Goodbye January

The last day of January. Let's prepare for February. A lot going on...but it's a short month, so will fly by!

I slept in today :) Yesterday I had training for Resounding Joy, so I couldn't sleep in at all (training from 9-6pm). I had a late night on Friday--went to Jenn's parents house for a very nice dinner! Ryan and his dad were there. It was so great to see everyone and to have a home cooked meal :)

Tomorrow, the team has a presentation for the Integrative Center at Scripps. I have several articles to read and then to present to some important people. Hopefully all goes well.

February will be a busy month with a few presentations, my first time leading various sessions, and tons of work.

Only 18 days until I will visit Teren.

Today I will go grocery shopping, maybe check out the outlets(?), and get some work done, as well as practice guitar.

Month 2, here I come.

Gonna Take a Sentimental Journey

I've got that song stuck in my head...gonna set my heart at ease.

I had a good day. Left the office at 6pm to come home and finish up my "You're the Boss!" assignment. There are 9 units total and units 1-3 are due tomorrow. I just finished up. Coming up with your own company is a time consuming process. Lot's of work...but if I ever do end up starting my own company down the line, I've got all my resources in one convenient place.

Week 4 is just about done. Was it just me or did this 1st month of internship fly by? phew.

I don't have any pictures to show you, but I'll put one up that is on my computer desktop.

Happy Friday, all!



Gonna Take a Sentimental Journey :)

The Subconcious is Freaking Me OUT!

Let me tell you all about my mandalas!

Today I was reading the MARI Book (a book that tells you what your mandalas mean..after you draw them) and found out some pretty fascinating things about 3 of my 6 mandalas.

Mandala #2 "Spiral" I used my two favorite colors: Turquoise and Purple



It fit perfectly into Stage #1 titled "The Void". "In sexual relations lacks the sensual or intimate" The purple meant, "Marks the 1st grief of separation. The leaving of the Beloved! May have a programming of self-sacrifice". The aqua color meant, "Attempting to heal the trauma that may have occurred at these levels". CRAZY?! YES. So..honey, that means I miss you and am still trying to recover from saying goodbye to you 4, almost 5 weeks ago. When I read this one I seriously had a Twilight Zone moment.


Mandala #6 "The Beginning" I had to listen to music while drawing



This one fit into Stage #4 titled "The Beginning". Ironic, much?? Totally freaking me out...same title that I gave my mandala. The pink represents "dependent, lacks energy, may also be at a place to rest and get nurtured, massage might be good". Ya, I'll take a massage. Not lacking energy yet, but maybe when I look at the mandala in say, oh..3 months. The royal blue represents "receptive/intuitive, going back to depths--good mother". I feel that as a MT, I have to be receptive to people's needs, concerns, tension, pain, etc, and as a MT we have to follow our intuition. The "healthy blues" signify "passivity and dependence on the feminine (co-dependence dynamics)". I saw this as me being dependent on my senior interns. I feel myself getting a little uneasy and nervous for having to go out on the hospital floors by myself. With time.

#5 "Mystery" draw mandala on black paper



This mandala fit into Stage #8 called "Functioning Ego". I didn't have time to look up what each specific color meant, but the description of the stage says enough on its own. "One has to come into full adulthood with an identity in the world, is able to be focused, and to be a mature person. One may also be concerned about their career or what they want to do. The specialist lives here".

Throughout this internship, I hope to find my identity as a Music Therapist. Before starting only 3 weeks ago, I thought I wanted to work with children with physical and mental disabilities. I may have already proven myself wrong.

So...try out the mandalas. They are quite amazing and can teach you a lot about yourself...things you never knew!

xoxo

Intern #95

So..I am intern number 95! Just found out last week that I am the 95th intern at MusicWorx. Cool, ya? That's a lot of interns!

Today was a good day. Everything went smoothly--nothing out of the ordinary. Symposium went well. We had to go over AMTA.Pro, which is an online podcast thingy. Music Therapists put articles online and they record themselves reading it..kinda neat. Today we went over Group MT for Children and MT Reimbursements. Who knew getting a reimbursement for a MT session could be so involved??? yikes. Anyway, if you are a MT student, intern, etc..I highly recommend you check out the AMTA.Pro site. Just go to the AMTA website, then at the right side find AMTA.Pro...then select the article(s) you are interested in! Snap.

