The fall holidays are by far my favorite ones to celebrate! Although it doesn't always feel like fall in Miami, I still find ways to incorporate harvest and Halloween themes into my sessions at UCP's Early Beginnings Academy. This year, I decided to be bold and try something I've never tried before...a Halloween Musical! This [...]
Today I'd like to share an intervention from one of my individual music therapy sessions at UCP's Early Beginnings Academy. This song was written by my former intern, colleague at UCP, and friend, Amber Ewers and she has graciously allowed me to share it with you today. The first goal we are working on during this [...]
I was pondering this question last week as I watched one of my clients dig into my bag of goodies and start pulling out drums one by one. He began setting up drums of various shapes, sizes, and colors so it looked like a drum set: large gathering drum in the middle, surrounded by lollipop [...]
Letter songs are always a hit with my children at UCP's Early Beginnings Academy. Learning the alphabet and recognizing letters are a huge topic for any preschooler or kindergartener! The teachers at Early Beginnings use a program called BELL (Building Early Language and Literacy) to teach phonological awareness, letter recognition, print awareness, and reading skills. I [...]
Uniting with the other Miami music therapists is one of my favorite things to do, as I wrote about here AND here! The picture above is UCP Internship Alums Mahleah Benson and Patricia Chaviano (now music therapist at Seasons Hospice) and I jamming together. In today's post, I want to share with you two of the songs we [...]
It's finally ready ~ Part 2 of Groovy Guitar Strums for Music Therapists! In Part 1 I covered some easy strum patterns to help add variety to your sessions; here in Part 2 I cover some easy fingerstyles... Fingerpick ~ "Now it's Time to Say Goodbye" (adapted) by Amy Kalas Buser Fingerpick Slap ~ "What Do [...]
Shapes are a very important topic for my children at UCP. Circles, squares, triangles - you name it, they're learning about it! Here is a song called "Shapes, Shapes" (how creative!) that I wrote to help facilitate the process of learning shapes. Click here if you'd like to purchase the sheet music and use this song [...]
I know this might not sound like the most exciting blog post in history, BUT I have been exploring the *new* AMTA website and am finding some great resources. If you're paying your membership dues, why not make the most of it, right? Here are some links that have caught my eye... AMTA.Pro Great podcasts [...]
Music therapy with the baby and toddler class at UCP is one of my favorite groups of the week. I get to see them meet so many developmental milestones, which is amazing - I feel like a proud mama! Our music therapy sessions focus on the following developmental areas: - Moving to music - Social skills: giving [...]
Last Friday, I had the privilege of presenting at University of Miami's music therapy forum. I have presented there a few times, and this time the topic was Private Practice and Social Media: The Business of Music Therapy. Every time I present it is exciting and also....very surreal! I remember not-so-long ago I was the [...]
