Being A Music Therapist During a Pandemic: A Year's Review Through Music

My year started out on a beach in the Dominican Republic with my husband Bryan and two of our best friends. Our most difficult questions that week were “should I nap by the pool or the ocean?” and “how many dinners should we eat tonight?” I started each day with a coconut and finished it off with a cocktail.

2020 was going to be a year to remember. Bryan and I spent my few waking vacation hours (I napped a lot) talking about our plans for the year. It all seemed so exciting and so possible.

On the airplane ride home, we read about the coronavirus and joked that we had better be careful in the airport. Even in the early moments of the virus coming to the United States, we did our best to laugh it off, singing songs like “My Corona”. I heard rumblings of a shut-down and selfishly thought, “Wow, two weeks at home? That'd be so nice!”

We know the next part of the story. I was sent home March 23rd and those two weeks became three months. Sweatpants went from being a luxury to just about the only thing that fit. The reality of isolation gave me a deep, visceral reaction. There have been ups and downs and a heck of a lot of music that got me through each phase of the pandemic.

Taking Time for Worry & Grief

“Tryin’ to Keep It Together” by Norah Jones