I will leave you tonight with a picture! The sunset tonight was beautiful outside our office! I got a quick picture on my cell phone and you can see my reflection, the office reflection, and the sunset all in one...Enjoy.




Tomorrow we will be at the hospital all day. I hope to get signed off of documentation this week!


xoxo

Week 4

Bring on week 4!

Saturday I went to the McDonald's Center presentation. It was about the 28 day, in patient drug and alcohol addiction facility. It was very informative and touching. After that ended, I drove home, well to the car dealership (my pesty little engine light likes to pop up every-so-often) and then home. I had a lazy afternoon working on some MusicWorx stuff. We had dinner at the Nov's house. Mom is still vacationing it up in New Zealand/Australia. She comes back a week from Tuesday.

Sunday morning--slept in! Did some more work, watched football with the boys (go colts and saints!), then left for La Jolla at 1:45. I had to be at the office at 2:45 because we had "Alternative Happy Hour". Resounding Joy partners with this group which offers things such as yoga, toning, acupuncture, massage, Qi Gong, sound healing, and community drumming (Resounding Joy). So..the event lasted from 4-8pm and we did a drum circle from 7-7:45. The drum circle was tons of fun..the rest of the three hours was a bit boring, but we had a booth so we had to be there...

I finished up some work tonight and now I am off to bed. Early morning tomorrow. 2 events on the weekend made my weekend very short. I feel jipped. oh well.

I will leave you tonight with my last 2 mandalas.


#5: Mandala on black paper
Title: Mystery




#6: Listen to music while drawing
Title: The Beginning

3 Weeks Down!

This week flew by! The rain made our week a bit inconvenient, but overall...a good week.

Wednesday

I went to Teri, Inc. Led a Hello song and 1 intervention. The day went by so quickly! Thank goodness, because when we did our orientation and observations, the day felt sooo long! When in action it goes by like a snap! It was fun and I am learning a lot from Terri, the Music Therapist there.

After Teri, Inc., we had D (rett's syndrome), then had to head BACK to the office! geeze. Wednesday nights for the next 6 weeks we have Polster group which is a Scripp's funded Music as Medicine class for women with cancer. It was pouring all day Wednesday and we didn't know if anyone would show up! We lugged all our equipment, in the rain mind you, and 1 person showed up! 5 on 1 service..hahah. Barbara goes to Polster sessions. It was pretty cool though. It was an overview of what is to come the next 5 weeks of the class. We went over drumming, breathing techniques, relaxation exercises, toning, and other cool stuff. It wasn't until 8pm when I left the office.

Thursday

Glenbrook hospice. 2 of my patients that I saw last week passed away. It is really sad to think about it, but at least I know that I helped either ease their pain, put a smile on their face, or just sing them a song. M, the client I talked about last week (the one who wasn't breathing for like 30 seconds at a time) passed, as did another woman who we saw with her family.

Supervision with Barbara was on Thursday! We went to Panera, had a nice lunch, and then sat there for another 2 hours discussing our internship: expectations, schedule, projects, case study, student competencies/evaluations, documentation, interns....the list goes on and on. It was overall a good meeting.

Back to the office at around 2:45 to finish up Inventory! We finally finished!!! Left the office at 5:00pm!

After leaving the office, I got a lovely message from Aunt Ronna inviting me to meet her, Henry and the kids for din din at Islands! It worked out perfectly--perfect timing, perfect restaurant, and perfect company! I was soo glad I was able to make it and not have to work LATE for one day out of the week.

I fell asleep for the last 10 minutes of Grey's Anatomy. The rain started up at about 9:30ish and made me really tired! I slept like a rock.


Today/Friday

We had TACO today. Stephanie and I did... TACO stands for Third Avenue Charitable Organization. TACO serves breakfast to the homeless every Monday and Friday mornings. Resounding Joy (Barbara's non-profit) has a contract with them for the 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month to provide community-based,recreational music. So..we show up, and guess what? No music because of the weather. bummer.

Back to the office. Did some hospital floors, Parkinson's group, lunch. Stephanie and Bahareh had to plan for McDonald's on Monday, so I started inputting our monthly data into the computer. Then, at 2:30pm I left for D's session, where I would meet Desiree (She goes to Teri, Inc. on Friday so we meet at D's). After that---back to the office for our intern dinner!

