my son was born. This works out really well for many people, but for others, like myself, we quickly come to two realizations: 1) If we went back to work part-time and had a nanny or daycare, from a financial standpoint we would barely break even (if that) considering the cost of gas and the time commuting; and 2) we fall much, much more in love with baby than we could have even imagined so spending all day with him/her wasn’t as inconceivable as we had originally thought.
I love being mommy to my son more than anything in the world, and right now I wouldn’t trade it for the best music therapy job on the planet. At the same time, I have a desire to stay connected to my music therapy community. After all, all of us have chosen this career path because we.love.it., plain and simple. Even after babies, career changes, and higher education, we will always be music therapists at heart. How do we as music therapists continue to be involved in and contribute to the music therapy community while following our passions of homemaking and child-rearing? I realize that the possibilities are endless – as mommies, we have to daily dig deep into our creativity for various activities (getting baby to sleep? how to grocery shop around naps? getting baby to eat lunch? keeping baby away from various household places and things?). I’m sure there are many I’ve missed, but in this post I’m going to share 5 ways:
1. Sharpen your music “chops”: As a stay-at-home mom, I have opportunities to listen to music pretty much all day, while driving, doing dishes, or cooking dinner. What a great opportunity to learn new styles of music that I can later implement into my live music playing! I also have music playing goals for myself; one is to learn a new song on guitar every week. I have found that my practice sessions are often masked as “play time” with my son. He loves to clap and dance to the music or strum the guitar strings while I play chords. It’s a little unconventional, but I am still practicing!
2. Stay connected to your local music therapy community: Palm Beach Music Therapy Institute (PBMTI) has been making great efforts to keep the South Florida music therapy community connected. Take advantage of the happy hours at Duffy’s across the county and meet other MT-BCs in your area (ok, I’m listening to myself….I still need to get out to one of these events — but you should, too!).
Stay in contact with past MT-BC colleagues – have regular coffee dates and just ask them what they are learning from their current experiences. Attend local in-services offering CEUs or even just an seminar that offers information that is relevant info to your field or area of expertise; for example, attending a seminar on aging would be very beneficial to an MT-BC with experience in geriatrics or hospice.
Facebook and Twitter! Facebook and Twitter! Facebook and Twitter! These two social networking sites can be so beneficial to a mommy looking to stay current on what is happening in music therapy right now…especially if you “like” the PBMTI Facebook page. If there is a news story or medical/psychology study relevant to our field, chances are you will see something about it there (*hint*hint* – go do that right now).
Also…Attend AMTA conferences whenever possible. They are wonderful. Enough said.
3. Read: I will admit, I had a lot more time to read before my son was walking, and a lot more before that when he was nursing 5-6 times a day for 30 minutes at a time (precious, sitting time….anyway). The first MT resources that I come to my mind are the Journals (Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives…the big ones). Those are great sources! So much good info coming out of those two journals. I will have to be honest, if I read one article in JMT I immediately feel the need to sleep for about 4 hours – so much to process! So many numbers! But there are many, many other resources in addition to the research-and-stats-heavy ones.
Anybody read the newspaper or online news sources? Check out the medicine/psychology section! There are so many studies being conducted in the medical field that are relevant to music therapists everywhere.
Blogs. Blogs. Blogs. Every mommy loves (some) blogs. Here is one you will love the entirety of: musictherapytween.com. Michelle Erfurt, MT-BC, is a local music therapist who is also a mom, and there are so many resources on her blog for active, full-time music therapists as well as those of us who are taking a break from clinical work for the time being. Another one of my favorite reads is musictherapymaven.com by Kimberly Sena-Moore, MM, MT-BC.
4. Be an advocate for music therapy: People ask me all the time, “Do you work? Or do you just do this? (usually said with a sweeping motion to my baby, diaper bag, stroller, leaking sippy cup, and whatever object my son is currently chewing on. *Side note: this is not the most politically correct way to ask a stay-at-home mom if she works outside her home, but, really, but most of the time it is purely innocent, just a poor choice of words.*) However politically correct or incorrect the phrasing, questions like this are a great segway into educating and advocating for music therapy! A solid answer may sound something like this, “Well, yes I am staying home with my baby right now, but I am a music therapist by trade. Before he/she was born, I worked for ______ company, using music and music activities to address ______ goal areas for clients with ______ …” you know the drill from there. Seriously, what better advocates for music therapy than music therapists who are mothers? We go to the grocery store in the middle of the day with cute babies who attract kind, friendly, talkative, and even sometimes nosy people. So many opportunities to share about our great field!
Another way to be an advocate for music therapy is to blog or repost articles about music therapy to social networks. Spread the word in your sphere of influence and educate, educate, educate!
Need more ideas for advocacy? Visit the two blogs I mentioned. You will find some excellent resources and ideas there!
5. Think like a therapist. Everyone can befit from knowing a music therapist. I don’t think I’m saying that purely out of vocational bias – think about it: a friend in an emotionally tumultuous situation would prefer a gentle, trustworthy, active listener over a gossip or a nervous chattterbox any day. An elderly gentlemen who is struggling to place his groceries on the conveyer belt at the supermarket needs a friendly, positive, reassuring, unhurried person standing in line behind him. A child who is learning how to strum a guitar, play a drum, or dance to music benefits immensely from trained eyes and ears that are poised and ready to recognize the slightest improvement or change and immediately provide positive reinforcement to that behavior. A sleepy baby will settle down much faster to a lullaby that applies the iso-rhythmic principle. Our training touches every area of our lives. If we look closely, we can find ways that our skill set touches even the seemingly mundane parts of life.
To my fellow SAHM-MT-BCs: let’s enjoy this special time in our lives to spend all the little moments with our tiny ones who grow up too fast. And let’s do our best to stay plugged in and actively contribute when possible to our music therapy community.
What are some other ways you have found to “stay in the loop”?
