I have two huge bits of excitement relating to music therapy:

1. I finally met my clients for the first time last week! I am working in the Alzheimer's unit at the Waters (which is a nursing home). It was quite the experience.

We had about 8 individuals with all levels of Alzheimer's. Some could carry on a coherent conversation with you while others, well, simply couldn't. I am pretty sure I do not want to be working with older adults as my main population but I certainly don't mind it. My supervisor, Jackie, did the session which meant I simply observed but I thought about what I would do the entire time. It was a little overwhelming because I felt as though I was too inexperienced to be incredibly effective. That's when I remembered that it's called a Practicum--I'm not supposed to be able to get things going during the first or even second session.

Now that I've had some time to debrief and think a little more, I am feeling much more prepared for this next session, and I'm surprisingly not anxious about singing a Hello and Goodbye song with them. I hope it goes well!

2. The other bit of exciting stuff in music therapy is my research class. Instead of a final test at the end of the semester, we will have to turn in the literature review part of a research study we design ourselves. There are a few different types of research out there, and I just happened to be most interested in a topic in the Historical Research category (this is not a very popular type of research). The topic I am interested has actually never been done before (as far as Dr. Jackson and I have been able to find), so, long story short, I will be working on an actual research project this semester! I know, this may sound a little nerdy, but I'm hoping to continue this study as Dr. Jackson suggested, and possibly get it published in one of the music therapy journals! In case you're curious, here's my research question: How do the ancient Greeks’ ideas on music and health compare to modern thought on cognitive neuroscience? I read that now and I simply have to smile because those words make me sound smart :).

I can't wait to see how things unfold both at the Waters and with my project!

-Kim

P.S. Please don't get me sick!