#MTAdvocacy and Finding My Advocacy Song

It’s January! Know what that means…?

Time for the annual Music Therapy Social Media Advocacy month!

I have had the distinct pleasure of helping to coordinate this project since its inception in 2012. Whereas in year’s past we invited music therapy bloggers and podcasters to talk about advocacy, this year we’re structuring the project differently by inviting ALL professional and pre-professional music therapists to participate!

Here’s the deal…we are encouraging music therapists to find and share their “advocacy song” by completing the following:

THINK of an existing song that could be your advocacy song.

EXPLAIN what makes it your advocacy song.

FIND the official music video and copy the link.

POST the link and your explanation to your favorite social media channels.

SHARE by following the #mtadvocacy hashtag and sharing what you find.

So I’ve been sitting on this idea for almost a month, now, trying to think of how I can participate. What is my advocacy song? The challenge for me is that trying to find “my advocacy song” is a bit like asking a musician to name their favorite piece. It’s pretty much impossible, because the song selected depends on a variety of factors.

For example, when trying to select my advocacy song, do I:

A) Go with a perseverance-focused, fight-until-you-get-it type of song, such as Roar by Katy Perry?

 

B) Celebrate the big (and small) successes with a song like We Are the Champions by Queen?

 

C) Or do I acknowledge the reality of how legislative and policy successes are commonly accomplished, through in-person conversations and negotiations à la “The Room Where it Happens” from Lin-Manual Miranda’s musical Hamilton?

 

These are all aspects and feelings I associate with music therapy advocacy. But I choose none of them as “my” advocacy song.

For that, I turn to something a bit more personal—my love for the music therapy profession, inclusive of colleagues and friends, the clients we serve, and the unfolding knowledge of the impact music can have on individuals and communities. I was fortunate to find this passion early in life and it’s this passion that makes the work I do not feel like a job. It keeps me going through the challenges of processing difficult clinical experiences, starting a private practice, completing a PhD, and, yes, continuing in this advocacy journey.

So in my process of identifying my advocacy song, I present to you Ben Fold’s The Luckiest which, although more literally reflective of romantic love, for me also represents the fortune I feel in discovering this field of music therapy.

Tagged as: Advocacy, mtadvocacy, Music Therapy, reflections