Music Therapy Clinician: Supporting reflective clinical practice Volume 1 | Page 11

in this lullaby was to welcome two
beautiful new members of my
family, and to connect with them
and with their parents, my brother
and sister in law, at the beginning
of their family life together.

Songs are gifts.

When I
sing and listen back to songs I
have composed, I have a unique
opportunity to listen to myself, to
some facet of my own story or
being. When sharing songs I
have written with others, an
elevated form of interpersonal
communication and connection
are possible. Original songs tap
into the transpersonal dimension
as well, reflecting in an individual
way, a piece of the universal
human experience.
Over my years as a music
therapist, following long days of
creating music to support the
health of others, I find it an
ongoing challenge to set aside
regular time devoted to music
making that feeds and nurtures
my own soul. I am guessing I am
not alone. When I do make the
time for my own music, I find it is
in writing and singing my own
songs that I feel most filled. I
recently had occasion to write a
song that I am happy to share
with you in this first issue of the
Music Therapy Clinician.
The catalyst for this song, Safe in
the Harbor, is a most joyful one –
the birth of my two long –awaited
nephews, Eliot and Liam, born in
Portland, Maine in January of this
year. It is my own “Sweet Baby
James,” if you will. My intention

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The song is sung through the
voices of the babies’ parents,
which was not so much a
conscious choice as the way the
song naturally came into being.
Singing through the voice of a
new parent has been an
opportunity to connect back to the
essential,
precious,
often
sleepless early days of bonding
and attachment (without the
sleep deprivation)! What a joy it
has been to see and to know that
these two new little beings are
getting what they need from their
parents…the
physical
and
emotional nurturing for which
there is no app or any other
suitable substitute.
My song
celebrates and provides a
soundtrack for this essential and
irreplaceable human experience,
just as people of all times and
cultures have sung to their
newborns.
I am sure I also have company
when I say that in my work as a
music therapist, I have frequently
spent time sharing music with
clients whose early experiences
of attachment and safety were
interrupted or compromised.
Thieves in forms such as
substance abuse, violence, and
mental illness can leave a young
life without the early bonding
experiences they need to develop
emotional stability and health.
While I can never replace what
was stolen, I am mindful that
musical opportunities to hold, to
nurture, to build safety, trust, and
connection, are foundational to
the therapeutic relationship and
healing process. It is within that
held musical space that my
clients can begin to find their own
voices, to tell their stories, to

grieve their losses, and to begin
to explore new possibilities for
their lives.
Most music therapists I know are
compassionate, generous, and
busy people, so I am guessing
that if you are reading or listening
to these reflections, you likely fit
that description. I hope as you
listen to this lullaby, you are able
to be generous to yourself, to give
yourself permission to be still, to
be soothed, to just be. Those
vulnerable parts of ourselves that
have been hurt in one way or
another need the safe harbor of
self-directed compassion.
As
music therapists, we need time in
the harbor to rest, to recharge, to
be held, in order that we might be
grounded and effective as we
continue on in the important,
sometimes exhausting, often
amazing work that we do. I
encourage you to find time to
create your own moments of
musical harbor. The process of
writing and sharing this lullaby
has been just such a space for
me.

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MUSICAL SCORE