My first experience with a music therapist

Well,

I went for about an hour today and experienced time with a Music Therapist. I had met some of the people prior to today, the ones that are in the program. There's Richard, who likes to shake hands, and Donna who enjoys singing. There's Bruce, the coordinator of the program. And today I met Sue, the therapist that works with the developmentally challenged people in the program.

It was fun, and it was eye opening. I loved to watch what Sue did, the Music therapist. She played an opening song, in which she sang hello to each person, and had them choose which person to sing hello to next. Then she did TV-Theme songs. She had me hand out percussion instruments to the people, and they played along with the songs. One of the (I keep wanting to say residents, even though they don't live there) people was able to guess what themes she was singing just by giving the lady a few clues "This person was on it, and this person was on the show..." At the end, she sang a good-bye song and I helped her pack up.

I think I need to wait and visit a few more times before forming an opinion about the field. As Sue said, Music Therapy is using music for non-musical things. Music uses both sides of the brain. As a career, I'm still not sure about it.

The pay is awesome. And it doesn't seem like you would ever get harrassed, and the people are all wonderfully nice. But I'm not sure if Music Therapy is for me. I'll wait to pass judgement until I work with kids a few times. And check out accounting.

I really enjoy problem solving. I can see where it would come in with Music Therapy - dealing with people. But I think I may need a more...stimulating career that puts me out and communicating with a wide variety of people.