Week 2: Play Ball

So here we are again, after yet another week into the Senior Research Project.

How are you? Good? I hope so! How have I been, you ask? I've been well, a bit busy between studying for my music exam and running around throwing plush balls at unexpecting seven-year-olds in a music therapy clinic, but still, I've been well.

This past week was just as eventful as the last one, with lots of great opportunities for observations, plenty of time for independent research, and a plethora of games and activities. I'm slowly moving out of the "transition stage" between high school and an internship, and I'm quickly feeling more and more comfortable with everything there. Of course, there were still a few awkward moments, like those times when I needed to page my mentor and stay in the waiting room for her to come get me because I still haven't learned the access key for the inside of the clinic, or when I needed to look something up online, only to remember a few minutes later that I still haven't asked anyone for the Wi-Fi password yet.

But my week wasn't all fun and games. Earlier in the week, I had a chance to witness and take part in some of the more serious, calmer sides of music therapy. For nearly an hour, I was in the ACT school, besides only two people: a student, and another intern, as we all worked on the student's American History assignment together. There were no therapists around, and while other staff were present, they were, most of the time, busy dealing with other students to constantly be watching the three of us. What's more, the student hadn't been having the best of his days, with his arousal and emotions rapidly changing, skyrocketing at one point, and plummeting at the next. Neither I nor the other intern had ever been left to tend to a patient by ourselves before, without any other therapist or full-time staff taking the reigns.

Looking back, I don't know why I didn't feel terrified back then. I was responsible for this other person, for not just their history homework, but for their mood and attitude for the rest of that day, perhaps even the week. Yet, somehow, everything just fell into place. I found myself calmly speaking the same words I'd hear staff say to clients-- "Let's take a lap around the clinic, okay?" "Do you need a vision break?" "Communicate with your real voice, please." None of it felt awkward; if anything, it was... heartfelt. Things continued this way for the rest of the week, and by the end of it, I realized that nearly all the patients I had met in Week 1 remembered my name and wanted to know more about me, and a few of them even ran up to me and gave me high-fives and hugs. This has happened before, when I've taught music students and became close with them, but I never expected this would happen in such little time. It was shocking, but touching. I really felt like I was connecting with the patients, like I was getting to know them and, in turn, they were getting to know me.

On the research side, things are progressing smoothly as well. I'll be purchasing a few music therapy research books soon, hopefully, and I've had the chance to read many of the great books and articles kept at NMTSA. My observations are becoming more and more coherent, and I'll hopefully begin narrowing down my number of clients for my case studies, and begin handing out consent forms to parents before I begin interviews and whatnot.

What I've Learned
By popular demand (not really), the glamorous segment has returned! So, once again, here are five things, in no particular order, that I've learned this week:

1. How to give proper squeezes to the body.
    -Side note/Context: Because autism and other mental disabilities can often disconnect the brain from the body, leaving patients with no spatial recognition of their bodies, squeezing body parts, including the feet, legs, hips, arms, and head, can help rebuild networks and strengthen the connections between the brain and body, allowing patients to feel their bodies more
2. I really show draw out and show a map or blueprint of the clinic to show to people when explaining the common music therapy practices at NMTSA.
3. Always bring a jacket, no matter how warm it is outside; you never know when the AC's suddenly going to kick on in full blast.
4. Emotions and cognitive abilities go hand-in-hand, in a sort of "chicken and the egg" way: negative emotions can block cognitive functioning, but those blocks can cause frustration and more negative emotions, and that can continue in an awful cycle for quite a while
5. I still don't know medical terms.