When it comes to putting out new offerings and resources, things have been a little slower than I would have liked.

I love making resources for music therapists and educators, and sharing my knowledge. It’s creative and fun, and one of my favorite things to do.

But, for the past few months, we’ve all in the same boat, for the most part – working from home with kids, our schedules awry.

I even wrote this post with some tips on how to work from home with kiddos.

Lately, it’s felt like it’s slow going. Working 10 minutes here, 5 minutes there, and at night after the kids go to bed.

That’s why I’m more than excited to be able to tell you that I have a brand new E-Course that’s almost ready to be released.

It’s called the Attention & Perception E-Course: Cool Attention & Perception Techniques for Children & Teens.

I’ve had this idea for a few years now and have been slowly gathering session videos and organizing my ideas. Then, a few weeks ago I sent out an email to my list asking if this topic was even of interest to anyone.

The response I got back was overwhelming: You are very interested in a course on this topic!!

That lit a fire under me to finish up the course (it’s already been approved by CBMT for 5 – 15 credits, depending on the package you choose).

If you’d like to be the first to hear details about the course and when it’s open for enrollment, AND have access to exclusive bonuses and discounts, join the waitlist by entering your name and email below.

As soon as you join the waitlist, you’ll get a Pop Song Rhythms Bonus to “Better When I’m Dancing” by Meghan Trainor (to help you clients work on auditory perception skills and selective attention!)

And, you can check out a bit more information about the course right here.

I’ll be sharing more details in the coming weeks. But for now, know the course is complete and I’m just wrapping up all the “techy” parts that go into putting together an online course.

I’m excited to share more information with you soon!

The post Coming Soon…The Attention & Perception E-Course appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

Regardless of whether your clients are doing homeschooling, distance learning, or in-person learning, we can all agree that this school year is going to look different than what we’re used to.

While sitting outside in the backyard watching my girls play and thinking about this, a song about this topic just came to me.

I furiously wrote and wrote, and within minutes the song – called “This School year Will Look a Little Different”- was complete.

I used the song yesterday in a music therapy session with teens and it was incredibly effective.

Take a listen and see if it would be useful in your sessions with children or teens as we begin the new school year:

We sang through the song as an echo song, with the lyrics pulled up using Zoom screen share. We did a pat and clap pattern throughout the song.

After singing, we made a list (using the white board feature on Zoom!) of all the things that would be different this school year. For example, school is online, or we’ll need to wear masks if we’re doing in-person learning.

And, we made a list of all the things that would remain the same this school year: math, reading, art, music, seeing friends (even if online).

Then, we talked through each of the three steps in the song and how we can follow those steps to have an awesome school year, regardless of how different things are right now.

The post Back To School Song: “This School Year Will Look a Little Different” appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

I don’t have to tell you that last week our world was turned completely upside down.

My business stopped all in-person services and moved as many clients and students as we could to virtual sessions and lessons.

Definitely NOT what we had expected or planned for.

But, music therapists are by nature creative, innovative, flexible, and resilient! So, we are already coming up with unique and engaging ways to work with our clients and students.

Here are a few ideas to engage our clients when using technology:

Use Lots of MOVEMENT – Your client on the other end of the computer doesn’t need any materials or instruments to be able to move and groove along with you. Incorporate lots of movements to wake up their body and the brain (and yours too!) – jumping, twirling, hopping, skipping, running, and stomping. Add in cues to “Freeze!” to work on attention and impulse control. Ask for their ideas for kinds of movements to do, so they have a chance to practice executive function skills like decision making.

Homemade Instruments – If your client families don’t have traditional rhythm instruments at home, give them ideas for how to make homemade instruments. (Even if they do already have instruments, it’s a fun project for them to make their own – everyone’s homeschooling now, right?!) Oatmeal and coffee containers can de decorated and turned into drums. Beans or rice can be added to soda cans and paper towel rolls to make shakers.

Songwriting – Simple songwriting can be done with clients of all ages. Think of topics that are relevant to them – St. Patrick’s Day…Feelings…Favorite things to do at home…Something they choose?

Body Percussion – No rhythm sticks at home? Try rhythm patterns using body percussion. It’s a great way to work on attention skills, impulse control, and auditory perception skills. You give a four-beat pattern, and they imitate it. Or, write out a four-beat rhythm pattern for them to learn and play along with your singing.

