Rewind

For this post, I wanted to rewind a couple of weeks and go back to our third week on the trip. I have been home for a week, so more and more information has been settling in my brain. This has helped my perspectives shift greatly. Anyway, I digress. 

The third week was wonderful and full of fun!  We only had three days at the SRH due to a holiday, so there was a 4 day weekend! What did you do for those 4 days, Preston? I'll tell ya! I went to Salzburg! The first part of the week was wonderful because I was able to have interviews with 2 students and a professor at the school. This brought a lot of attention and understanding to their music therapy intervention techniques. Being introduced to music therapy interventions and sessions that are primarily based in improvisation woke something up in me. In my education so far at GCSU, I had felt like something was missing, and this has begun to alleviate that feeling. In the interviews, all interviewees discussed the power of musical improvisation and its ability to meet the client on a deeper level in that very moment, as opposed to coming into a session with too much structure or too many expectations. These very things can actually hinder the therapeutic progress and therapeutic relationship. These interviews and last few classes pulled together the first couple of weeks in Heidelberg and put words to experiences. 

As for Salzburg, it was gorgeous. Getting to see multiple locations of where The Sound of Music was filmed and Mozart's birth house and apartment was nothing short of amazing and exciting. Mozart has so much music around him his entire life, and although it was a short one, he had quite the full life. Also, the views in Salzburg are just breath-taking. Everywhere you look, the Alps are in the backgrounds-tall, magnificent, snow-capped. It was a dream just to be there. There is a huge fortress atop a hill there and much of it is still intact. Plus, there is a restaurant there, and eating while looking down on Salzburg and over to the Alps while breathing in mountain air is something you must experience if ever you get the chance. I felt proud to be there.