The 4 of us (Bahareh, Stephanie, Desiree, and I) went to Fidel's for dinner. It is a Mexican restaurant. So delicious. I got the special. Shrimp tacos! Yum yum. It was nice to get out of the office, get to know each other and let loose. The strawberry margarita was delicioso!

Now, here I am...in the present! I felt so behind not blogging the last couple nights; however, I have been too tired and drained to rethink my days! haha.

I should get signed off of documentation next week. That means I will be able to go on the hospital floors by myself, as opposed to with a Senior Intern. fun stuff.

I'm off to bed. Happy Weekend!

xoxo

Nap, Anyone?

Okay, so just to prove my mom wrong, well...not wrong, but to show her it's okay...here is a link to an article about sleep. Naps equal a positive thing! However, I haven't taken any naps and probably won't be for a long while.

http://health.ivillage.com/slideshow/health/5_reasons_you_need_more_sleep/napping_does_your_brain_good.html

I'm a bit sleepy, so will just give a brief update.

Today consisted of all hospital rounds. Saw a few patients, learned how to document Declines and N/A's--people who decline MT for some reason (usually because they are tired) and people who either aren't in their room, or currently sleeping.

I did my 5th mandala today...will post a picture soon.

Headed home around 6:30 and made a quick stop at Target for a few things. The trips were asking why I was home so late....and they were showing me that they were in their pj's already and I wasn't! The first thing I always do when I come home is put my pj's on...so they are picking up my habits rather quickly.

Tomorrow, Teri, Inc., our private client D, Inventory, and Polster. Polster is a "music as medicine" group that meets for 6 weeks from 6-7:30 on Wednesdays. It is for women who are cancer survivors and those fighting cancer. Hits close to home, so should be an interesting group.

Night night.

Here comes the Rain do do do do...

I love going to sleep when it is raining outside. Something about the repetitive noise and trickling outside my window is reassuring and soothing. Traffic was okay today, even with the rain 1) because it was MLK day, people were off of work (cough*not me*cough) and 2) because I left early and came home late. Left the house at 7am and left the office at 6:30ish which is before and after the traffic rush. I was worried the roads might be unbearable with the rain. Lucky me.

McDonalds Center: Lyric Analysis and Songwriting. We analyzed "Let it Be" and then split into two groups to insert our own words/lyrics. The whole group enjoyed the session, lots of clients were excited about the song choice (yay!), and the group came together to write a song that they could call theirs.

Integrative Center: (last Monday I went to Parkinson's--every other week I will be at Integrative) 10:30am, group where people are changing their lifestyle. Mainly people who have suffered massive heart attacks, weight gain/loss, death, abuse etc. Could be any reason and any age. Youngest kid is 16, P, and P is a very bright young man. He saw he had a problem and made a choice to move from Alaska to join this program with his dad. Dad did the program 2 years earlier when he suffered a massive heart attack. The theme today was Lyric Analysis and Creative Arts. Lots of tears.

Then it was time for some quick office work. Barbara gave me the task of sharpening the colored pencils. This is the time when I tell myself that I am an "intern". haha. 12:30 the other girls came back from Parkinson's and it was time for lunch and symposium. Remember, Mondays are the only days where Barbara is with us the whole day. We have a social lunch..then after we eat we discuss McDonald Center session, go over our schedule for the week, patient highlights (Chapman kids...Cathy's story of the week! my favorite thing ever), and assigned reading. This week we had to read two of Barbara's articles that were published in the Journal of Music Therapy.

3:30 it was time to go back to the office. I was assigned, or maybe I volunteered, to document all the quotes clients and patient's have said during/after a music therapy session. I had, along with help from Desiree, to find pertinent, meaningful quotes that clients said throughout all of 2009. It took a couple hours, but it got finished and sent to Barbara at 6:30ish. They had to be done today and sent off to Becky (another Musicworx past intern and Chapman grad!) so she could finish inputting data. Fun stuff.

Tomorrow we have to be at the office at 9am (whooo whoa!) for hospital rounds. We have quite a few referrals to get to tomorrow am.

