One of the great things about the winter holidays is the opportunity to unwind a bit. Spending time with family is always nice, having a few days to relax is good, and you’re done with all the holiday music for another year.
One of the less great things about the winter holidays is that you have to get creative again.
For the last month, it has been really easy to plan activities in groups and individual sessions. Most of my topics have revolved around Christmas and excitement about the holidays. The adult groups went caroling (it went great, by the way), the kid groups were able to do some stuff with Rudolph and Frosty, individual sessions did songwriting about Christmas gifts and getting a break from school. But now I’m back to it, and I have to find inspiration from other sources. There’s only so much reflection about the holidays I can do.
So what’s the best place to get inspiration? Why, straight from the source! I started today with my adult groups, asking them what they wanted to do in music this year. They talked about listening to music, singing, writing a song about the adult day services program, and dancing. I particularly liked the positive feedback about the experience of going out to carol. We may try to do that again before Christmas next year…do some folk songs or something.
As the week goes on and I start seeing people again, I’m going to try to take my cues from them. I have a treatment plan in place for all of my clients, but it’s also nice to know the direction they want to go in music therapy.
Hope everyone had a great holiday! Thanks for reading!
-Jesse
The Music Therapy Guy 