I first began working as a private music therapist rather unintentionally. I started receiving referrals through my connections at University of Miami, my alma mater. Parents would call the music therapy program director and she would pass their information on to me. This was all fantastic, except I had no experience in business or running a [...]
Transition songs are a very important part of the daily routine for children, both within and outside of the music therapy session. I cannot tell you how many times singing "Everybody Sit Down" in a quiet voice has helped herd rowdy children back to the circle after a movement activity. I hear teachers singing "Clean [...]
I have been SO excited to write this blog post! A few weeks ago, I took a trip to Target and as always came face to face with the Dollar Section. This is extremely well planned out on Target's part, because before you can get to any other section of the store, you must pass [...]
After a week full of singing songs like "Where is your belly button?" and playing music that mostly revolves around the key of D major, it's nice to have a diversion - musically speaking - by jamming with my fellow music therapists! Every few weeks we'll get together with guitars, keyboards, ukeleles, tambourines, and any [...]
I love being a music therapist for children with special needs. One of the main reasons is that I have the opportunity to create fun, educationally relevant songs and interventions. The administrators and teachers at UCP love that I am able to support the curriculum by creating songs that target specific academic concepts and are catchy and easy to memorize. I've [...]
In my time as music therapy internship director at UCP, I have supervised eight interns. All have been fantastic and unique in their own ways. I love that my interns share my passion for music therapy and for the children, and always bring a fresh, creative approach to treatment. However, the part I hate most about having interns is saying goodbye [...]
Feelings are a very important topic for my students at UCP. Now that the children in the Kindergarten class can express how they're feeling, we hear "I'm mad!" or "That made me sad!" ALL day long. They're getting a lot of practice with expressing their feelings. Here's one of their favorite songs to sing during music [...]
Last night, the Miami Music Therapists had another successful get-together and also shared some DELICIOUS pizza at Anthony's Coal Fire Grill (yes, there are actually four pizzas on the table - we're a hungry bunch!) The group of us (plus a few more not pictured) started getting together last year when I realized - there [...]
Watch to see how you can use items from the outdoors in your music therapy sessions! Pod guiros! Podshakers! What are YOUR ideas?
The topic of people-first language is near and dear to my heart and I have been excited to write a blog post about it! So what am I talking about when I say people-first language? Well, in my full-time job at UCP’s Early Beginnings Academy, I work with children birth – age 7 with a wide [...]
