What an amazing start to last week. I went to St Brides to share in the group with Kenny and John. It was brilliant with such a varied session. There were people of every race you could imagine Polish, Hong Kong, English, Scottish and some that I am not sure of. It was great to hear a lady getting up to sing in her own language. I really don’t know what she was singing about but the community created was the only language needed to understand that the whole room was supporting her as she sang. Two gentlemen with mental health issues and a lady with Down’s also sang through the mic. It was a real celebration of difference, and it was wonderful.
On Tuesday we were at Eagle Lodge, we are having to use the small lounge up the stairs as they are having a new roof in the main lounge and dining room. I was wondering just how the small lounge would work but to be honest it works very well. People being closer together has led to more interaction which has been great.
After our session at Eagle Lodge Paul and I shared lunch with Jess our Music Therapy student, this was her last week with us. We have never had a student on placement before so we took a risk when we said we could take someone. However, it has been a great experience for us, being able to contribute to Jess’s development has been a joy and one that I have learned from for my own practice. We are hoping that Jess will become a part of Forget Me Notes in a more formal way once she has completed her degree.
Jean and I went to purchase Hot Chocolate and cups from Costco on Wednesday morning from the donation that I referred to last week. We got some weird looks from the cashier when we paid for 25 tubs of Cadbury’s chocolate and three boxes of paper cups. I don’t think the cashier believed me when I told her that this was just for me and that it would take me just a week to drink it!
On Friday I was doing supervision at Open Door. It made my day to see the work done on personal mosaics showing each person’s attachment to music. The stories told within the pictures were just great and showed the different responses to music. We reflected on how these could now be used to help develop the relationship between those people that use Open Door for a service and the staff who work there.
It is a fun packed week working with The Forget Me Notes project that’s for sure, and there are all also many other things that I didn’t tell you about in this post.
Take care speak soon.