Overcoming Obstacles

I try to be upbeat and write about my business in terms of what is half full and not half empty but today was one of those days. One client canceled at the beginning I’d the day but after I left home. I took it in stride and did some Christmas shopping so no harm no foul.

At the end of the day I waited an hour to see my last client since I had to wait till she got out of school. They were expecting me as I had been there for massage on Tuesday and several times reminded them I’d be there Thursday for music therapy. so after waiting that hour I went inside and the attendant says to foster mom, where do you want client to do her music. Without batting an eye foster mom looks at me and says oh we don’t want music therapy anymore, I called and someone should have told you. I was speechless. I had just talked to them two days before and it appears that they are discontinuing music because they don’t want us to do music in her room and now that there is more than one foster kid there isn’t a private place to so music and mom doesn’t want to hear us.

Of course, I could speculate all day about what is happening and there is no way to know. I know that a once friendly environment become hostile over the last few months. I have ideas about why this has happened but again, I have no real idea. I feel like it’s tied to the general unrest and division in our world. Though I have made a real effort to never speak of politics or religion I think assumptions have been made about my leanings and this has caused hard feelings. I also know that my expectation of how a therapeutic environment should be managed have not been met. I am pretty sure today was my last visit to this household.

These situations are difficult for me. I always want closure and a positive resolution and I don’t see that happening here. I could hang in until I’m tools not to come back but I feel like maybe it’s better to make my own exit. I have become so nervous about going over there that I am looking for. Ways to avoid it and that’s never a good sign. communication has broken down too the point where I never get a confirmation if they will even be there when I arrive and I hate waiting that hour to find out they aren’t available.

I realize that I need to have a written policy to give clients when I take them on so that we all know what is expected. I’ll be working on that over the next month.

I am also working on my plans to expand my telehealth business with a subscription based service. My main focus will be hime kind adults, not necessarily elderly, but they could be. I also want to continue serving the hospice community in this time of isolation. All the plans help me feel better about the failures. I know that I make plenty of mistakes and I find myself wishing we could all learn to talk to each other.