Last week most of my sessions went to hell. Now...I try to be a responsible music therapist, and I let everyone know that I’ll be on vacation, being specific as to when I’ll be away and when I’m planning to return.
I realize that some of the folks I work with may not care that I’ll be away, some won’t remember that I told them I’d be away, some will remember and will hold it against me for a long time, some will think I’m abandoning them, and some will be jealous or angry that I get to go on vacation and they don’t.
I get this. I’ve been going on vacations for a long time, and my clients have been dealing with it for a long time. But every time I start the process of letting my clients know “we’ll be missing music therapy next week” and they start the International Grump at Your Music Therapist Day proceedings, I start to wonder (okay, okay, I start to worry), “do they even care? Is it really me (and my guilt) making a bigger deal out of this than is really necessary? Am I really helping by letting my clients know that I will temporarily be gone? Is it actually me who is going to have such a hard time letting them go while I’m away?”
Yes, I suppose they’re all good questions, and to be an effective music therapist I will probably need to be aware of these concerns on some level. On the other hand, in spite of the implied “No, Roia, I don’t care that you’ll be away on vacation! You just leave! I’m tired of music therapy with you anyway! Hmph!” attitudes that I get on my way out, there’s usually an awful lot of “I want to hold your hand” when I return.
So, um, maybe the real point for me is to have something to worry about. Sigh.
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