As the winter season begins and I find myself in the slow part of the season, I find myself reflecting on the many adventures I had over the summer. One of those adventures was a week in July at Adam’s Camp. I had such a blast collaborating with different health professionals, working with coworkers from multiple organizations, and finding creative ways to give our campers a fun week. I hope you enjoy reading through my thoughts on my time at camp!
What is adam’s camp?
Adam’s Camp is an amazing non profit organization in Colorado that provides all sorts of incredible programs for people with disabilities, including their Mountain Therapy program (of which I worked!). The Mountain Therapy program brings together therapists all across the nation to provide multidisciplinary care to campers during the week they are at camp. They have activities that include swimming, canoeing, rafting, hiking, horseback riding, and more!
I had the honor of working as the lead therapist for the Renegades, a group of adult campers that have been coming to Adam’s Camp for years. My team included two para professionals, a physical therapist, speech language pathologist assistant, and outdoor emergency care technician.
camp preparation
Preparing for camp as a lead therapist was a completely new experience for me. Initially, it was hard for me to fully grasp all the working parts to make sure camp ran smoothly when campers arrived. This included connecting with my team, assigning them specific campers to contact before camp, and communicating with Adam’s Camp’s management team to ensure we had everything ready to go. Luckily, because of my amazing team, we were able to sort out all the kinks well before camp. Now that I am on the other side of Adam’s Camp, I know the next camp preparation will run even smoother!
leading an interprofessional team
Ever since I was a music therapy student at Colorado State University, I have been a huge advocate for interprofessional care. In fact, that is a value that is integrated in the Vision Statement of Mountain Melodies Music Therapy! Even as early as an undergraduate student, I have always strived to be in career environments that promoted interprofessional collaboration. So you can imagine my excitement when I learned that I had the opportunity to lead an interprofessional team!
Not only was I blessed with a team that had diverse scopes of practices and talents, I also had a team that had genuine enthusiasm and desire to provide our campers the best experience possible. While every day presented new challenges, and each of us went to bed exhausted, we all showed up each day with positivity and a teamwork mindset. The amount of laughter and collaboration left me feeling camp with a warm sense of community from the people I had the pleasure to work alongside. As we got to know our campers, each team member would come to the table with ideas on how to make the next camp activity accessible and fun for every single camper. Even in the midst of a medical emergency, we all came together and made sure all our campers were safe and cared for.
The best part of interprofessional care is to see how each of our professions’ scopes of practice would compliment each other. The diversity in skill, alongside the overlapping aspects of our scopes, would promote some of the best team solutions and plans throughout the camp. It was truly an honor being a lead therapist for this team!
wearing many different hats
Working in many different settings, some music therapy related and some not, has been both a challenge and an asset as I grow professionally. One of my favorite parts of working at Adam’s Camp was the fact that I was able to work alongside coworkers from both the National Sports Center for the Disabled and from Echo Canyon River Expeditions, all while employed through Adam’s Camp! Having not only professional relationships with all these individuals, but also close friendships, gave me an even greater tool of facilitating the Renegades group during our river rafting activity. It brought me so much joy to see how all my passions and experiences were able to culminate in this experience of providing our Renegades campers a smooth and fun river experience. Seeing all my friends from the National Sports Center for the Disabled absolutely crush their stretch of river on the Colorado river was an added bonus!
I love that my passion for river rafting has bled into my professional world of music therapy, and I am not the only one! Jackson, one of our team members, was not only a new employee at Echo Canyon this year, but has tons of experience as a para professional. Alfredo has been a river guide for 13 years and worked as our medical support with his experience in outdoor emergency care. The three of us truly enjoyed sharing our love of the river with our teammates and campers!
practicing music therapy
It goes without saying that my favorite part of camp was being able to utilize my skills as a music therapist. I found myself taking my guitar all over Fraser Valley! From creating interventions on the tubing hill to manage anxiety, to singing camper’s favorite songs, and finally putting together our closing ceremony performance, I found myself passionate for the profession of music therapy all over again. I love that I was able to use my creativity as a music therapist in an outdoor recreation setting of which I feel most at home!
It would be dishonest of me to say that there has never been times in my professional development in which I wondered if music therapy was the right path for me. But as I grow as a music therapist, and find myself in opportunities in which I get to utilize all my education and training, I could not be more grateful for the time I have put into becoming the music therapist I wanted to be when I was 15 years old.
thank you for everything adam’s camp! I look forward to working with you again!
mountainmelodiestherapy.com 