1 month from today I will be in Cincinnati! The countdown continues. Rande--you were right, 24 weeks left! haha.

My toes are freezing!

So my toes are cold. You know why? My husband and dad are basically the same person. They both don't like to turn on the heat. They say you always marry someone that reminds you of your dad--yup, I did :) I'm at home for the weekend. It has been very relaxing and quiet. My mom is in New Zealand on a cruise with her sister, Christie, and friends, Pam and Terri. It's quiet here 1) because my mom isn't here and 2) because there aren't any triplets living at my parent's house! haha. But..it is cold in the house. Don't tell Dad, but while he was gone I turned on the heat. hehe.

Wanted to share some pictures with you of our office in La Jolla. The office building itself is not literally connected to the hospital, but a short walk, and on the campus. We have one little office in a rather large, multi-level office building. There are also doctor's offices, nurses, and other staff working in the building. We have to keep our door shut while in our office because in the past, we have been told we are too loud and noisy. We are making music, so....okay, we'll keep it down!




This picture is from the back closet looking towards the front door of our office.








From the back of the office looking to the right.













The closet AKA storage for instruments!










The closet view to the left. Lots of books, instruments, and great resources for us to use!



Inventory, which I have been talking a lot about lately, requires us to "check off" everything on a list to make sure we have it. Can you now imagine how time-consuming this process is? Almost done, almost done. Here's to another quick, fast, meaningful week full of learning, knowledge, and growth.

Oh..if you've been "following" me and aren't officially a follower, please either comment or become a follower! I would love to know who is reading my blog!

Mandalas

Oh...I forgot!

I'll leave you here with some of my mandalas.

We had to title them and do a certain thing for each...
#1: Light, free choice (in previous post, not shown here)
#2: Spiral, use 2 favorite colors
#3: Growth, use 2 least favorite colors
#4: "Out of the Water", use non-dominant hand.

Which one is your favorite?

#2



#3



#4

TGIF!

Happy Friday!

Today I was with Stephanie doing rounds on the ICU. We went to the SICU...can anyone guess what that stands for? Surgical Intensive Care Unit. Anyone recovering from surgery. We saw a man who was recovering from a fall---85 yrs old...all drugged up. Was not ready for music therapy because he was so disoriented. We were not able to orient him at all. Oh well...

We then saw a very nice man, in his 60's who suffered a spinal cord injury (we think from surfing). He asked for Pink Floyd. Awesome.

Then it was time for our Parkinson's group at 11:15am for an hour.

Lunch, then more floors. We saw B, 68 year old male, retired police officer. Another nice man! We got the referral yesterday while at the ICU, and when we went to see him this morning, he was on his way up to the 5th floor, which is the same as 4W/4E. Not really sure how it is the same (because it is a different floor)...but it is...so we bill 5E to the 4th floor. I think it must be for overflow. So we saw B on the 5th floor. He had surgery for his bladder cancer. He was in very good spirits, talked about how much he loves Buddy Holly, Elvis, Rolling Stones. He reminisced a lot and talked about his wife. Then he got this idea that we should serenade to his wife over the phone...so we left her a voice message singing "Love me Tender". Love Me Tender is the ONLY Elvis movie where Elvis dies in the end...interesting, eh? I ACTUALLY knew that random fact, but B informed us as well! He said his wife tells him he is a terrible singer..haha..but he said today, for the first time, he actually thought he sounded good and on-pitch. His mood really changed, he was happy, laughing, talking non-stop, and asked us to come back! So...we said that if he was still there on Monday that we would return...but, hopefully he is gone (bc that means he can go home!).

At 2:30 I had to leave for D's session from 3-4. After that, home sweet home.

I'm keeping busy as to not think about my longing for Teren. I love him so much! 4 weeks and 6 days until I see him again. 24 weeks left of internship. This timeline, countdown thing really shows my personality--Melancholy/Perfect. Hahah...

xoxo

Such a lovely place, such a lovely face...