Fun pop songs – Have you heard of “The Git Up” by Blanco Brown? This would be a great song to teach older kids and tweens. The song is super upbeat and there’s a series of dance steps to learn, which is great for working on sequencing and memory.

Incorporate the Whole Family – This is a wonderful opportunity to engage parents, caregivers, and siblings in the session. This gives them a chance to bond with their child in a positive way AND learn musical experiences they can do once the computer is shut down.

These are just a few simple ideas.

I have a feeling we will all learn as we go, and begin to generate more and more ideas as time goes on.

I cannot wait to get back to my in-person sessions. I miss hearing a whole class of children singing along with me and getting big hugs at the end of a class. But for now, we will make the best of what we have.

If you’re in need of some session planning inspiration for your virtual music therapy sessions, check out this brand new resource (it’s 50% off until April 30th):

The post A Few Ideas for Going Virtual With Music Therapy appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

In addition to offering music therapy services, another thing I love to do is offer adapted music lessons to children and teens with ASD.

I’ve been teaching piano lessons to a teen and recently was starting to feel stuck with the lesson book. Plugging through it week after week was becoming a bit dry.

Have you ever had that feeling?

I noticed that the student I was working with loved to explore the keyboard and make up her own little melodies.

So I decided to give that structure and incorporate some improv within our lessons.

Here’s what we did:

1. I prompted the student to try out different styles on the keyboard and choose one she liked (my Yamaha has a TON of cool styles to choose from – everything from the rhumba, to the blues, to rock ‘n roll.)
2. Once she had chosen a style, we started the beat and I prompted her to improvise a short melody on the keyboard (we talked beforehand about what it means to improvise).
3. After her improv came to a resolution, I started my improv. I tried to mimic the overall feel of her melody. If she played staccato notes in various places around the keyboard, I did something similar; if she played slow legato notes on the black keys, I played in a similar fashion.
4. When my improv came to a resolution, she played again. We went back and forth a few times in this way and then I brought the improv to a close.
5. At the end, we discussed what that improv sounded like to her (one in particular sounded like a Nintendo game – that one was very cool!)

After we had gone through this process a few times, I thought about all the things that were accomplished during our improvisation session:

• First, I noticed positive affect. Rather than being frustrated that she couldn’t remember the notes in the bass clef notes from her lesson book, she was able to feel incredibly successful. With improv there are no wrong notes! More than that, if the music therapist sets up the environment correctly (by providing an authentic-sounding style on the keyboard, etc.), the music that’s produced can sound very professional. This student said one improv even sounded like a movie soundtrack to her!
• Second, we’re working on nonverbal communication skills. The back and forth nature of our improv mimics the back and forth of a conversation. This can be a tough skill for some teens on the autism spectrum to master. I think the musical version of this is a great way to practice the skill of communicating during a conversation. It requires the person who’s not playing to listen so they can reflect back what the other person is playing, just as you would reflect back the feeling of someone telling you they’re excited, sad, or upset.
• Finally, this student was validated. Every time she played something, I validated it by reflecting it back in my playing. This let her know that I was picking up what she was doing and responding to it. I would imagine there are times in school and in life where she might be told what she’s doing is wrong or inappropriate. But, in our lesson, whatever music she created was perfect.

If you’re feeling a bit stuck moving through lesson and theory books with your teen students, I highly encourage you to try this technique!

When you do, please share how it went in the comments below!

The post Jazz Up Your Adapted Lessons With This Technique appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

“I felt very strongly about writing you today, to give a little extra insight on the disconnected links that were supposed to make my body and brain work together in harmony. But, they don’t and that’s okay.”

“My brain, which is much like yours, knows what it wants and how to make that clear. My body, which is much like a drunken almost six foot toddler, resists.”

These are the words of Gordy, a teenager on the autism spectrum.

He typed a letter that has been widely shared across the internet about what it’s like to be a “non-speaking” individual with ASD. I am so glad I found this letter. It reminded me of two main things I need to keep in mind as a clinician working primarily with individuals on the autism spectrum:

1. The terms “high functioning” and “low functioning” don’t accurately paint the full picture of how an individual is functioning in the world.
2. It is vital that we presume competence, always.

