A Shifting Relationship With Planning
You never know what’s going to happen in a day. I try to stay on track using list of tasks consisting of work goals, plans with loved ones, self care, and cleaning, to name a few. Usually, tasks around the house take a back seat to things that pop up throughout the day. Maybe you find yourself in a similar situation? Sometimes, the whole plan for the day gets thrown off by a new opportunity or an emergency that crops up. Flexibility is something I have become all too familiar with in my career as a music therapist.
Often times, I shift plans after arriving to a session based on a client’s mood, requests, or reaction to my initial greeting. Being a music therapist requires the ability to come up with interventions that meet the clients’ needs and goals in the moment. When I started off, I had trouble navigating this aspect of the job. I would plan every aspect of the session and freeze when things went awry. As I continued to grow and improve as a therapist, I developed the tools needed to shift with the client and keep the session flowing, even if it wasn’t continuing with what I had planned.
When I began working with hospice patients, I was nervous. I didn’t have a clue how to plan for highly emotional and ever-changing situations. I found developing my repertoire to be the most helpful tool in these sessions. My music knowledge enhanced the experience of the patients and families while supporting the overarching goals we had discussed in our initial phone calls - from pain management to socialization, even spiritual support. We centered conversations around memories, lyrics, and emotional responses the music provided supporting transformative experiences - for the participants and myself.
Robert Burns said “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” which is a quote I used to attribute to bad things happening - thinking of it as Murphy’s Law. However, I think planning allows for us to imagine the vast amount of possibilities that could happen and gives us options for how we may want to navigate the moment. Planning provides a starting point from which beautiful experiences can unfold. Things may never go exactly how we want but we will always make it through with more knowledge than when we started