Wednesday came and went quickly. Desiree started the morning with inventory and then did hospital rounds until lunch. I went to the 5th East with Bahareh. It is a new floor for us--we thought we weren't supposed to do work on this floor--until we realized they brought up ICU patients from the 1st floor. Overflow, basically. 1st, 3rd, and 5th floors are all ICU floors. While working with ICU patients, we have to first read their vital signs (found in the nurses station on a large computer screen), and document it into "Pre-test" in our documentation book BEFORE we begin our session. This is in hopes to raise/lower (whatever is appropriate) certain levels during music therapy treatment. The first thing we do once our session is over is stop our timer (we time our session for billing purposes) and then go read the vital signs and document them under "Post-test".

I watched half of American Idol on Tuesday, finished it up on Wednesday. Wednesday night I watched half....when will I finish the other half? Not sure. I don't think it's as much fun without Paula.

Today I met the team at Glenbrook for our two hour hospice rounds. 10 out of 12 beds were full today. Sandy, a very nice nurse, explained all the patients to us--usually she will recommend where to go first based on need, if family is present, if awake, etc. Stephanie and I visited a patient with 5 family members present. Sandy said that her death was "imminent". Family had just flown from Texas to be there. We sang religious songs, as they were Christian.

Stephanie and I also saw M. He was lying in bed, unresponsive. Stephanie sang Hotel California. M was not hooked up to any machines. At one point he stopped breathing. Stephanie and I locked eyes...we were a bit freaked. About 30 seconds later, the heavy breathing began again. Stephanie asked if I wanted to play, so I played EM, am, dm in sequence, finger picking. Stephanie and I vocalized/hummed. It was really beautiful. While we were doing this, M's doctor came in to check in. She said that M had been like this for almost a week and she was surprised he was still "hanging on". She said to us that the music was beautiful and that we were "helping him pass to the other side". She came in right at the time he wasn't taking breaths, put her hand over his heart, and didn't feel much of anything. Then...another breath. She couldn't believe it either.

After hospice, back to the office for lunch. Bahareh and I ate together. It was nice getting to know more about her. At 2pm it was time for supervision with Noelle. Noelle works for Music Worx and for Resounding Joy (Barbara's companies). Every other Thursday I will have supervision with her on the hospital floors. Today she gave us a tour of the ICU, 1st floor. There are even codes to get in...and I know it! haha. I feel so important! hehe. Tour was good and we got 5 referrals while down there. Stephanie and I will go to ICU tomorrow to follow up with the referrals.

Tonight...Grey's Anatomy with Aunt Ronna! Yay! She brought mahi mahi for dinner...yummy. Kambria said it smelled like, "dog food" so she ate chicken. haha.

Tomorrow is Friday!!!

American Idol

Hi, All--

Quick update for today. Nothing too exciting happened today. Desiree and I had another day of Scripps training. This time it was for our specific hospital: Scripps, La Jolla. Learned basic things about the hospital, a tour, blah, blah. 8am-4:30pm. The last 2 hours was all about transferring patients. From the bed to the gurney, from the gurney to the bed, from the floor to the toilet. There were actually some pretty cool machines which we got to see and try out. There is the "Maximove"which was my favorite name. It looks like a mini hammock and is used to transport people who cannot move at all, or really large and in charge people. ;) The maximove is not to be used when patients are claustrophobic. I should have taken a picture. This portion of the orientation was a waste of time for us MTs because we will not be transferring patients.

Desiree and I planned our session with D. D is the client with Rett's. We will be going to D without the Senior interns present, so we are both excited! We will be using a ukulele, Q-chord, various percussion instruments, and a sound drum. Will let you know tomorrow how it goes! Wish us newbies luck!

Who will be the next American Idol? If you know me at all, you know that I am a big Idol fan. I only watched the first half because I had some work to get done, but will follow up with the rest tomorrow night.

No TERI, Inc. tomorrow because Teri, the MT there, is out of town in Kauai! I told her to have a blast since T and I honeymooned there. I will hear all about it next week.

