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I had the realization on Sunday that I am living my dream. I really am.

I’m a music therapist in Miami.

I have a career I am passionate about and I live in a city filled with palm trees and sunshine.

It all kind of hit me on Sunday as I was driving to the University of Miami (UM) campus for an event.

The sun was shining, my car was loaded up with instruments, and I was singing through my songs that I would be using that day.

The event I was driving to was Beyond the Spectrum: Autism Family Day at the University of Miami Lowe Art Museum.

The event offered children of all ages on the autism spectrum the opportunity to experience various creative arts. They rotated through a session touring the museum, a session creating an art project, and a music therapy session.

Allison, (the newest member of the Wholesome Harmonies team!) and I facilitated the music therapy sessions with the help of some awesome UM music therapy students.

Here we are acting a little silly in between sessions:

Lowe Art MuseumI love participating in events like this where the community comes together because we have the opportunity to educate about what music therapy is.

And what better way to do that than to allow children and their families to actually participate in a music therapy session.

We played rhythm instruments, sang a song about feelings to Pharrell’s “Happy”, waved scarves to “Let it Go”, learned a song that taught jungle animals in sign language, and relaxed to the sounds of the rain stick.

We demonstrated how all these musical experiences are used to target various developmental goals in a music therapy session.

All in all it was a fantastic event and we received many positive responses from the families who participated!

We’re already looking forward to next year!