Let’s dig a little deeper with the terms “high” and “low functioning” that I often hear people use to describe individuals on the spectrum.

I can certainly understand the need to find a term to quickly describe an individual to another professional. But there are so many factors and intricacies to how an individual functions that one broad term may not accurately paint the entire picture.

In fact, I’m sure it doesn’t

An individual may be “high functioning” in gross motor skills and can walk, run, jump, and climb. But, they may be “low functioning” in the sense that they don’t use words to communicate.

I haven’t found a term that I like to replace high and low functioning, but maybe we don’t need one at all. What do you think about that?

The second takeaway from the article is to presume competence in all situations.

I have had multiple clients who did not use words to communicate and didn’t give any indication that they were taking in what was going on in the session.

But they would follow all my instructions during an intervention.

Or they would match my rhythm on the drum and imitate a rhythmic pattern perfectly.

Or they would write simply profound lyrics during a songwriting experience.

The more I learn about autism – from the perspective of individuals with autism – the more my clinical skills evolve and change to become (I hope!) more effective.

So I truly hope you’ll take the time to read Gordy’s letter and a few posts I’ve written about how to improve your practice with individuals with ASD here (Part 1) and here (Part 2).

Any other suggestions or thoughts? Leave them in a comment below.

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Friendship Circle is one of my favorite programs to work with. It is an incredible organization that provides services for children and teens with autism, as well as the opportunity for them to make friends and work on social skills in a supportive environment.

I work with Friendship Circle by providing group music therapy services for their Children’s Circle (ages 3-8), Tween Scene (ages 9-12) and Teen Scene (ages 13+).

I LOVE working with these groups because they always keep my on my toes and give me inspiration for continually creating new ideas.

Since I know there are not a lot of resources out there for music therapists working with tweens and teens, I’ve compiled my best ideas into three E-Books (Tuneful Teens 1 & 2 and The Rap Pack for Teens) and a 5-hour CMTE Course called Tune In To Teens.

Be sure to check those resources out if you’re in need of some inspiration when it comes to session planning!

To wrap up the school year, the Friendship Circle groups performed in a Morning of Talent at the beautiful Pinecrest Gardens in Miami.

Here are some pictures from the performances (all shared with parental permission):

Teen Scene did a performance of The Friendship Rap with their own original lyrics:

(PS – Music therapists you can grab the PDF with lyrics and instructions for this intervention plus a free Rap Track MP3 by clicking HERE).

Tween Scene performed “My Body Makes Music” (and these two girls sang like SUPER STARS!!)

Children’s Circle performed “Red is Rojo,” a song to teach the colors in English & Spanish, using multicolored scarves:  

It has been a fantastic year and the Morning of Talent was a great way to bring together everything we’d been working on.

I’m looking forward to starting my seventh year working with the Friendship Circle come this Fall!

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I am smack dab in the middle of moving.

Our new house is only about 20 minutes away from where we used to live, but with a newly mobile 14-month-old, it has been quite the challenge!

Despite having moving boxes everywhere and a missing charger cable for my computer, I just had get this blog post out. It’s something I’ve been itching to discuss with you:

To make eye contact or to not make eye contact. That is the question.

Do you ever hear teachers or parents prompt children with autism to look someone in the eyes when they’re speaking to them?

I have.

I’ve also read objectives that sounds something like this: “Client A. will make eye contact with a peer for 20 consecutive seconds.”

20 seconds?!

If I made eye contact you for 20 consecutive seconds, we would both be extremely uncomfortable.

But, I’ve supervised practicum students and interns for seven years and I’ve read many objectives that sound like that.

Don’t misunderstand – I wholeheartedly believe that social skills are an area that we should be addressing with our clients who are on the autism spectrum.

However, I don’t believe eye contact should be one of them.

I’ve heard from individuals with autism with whom I work that it is often extremely uncomfortable for them to look at someone’s face, make eye contact, say hello and shake hands.

I’ve heard Temple Grandin say this as well.

Why would we force our clients to do this behavior if it is uncomfortable and overwhelming for them?