This week is already going by faster...yay!

xoxo

Every Little Thing's Gonna Be Alright

I made it to week two. 25 more weeks to go. Today started at 7:45 at the office. The seniors were preparing for the McDonald Center group that starts at 8:50am. The McDonald Center is a 28 day in-patient alcohol and drug addiction rehabilitation center. They are required to go to music therapy every Monday, attend counseling sessions, journal daily, and other things such as meditation. I was told that these patients will never miss their smoke break. ha. The session turned out great! There are four music therapy lesson plans for this group. Today's session was music therapy and creative arts (drawing/coloring). Session started with a relaxation exercise. I participated...we were supposed to visualize something (that represented the addiction) in one hand, and it was something heavy, weighing down on us. I visualized this teeny-tiny fire ball. I've been having a lot of tension in between my shoulders and viewed this fire ball as the tension I have been keeping there. In our other hand (which was my left hand) we were supposed to visualize something (that represented recovery) that was weightless, positive, etc. I visualized a pure heart. The clients then were supposed to draw what they visualized on a mandala. They had two, and they drew their addiction one first. They were given 12 minutes. Some clients used every second, while others were done in 2 minutes. The next mandala represented their road to recovery. After finishing the mandalas, each client shared what they saw in the relaxation exercise and how it was represented in their mandala. Some of the drawings weren't very sophisticated, but how they discussed what it meant to them and how the negative transformed into this positive was just stunning. The clients then compared each of their mandalas with the whole group--you should have seen all the similarities. Just amazing--every client, although a different addition, different story, and different life, had very similar thoughts, feelings, and emotions while drawing their mandalas. Mandalas represent the unconscious thoughts in a person. It was a very successful session and I really enjoyed observing and participating.

Next I went with Bahareh to a Parkinson's group. 7 men with Parkinson's come to this group that works with a Physical Therapist (PT) and Music Therapist (MT) simultaneously. MT's are supposed to support the PT and clients while doing stretching, exercising, and counting. Piano is used--it was interesting to watch Bahareh play the piano--all improv. When clients raise their arms, the music should get higher and when the arms are lowered, the music should lower as well. Very simplistic (makes sense, right), but very helpful to the clients. The last 15 min. is purely MT--sing a long, egg shakers for movement (fine and gross), articulating words for speaking, and just for enjoyment! Next week we are going to bring the tone chimes!

Monday's are the only day when Barbara comes to the office. She observes the McDonald session, leads the integrative session (which I will go to next Monday--we switch off every week), and then we eat lunch and discuss in detail the McDonald session. We also go over patient highlights and the schedule for the week. You should see the schedule...yikes. All color-coded and fancy schmancy. At about 3:30 we were done with symposium.

After that, I went with Stephanie to 4West. That is the 4th floor, West side of Scripps La Jolla. The floors are divided into 2 wings, East and West. Pretty self-explanatory. I'm starting to slowly learn my way around the hospital...the first floor and lower level are a bit confusing, but I've got the other floors down.

Stephanie and I went to see patient, R (using initials for confidentiality) who had a brain aneurysm and who is only 21, married, and his wife is expecting a baby. R was in the ICU for I think a month at least, and was just moved up to 4W. His brother-in-law and wife were present. R is paralyzed on his left side. He tries to move his fingers on his left hand, but is unable to as of right now. You can see his frustration in his eyes, but his wife keeps motivating him. We sang some songs while he drummed with a paddle drum and mallet using his right hand. His wife would fool with him and move the drum so he had to work at hitting it! :) He asked for Incubus and Stephanie sang "Drive", then Stephanie asked if he liked reggae. He said yes, so she sang "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley. I'd only heard the song once before, but tried to sing along. The chorus is very good and pertains to the issues that R has been facing. A nurse came to jam with us (R wanted this nurse to "jam" with us, so she did). AWESOME nurse. For the first time I saw joy in his eyes. At the chorus, the line "and every little thing's gonna be alright" repeats a few times, and it became very emotional. You could see R tear up a bit. We kept repeating that line and he grabbed for his wife to hug him. It was very emotional. From what I've heard, he has made huge improvements from the ICU and is improving everyday. Very, very rewarding to say the least. I had to hold back my own tears.


Left the office at about 5:20pm. Tomorrow will be another orientation at Scripps, La Jolla. 8am-3pm, followed by inventory. yippee. Hear my excitement?

Tomorrow is our 6 month anniversary!! Geeze--those 6 months of marriage have flown by! Right, honey?? Pure bliss. I am one lucky wifey :)

All my love.

xoxo

Thurs/Fri Update

So, I'm already behind, but have caught my family up this weekend with my new adventure. I already got harassed about eating too many snacks, saying I have long days and if I'm sleeping enough. I am fine, don't worry please. My snacks are healthy, my days are long to me because I haven't actually WORKED my entire life, and I sleep plenty. My mom says I need to say goodbye to naps. I will not...if I find time for a nap and need one, I will take one :)

Geeze, mom.

