Never have I ever...

    ... learned SO MUCH valuable information in such a short time.  This trip as a whole has transformed me in many ways. However, this past week I was privileged to shadow a great music therapist, and I was able to learn first-hand how music therapy helps the lives of many different populations.
     First of all, I LOVED my placement because it was exactly the kind of setting that I see myself in.  I also loved the way my therapist worked.  She was never in one place, and each session was different.  It kept things fresh and exciting, and this is exactly what I want! It was also great because we worked with adults ranging from mid/early twenties to the geriatric age facing a wide assortment of issues that interfere with comfortable daily living.  I believe this experience with so many different populations was extremely positive for me as I am only going into my sophomore year of music therapy.
     Throughout the week I came to various conclusions or rather, realizations.  One is that the language barrier was actually a very great thing to learn from.  Because I could not speak the language, I was forced notice the body language and facial expressions of everyone in the room.  I also paid quite a lot of attention to vocal inflections when they spoke, and I made note of the tonal structure in which they used while speaking.  From these observations, I was actually able to sense what was going on in the room quite accurately.  I believe this will be a very important tool to use in the future if I ever have non-verbal clients, which I'm sure that one day I will.
     I also found things I should work on.  For one, I often found myself focusing only on what I was doing during improvisational sessions.  When I would notice this, I would definately try to fix it and observe the other participants, but I found this difficult sometimes.  Luckily, I've learned about this problem early enough for me to fix it!
    Many other things happened that were also very noteworthy, but it would take much to long to write about them all.  All I can say now is how excited I am for the next leg of this journey.  World Congress here I come!