As I mentioned, social skills are a primary focus during many of my sessions. However, I try to focus on asking the client just to look in the direction of the person they’re speaking to or to look at the other person’s forehead if it’s too uncomfortable to look them in the eyes.

During my sessions we also focus on other social skills like greetings (saying hello and shaking hands), turn taking with instruments, and what to do in specific social situations (if you bump into someone for example).

I would love to hear your perspective on this.

What is your take on prompting a client to make eye contact with someone or to make this an objective addressed in your sessions?

Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.

Image courtesy of [stockimages] at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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A few weeks ago I sent out a survey to my newsletter list and to readers of the blog to find out what topics they would most like to see covered in upcoming blog posts.

The top responses were:

#1 – session ideas for working with teens
#2 – session ideas for working with children
#3 – tips for working with individuals with autism spectrum disorder

I’ve been posting quite a bit lately about my work with teens, so I decided for the next few weeks I’m going to post on my work with children and in particular my work with children with autism spectrum disorder.

Today I’m going to share why I count to five over and over in my head during my sessions.

See if you can you relate to this scenario from a music therapy session:

You’re facilitating a musical experience that you’re super pumped about. You’ve checked out a great book from the library that you just know this client is going to love.

“Ok, now we’re going to sing a new book called My First Book of the Body. Say ‘open the book’…say ‘open the book’…’open the book!’ Sing with me: Body parts, body parts we’ve all got body parts. What part of your body do you see with? What part of your body helps you see? What part?”

We mean well but sometimes we get excited or really into our session and forget to stop….take a breath…and let our clients have time to answer.

I, for one, was definitely guilty of this until I brought my awareness to it.

Then I realized, I need to allow time for processing. That means: time for the child to hear my question, time for them to process what I’m asking, time for them to formulate a response, and time for them to communicate that response.

Was I giving enough time for that? Probably not.

So here’s what I do now:

I ask my question and then pause and count to five. Slowly.

One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand. You get the idea.

I’ve found that allowing that time and space for processing has helped my clients reach more goals. Oftentimes they know the answer they just need to be given the time to process and give their response.

Now I’d love to hear from you!

What strategies do you use to allow time for your clients to process?

Leave a comment below ~

The post Why I Count to 5 in My Head During Sessions appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

For the past three weeks a client of mine has come into our session room and turned off the light.

He’ll turn it off, then turn it on. Then he’ll play with the dimmer and make the light brighter…then darker.

Then he’ll turn the light off again.

Each time he did this I would respond by turning the light on and encouraging him to sit down so we could start the session.

This happened for a few weeks until finally…the light bulb went on for me. (Like that? :))

The light was too overstimulating for him.

This client is non verbal, but he was communicating with me very well.

He was telling me the light was too bright and he preferred it to be off.

Since then, we’ve turned the light off in the room and allowed the light from the hallway and windows to provide a nice soft glow.

It was a simple change, but a significant one.

Since I’ve made that change, this client has been more focused and attentive to me during our sessions.

This client is on the autism spectrum. I think he had to use his attentional resources to block out the light because it was overstimulating, therefore it was hard for him to focus his attention on me during the session.

Between the bright lights, the buzzing fan, the voices outside, and the clock ticking, there are a lot of things that in combination provide a very overstimulating environment.

If we can remove at least one of those distracting or overstimulating variables this might assist in helping individuals with autism focus and participate to their maximum potential during our sessions.

I’ve tried turning the lights off (or dimming them) in some of my other sessions with children with autism and it has helped tremendously.

Have you had this happen in your sessions? If so, I’d love to hear. Leave a comment below ~

The post Why I Led This Music Therapy Session in the Dark appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

I hope you’ve had some time to poke around my website and check out the new design and new organization that will make things even easier to find (teen session ideas are all found here!)

Today I’m starting a brand new video series that I’m really excited about!

In this series I’ll be sharing some of my session faves ~ things I love to use in my sessions to make things run more smoothly, to make things more clear for my clients, and to enhance the quality of my sessions.

Watch this video to see what my first session fave is! I’d love to hear if you use this too!

Here is another blog post I wrote on this very topic!

Stay tuned for next week’s video when I share my absolute FAVORITE tool for enhancing the quality of the music I provide in my sessions!

The post NEW Video Series ~ Session Faves (Part 1) appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.