Now we're talking...

Today we sat down for a few hours and discussed Toward A Psychology of Being - by Abraham Maslow. Whoa! Its a great book. Its all about Maslow's Humanist philosophy AND Maslow's theories were the basis for the Nordoff-Robbins approach to music therapy. We literally went through it chapter by chapter and our ITD pointed out some things she did not want us to miss while we were reading. Its not always an easy read, but its interesting and it makes sense. THe big thing is that everything in the world is inherently good. People who are not "good" are reacting to life stressors and/or "neuroses." I like how the humanist perspective takes into account the entire human experience. There are a lot of dualities- but at least he recognizes them. Its not all about sickness, but also moving towards health and growth. He also came up with the "peak experience" idea and "self actualization." AND (from the existentialists which we discussed today) the idea of just being... like the title says, towards a psychology of being. I dunno, I guess its still hard for me to formulate my thoughts into words right now- its a lot to swallow. BUT its fascinating. I am seeing the connection to my work in therapy but also my own personal characteristics and the characteristics of people I know. For example, Maslow said that even "bad" things that happen in life are still good if the help the person move forward in their development. And people who try to "protect" others from making the same mistakes are in a way, hindering that person's development; they are showing a lack of regard and respect for the person's journey. This made me think about my Dad. I don't remember when, but one time my Dad was talking about how he's seen me make a lot of the mistakes that he made but he didn't want to say anything because I had to learn the lesson for myself. And even though it was hard for him to stand by and watch me do whatever it was I did, he had to let me do it so that I could grow. Oh man. My parents are such humanists. Cool eh?!

I like all the theoretical discussions. Its amazing how my ITD and ST have this whole internship planned out and for a reason. Had we started talking about this stuff in the beginning, I probably would have come home screaming! Its nice that we have the practical stuff going and now we can divert what little brain power we have left to this philosophical stuff. I love it. Of course, I love spending time in my head anyway. A good and bad thing.

But now its time for brownies (still working on my tub of brownies and they are still so fresh and delicious) and a glass of milk!

Tomorrow brings an inservice on a piece from the classical repertoire and how we turned it into an improvisation. I chose a piece by Bach- and I hate Bach. Now that I can improvise on Bach, I can finally play stupid Bach the way that I want to. This was a big break through. Bach usually gives me hives. ;) Kari chose "Nimrod" by Elgar- a really famous piece. If you don't know it by name, you probably could recognize it if you heard it. I'm excited. After that we (the four of us, me, kari, our ITD and my ST) are having some group supervision. Both Kari and I have been in a bit of a slump and they (ITD and ST) thought it would be great just to get together--- all in the same room --- and see how everyone is doing. I'm looking forward to it.

Brownie time!