Moving on...Thursday started at Glenbrook, a senior living community with a hospice wing. We work 2 hours in Hospice. It is a 6 room, 12 bed facility. I shadowed Stephanie and Bahareh and saw three clients. What an experience. I think I will really enjoy my time at Hospice.

We saw a private client with Rett's syndrome. It is only found in women (because it is on the X chromosome) and is a degenerative disease. We will see this client twice a week.

Thursday ended with hospital floors. Stephanie and I saw a client who was in a motorcycle accident and had lost his right leg. The client played us a song that they had written. Music is very powerful.

Ronna welcomed me when I got home on Thursday night to delicious Mac and Cheese! Yummy! We wanted to watch Grey's Anatomy together but I guess it's not on yet..boo.


On Friday, Desiree and I had our orientation to the adult program at TERI, Inc. The adult program starts at 22 years old on upward. The facility is very nice with different classrooms such as art, wood shop, a nice outdoor area for playing, swinging, eating, and a huge gym for working out.

After visiting our private client, we ended Friday at the hospital. I shadowed Stephanie and we visited a client who has asceding paralysis. She is in a great deal of pain in her feet so we did a relaxation excerise using a Kalimba and a relaxational script. Stephanie did a great job and the client said "I feel much more relaxed" after the session. YAY! That is exactly the reaction we wanted. After learning how to chart and bill the hospital, it was time for home.

I met Erica and the triplets at Temple at around 7pm. There was traffic, of course, so I met them at temple as opposed to going home and driving with them. Kambria was singing in the girls choir. Zachary and Jason sat on each side of me and we had a front row seat to watch Kambria. Zach leaned in towards me and asked, "Have you ever been to temple?" I responded, yes. He then continued, "It's pretty boring, isn't it?" OH...the things kids say. I told him to "enjoy the music" and that he could rest his head on my shoulder. Kambria did a fantastic job and looked great in her favorite outfit! ;)


Saturday was an early morning, too. No sleeping in? Not until Sunday I suppose. Resounding Joy is a non-profit that Dr. Barbara Reuer founded. It provides music to the community, not necessarily music therapy, but more recreational, creative, and community-based music. All of us interns went to the Farmer's Market somewhere in San Diego and played a Drum Circle. It was for the kids. Some of the kids jumped right in and others were a little skeptical. All-in-all, it was a great jamming session and was fun. It wrapped at noon then we had to load all the instruments and drop them off at the office.

By 1pm, I was on my way home. It took me exactly an hour to get home from La Jolla...traffic was moving! Lucky me. This weekend has provided me the opportunity to take NAPS and sleep in. I have been practicing my guitar and have been playing the piano for enjoyment. Chris and Sara are watching the Packers. Grandma is here taking a nap. I must get the nap thing from Grandma. haha. It all makes sense now.

That's it for me...back to Carlsbad around 7ish, of course after a homemade dinner from mom and a visit with my in-laws! :)

xoxo

Nap, Anyone?

Today was our orientation at TERI, Inc. We met Terri, not to be confused with TERI, Inc. Terri is the music therapist hired as a private contractor. She goes to TERI 3 days a week from 9-2pm. Long days...I must say. [Mom--Terri reminds me of a mix between Heidi and Terri..haha] Any who, we observed Terri's sessions and asked a ton of questions. I will be working there on Wednesdays from 9-2pm in the Childrens Center. They also have a separate location strictly for adults with DD (Developmental Disabilities). One of the best part about the location of TERI is that it is only about 20 minutes away from where I am staying in Carlsbad, and it is north, meaning: NO TRAFFIC!

Here is a link to TERI, Inc.'s website so you can learn more about them.

http://www.teriinc.org/

After we left TERI, I went to Trader Joe's to pick up a few things for the rest of the week...I need more snacks to keep me going before and after lunch. Getting home around 3pm, I was ready for a nap! Geeze louise. I am already tired, but luckily not mentally strained. Probably not used to such long days and getting up so early. Back to the college days of naps (when I can fit them in) and staying up late and getting up early to finish up work.

