Earlier this week I had one of those really great session days. Everything flowed, my students were totally engaged, and I got great feedback from the teachers and students alike. I had brought in some New Year's-themed interventions, which is how I like to start each new year with my school-age and teen clients. I [...]
One of my main goals for the new year is to be more mindful and present, both in my personal life and professional life. I know this can have far reaching benefits. I've read about it, I've listened to people talk about it on podcasts, but I have yet to be consistent with this practice. [...]
It's been about two weeks since the National Conference took place in Dallas and I have to say, I think I still have the "conference glow." (Quite the opposite of conference hangover, right?!) This year's conference was amazing. I'm fairly certain I say that every year (in fact last year I called it Ahhhh-mazing), but [...]
Music therapists - do you ever hear colleagues talk about "conference hangover?" It always makes me feel a little sad when I hear this term because I know the point of conference is for us to feel energized and not drained. That got me thinking about how we can have a really great conference experience, [...]
Although I have a storehouse of session ideas (especially when it comes to Fall!), I always like to keep things fresh and bring in new musical experiences for my clients. My mom recently sent a book in the mail for my daughters (who are ages 2 and 4) and they love it, but as soon [...]
One of my main goals here at Wholesome Harmonies is to connect with and support other like-minded professionals. In particular, music therapists, music teachers and special ed teachers who work with tween and teen clients. The #1 thing I hear from y'all when you reach out to me (which I LOVE!) is that you enjoy the [...]
I prepared a spooky music listening session for my school-age kiddos this week and I'm EXCITED about it! My goals for the students in these classes are: To improve auditory perception skills (ie. listening skills) To improve sustained attention And, to practice using adjectives (one of the goals shared by their teachers) These goals, paired [...]
I was going to close out this Musical Mini-Series by going straight to a wrap up, but yesterday something happened in one of my sessions that I just had to share with you. I was working with one of the classes at Children's Resources Educational Center (a school for children with special needs here in [...]
Ready for Part 3? This is the third post in the musical mini-series where we're a closer look at our therapeutic medium: music. We started off by taking a glance at melody and the V7 chord. Next up is....(drumroll please)....tempo! How can we as music therapists use tempo to guide and elicit movements? When working with a [...]
If you were a practicum student or intern under my supervision, you inevitably heard me talk about my love of the V7 chord. This is a powerful chord that can be used as an incredible therapeutic tool to prompt a response from our clients (catch up on part 1 of this series by checking out [...]
