The second surprise : Choosing to stay home with my son felt great . Deciding to leave my job felt horrible . Those look like the same thing , but it didn ’ t feel that way . Working was a big part of my identity . I was “ Michelle , the music lady ” – a cringe worthy yet endearing title that I appreciated . I made the grouchiest hospital patient smile because I was able to ease whatever pain they had , and this also made the grouchiest nurse smile . I was needed ! How could I leave ?
The third surprise : So ... I left my work , successfully had a baby and was a full time stay at home mom . It turned out I was well suited to staying home with babies . I really enjoyed it . I never had a second thought about work .
When I stopped making objective lists and started looking into my heart I realized there was one constant through all of this turmoil . I had a feeling . I just wanted to be with our son . I can ’ t tell you why I felt this way . I . Just . Did . I was surprised to discover that I knew all along what I wanted to do ; I just had to look within myself to find the answer . I didn ’ t need to cut out my emotions out of the issue … I needed to do what I felt was best . I wanted to stay home with our son .
But I had it all wrong . Clinical work is not the only work for music therapists . The reality is there are a lot of ways to be a music therapist . Assuming that being a clinician is the only way to be a music therapist is a very narrow view of the field . It ’ s also dismissive of our other music therapy colleagues , such as the researchers and educators . There are many other roles music therapists play that are equally valuable : advocates , connectors , and supportive service providers .
The second surprise : Choosing to stay home with my son felt great . Deciding to leave my job felt horrible . Those look like the same thing , but it didn ’ t feel that way . Working was a big part of my identity . I was “ Michelle , the music lady ” – a cringe worthy yet endearing title that I appreciated . I made the grouchiest hospital patient smile because I was able to ease whatever pain they had , and this also made the grouchiest nurse smile . I was needed ! How could I leave ?
I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that if I left a music therapy job , I was letting down the field of music therapy . We ’ re always hearing how music therapists are losing their jobs because of lack of funding … I had funding , why would I let that go ? What if I found out that staying at home wasn ’ t for me , and I couldn ’ t get that job back ? Was I permanently closing a door ? We ’ re always hearing how there are music therapists trying to start programs in hospitals , but they can ’ t get them off the ground … I was already in a program . Why would I let that go ? I kept thinking leaving my job would disrupt all the annual statistics in the AMTA sourcebook . Could it make music therapy look less needed for government advocacy efforts ? Would my leaving hurt things for other music therapists in the field ?
Throughout my music therapy education I was told :
Music therapy is an honorable career that is often unappreciated . Music therapy helps many , many people in a very unique way . You will constantly be educating society about music therapy , and you will constantly be advocating for clients to have access to music therapy .
I felt like a warrior for the field just by being a music therapist . I was riding my horse of advocacy to save the world by sharing music therapy through my work with clients and coordinating with other professionals . I loved music therapy , and I literally had the t-shirt ! I get one every year from the student fundraisers at conference . I was surprised to discover that I felt if I left my job , I was turning my back on music therapy .
The third surprise : So ... I left my work , successfully had a baby and was a full time stay at home mom . It turned out I was well suited to staying home with babies . I really enjoyed it . I never had a second thought about work .
Another very surprising thing happened : music therapyrelated opportunities appeared . The national conference for the American Music Therapy Association ( AMTA ) was going to be in my state . They contacted me and asked me if I would be a co-chairperson . It was project management type of work and involved communicating with the various conference committees , keeping track of tasks and a lot of emailing . I could do that ! I helped get the national conference online by creating the AMTA National Conference website , Facebook page , and Twitter accounts 2 . It was incredible ! I had never done work like this on such a big scale , and I really loved it .
2
AMTA National Conference website ( http :// amtanationalconference . com /)
AMTA National Conference FB page ( https :// www . facebook . com /
AMTANationalConference )
AMTA National Conference on Twitter ( https :// twitter . com / AMTANatCon )
Next , I was contacted ( out of the blue ) by a music therapist colleague with a big private practice . She needed someone to keep up with her website and social media accounts . Would I do it ? YES !
At the same time I was catching up with another music therapy colleague , Rachel See . She said , “ I just bought a domain ‘ www . MusicTherapyEbooks . com ’ 3 Wouldn ’ t it be neat to sell e-books that other music therapists write ? It would be so helpful for the author and the buyer .” I asked if she wanted a partner and , thankfully , she did . Now we promote and sell e-books written by music therapists .
3
Music Therapy Ebooks ( www . musictherapyebooks . com )
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