Bad At Grief

I’ve been thinking about that sentence ever since. It assumes grief is something you can be graded on. But who wrote the rubric? Mostly stage models, the idea of ‘closure,’ and a culture that wants grief to be quick and private. When people say they’re bad at it, they might mean they cry too much, or can’t cry, or feel numb, or feel relief, or are still in it years later. Each of those is just grief taking a form. Rather than wondering if we’re grieving correctly, we could ask a better question- “what helps me stay in relationship with what I lost?”

Who Benefits from Music Therapy?

Although I work with many different ages and populations as a music therapist, my work primarily focuses on oncology patients, and adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities and brain injury. I also work with people experiencing general stress. I develop clear goals and objectives for each individual client that work in conjunction with their overall plan of care using both interactive and receptive music therapy techniques.

Horizons Adaptive Music Festival

Consider adaptive instruments and mallets - I especially like T shaped mallets for folks who have difficulty gripping a regular drum stick. It is also easy to adapt instruments like guitar just by tuning them differently- an open tuning is a good way to start if you just want a person to have a positive experience at first.

There is No 'Disability' Without 'Ability'....

My heart was so full from being in the audience, I wished everyone I knew could have experienced it. Particularly some of my clients who are differently-abled or whose bodies don't quite fit around the musical instruments they're trying to play. It can be so discouraging to a) not have the adapted tools necessary to create and b) not have representative role models. But they are out there. And the more opportunities for the general public to see these role models, the BETTER.

Music Therapy Successes

(207) 233-8734 • kate@mainemusicandhealth.com • Portland, Maine