Music For Kiddos Podcast
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Burnout is an epidemic among music therapists and music educators and I think it's something that there's a lot of shame around. As someone who has experienced burnout three times, I experienced a lot of shame about burnout but have really grown to realize that I just didn't have the tools that I needed to get through some of the aspects that were causing the burnout for me.
I'm going to walk you through these different episodes of burnout that I had because they were all very different and maybe one of them will sound somewhat familiar to you.
My stories of burnout
I think that part of the shame cycle that can happen when you experience burnout, is that a lot of us work really, really hard to get to get our certification and degrees as music therapists or music educators. We have worked really hard throughout our careers and giving our best to our students and clients, and there is a lot of passion behind that work.
There's this misconception that says that burnout exists when you no longer love what you're doing. I would challenge that and say that yes, burnout happens if you don't love what you're doing, but I think burnout also happens if you are so passionate about what you're doing that you don't have other strategies in your life, you don't have other interests or other things in your life that can fill that bucket of yours. Things that can make you happy and make you joyful.
There’s a common factor every time I have experienced burnout which is that I have “thrown” myself into my work without having the appropriate coping skills and avenues to recharge. On episode 23 of the Music For Kiddos Podcast, I go into detail about my stories of burnout, but here’s a glimpse of it:
I experienced burnout right after my internship. During my years at Berklee as a music therapy student, I overloaded myself, sometimes having semesters of up to 20 credits. I rushed through my degree after making a transfer from another college, and I went from student, to getting married, to moving, to starting my internship and moving back to Boise, Idaho in a short period of time.
Upon giving birth to my daughter (who was born premature) and returning to my full-time job as a music therapist in pediatric oncology, I experienced burnout again. The same day my daughter was born, one of my long-term clients passed away and I didn’t have the tools to cope with that grief at the time.
The third time I experienced burnout was when I was working as a music therapy in private practice. I was overworking and managing a contract with a hospice company that wan’t really my favorite. I was desperate to quit and I had an “excuse” to do so since my family and I made a cross-country move from Idaho to Indiana.
But we don’t have to get to that level of burnout in which we think we need such an extreme excuse to quit or make drastic changes in our lives to feel better. We can take steps every day as music therapists and music educators
What helped me heal my burnout
Time & slowing down. Time recharging. Time reflecting on the things that fill my bucket. Slowing down and making an intentional decision of not overworking.
I put myself out there. Because of Music For Kiddos, I “forced” myself to put myself out there and I was suddenly building community because of it. I made genuine friendships with people on Instagram and Facebook (which I know sounds silly!) but you can truly find genuine friendships with people.
I’ve learned coping and self-care strategies that are working for me.
I am working quite a bit from home. I'm still working in the community too, but working from home is good for me as an introvert.
Something that has made the biggest difference has been creating and being part of the Music For Kiddos Community. It’s beautiful space of music therapist and music educators that work with children ages 0 to 6 in some form or fashion. It's a group for connecting, for sharing resources, and it's a group for support in the way of resource sharing.
In the Community, people really get to know each other. If you come to our community calls and you participate in the community aspect of it, there's a lot of genuine friendships built. It's a wonderful, supportive group of people ( that I sometimes can't believe it exists on the internet when there’s so much toxicity out there!). The Music For Kiddos Community is not that. There is unconditional regard, presumed competency, and genuine excitement to help and support other people.
I create monthly resources for my resource library, which has over 325 items right now, including well over 30 themed preschool and kindergarten lesson plans (and counting) that I send out every month.
If you have experienced burnout, if you're looking for done-for-you lesson plans and resources, and if any of what I mentioned and I talked about in my own story of burnout feels somewhat familiar to you, the Music For Kiddos Community might be something you’d like to consider.
Have you listened to episode 23 of the Music For Kiddos Podcast yet? Learn about my stories of burnout and listen to the song I wrote to my daughter “Slow Down” ↓
Free Song Download: “Slow Down”
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