Barbara requires us to complete 6 mandalas during the first month of our internship and several personality tests. Tonight I completed my first mandala and we could use whatever colors we wanted. I was stumped at first as what to draw, but just let the colors flow. I'm not sure what it quite represents but Barbara will (supposedly) use these mandalas to better understand our personalities. We shall see...

Here is a photo of my first mandala.




Tonight I will also be completing a series of personality tests and some other paperwork. Exciting, I know.

Interns Schminterns

Oh, the life of the "intern" has begun. Desiree, the other new junior intern, and I met our Senior interns. They are very nice and basically took us through our next 6 months. They talked about hours needed (1040 in 6 months), our daily schedules, office work, etc. etc. Basically, diarrhea of the mouth. Although there are tons of things to get done, start, and accomplish, I am not stressed yet. phew. Keyword: yet.

We toured the hospital with Barbara (our director), had a TB shot, blood test for MMR, and had lunch in the hospital cafeteria in about 1 hour flat. Then it was off to tour the hospital with the Seniors. We will be doing bedside work on floors 4, 6, 7, and the NICU. We were told about the East wing and West wing, the differences, how to figure which one is which, blah blah. The view from the 7th floor of Scripps La Jolla is beautiful.

Afterwards, Desiree and I had to start inventory of the office. A long and time-consuming process. While going through the books and manuals, I came across "Documents Schmocuments: If It's Not Documented, It Didn't Happen". Us MT's from Chapman can totally name the author. Right? I read the title and immediately thought of Dr. Luce--once looking down to find the author's name, I was right. Documentation in the MT profession is so important, for the title's reason exactly. MusicWorx has its own way to properly chart and document sessions--something else I will be learning.

It will probably take us at least 2-3 weeks to complete our inventory task. Once we finished, we left the office at approximately 4:40pm. When I hit the outside, for the first time in a while I took in the smells around me. The air was damp, almost ocean-like, and I could smell the trees. This was when I pinched myself. We live in a truly beautiful place. T, I love you but do not miss the bone-chilling cold weather of Cincy. ;)

Tomorrow, off to TERI, Inc. I will be working with children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Orientation is Wed and Fri from 9am-2pm. Wish me luck.

xoxo

"Kids are dirt wrapped in noise"

I've never done a blog before, as you might eventually or very quickly notice. However, I thought it would be appropriate to start this as I go through this next, shall we say, "journey" through life. I have just moved to Carlsbad, CA for 6 months as I complete my undergraduate degree from Chapman. This includes a 6 month music therapy internship and a board certification exam before I am given the title as Brianna Shaffer MT-BC (Music Therapist-Board Certified). I am currently living with T's cousin, Erica and her three kids, 7-year old triplets: Jason, Zachary, and Kambria.

Well, today was my first day at my new internship. MusicWorx of CA is a non-paid internship out of Scripps Hospital, La Jolla. Yup--I said it, non-paid. Yippee. I will probably do more work during these next 6 months than I did in my 4 years of college. But--even though I don't sound excited NOW, I really am--and am looking forward to gaining knowledge, friendships, and the ability to grow as a musician and as a therapist.

Here is the link to my internship :)
http://www.musicworxofcalifornia.com/
I will be working in the NICU, in a Drug/Alcohol Abuse Rehab Center, on the Scripps hospital floors, with children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and hospice.

So...today we had training from 8am-3:30pm at Scripps. This was basic training for ANY new employee at Scripps (RNs, technicians, coordinators, etc). The presenters were personable and interesting. While learning to properly wash our hands, the main gal was going on and on about how important it is to wash properly, don't forget your thumbs, etc etc when she said, "kids are dirt wrapped in noise". bahaha. I found this really funny and very true. Living with 3, 7-year olds has ALREADY proved to be noisy and as I thought about this quote, I realized how many germs children can carry. With 6 months of tough work in front of me I thought, "oh geeze...I don't want to get sick". Long story short: wash your hands for at least 15 seconds with soap.

Amazingly, the food was delicious, service was great, and I got a re-usable Scripps green grocery bag. Wow, I know. I also stole some extra snackies for future days when I need an extra pick-me-up.

Tomorrow, Intern Office at 9am.