I don't know about you, but I love to take a peek at what other music therapists are doing, especially if they work with a similar population as I do (middle and high schoolers with autism and related disabilities). It helps give me some fresh ideas, which are sometimes needed after nearly TWENTY YEARS in [...]
Last week I shared a new song, "Let's Stay In The Green Zone," that I had written for a student who receives consult music therapy services. Today, I want to share a second song I wrote, called "Today I Will," to help this student stay in the Green Zone of Regulation (meaning they are calm, [...]
Recently, I moved from Miami up north and started working virtually at a school in Maryland. I provide group, individual, and consult music therapy services for their middle and high school students with autism and related disabilities (which I absolutely love doing). During the consult for one student who has music therapy on their IEP, the [...]
When it comes to creating musical experiences for my school age clients, here's how it typically goes: As soon as I know the goal I'm targeting (typically a goal in the attention and perception realm, since those skills translate directly into having success in the classroom and a work environment), my immediate next step is [...]
It's been a while since I've been on the blog to write! My family went on a Spring Break trip at the end of March (to St. Pete Beach and to see "real" mermaids at Weeki Wachee Springs!) and I've been playing catch up ever since we returned. But, I am very happy to be [...]
I've been on a session planning kick lately. Even though I have almost thirteen years (!!) of session plans saved up I still love coming up with new ideas, writing new songs and thinking of more creative ways to help my clients meet their goals. Lately, my three-year-old daughter has been really into the Nutcracker. She's [...]
I've been watching the weather and I see that in other parts of the country it's snowing and there were sub-zero temperatures last night! It's hard to believe that winter is going on in other parts of the country and world, because here in Miami it's 75 and sunny. (To be fair, we endure a [...]
Halloween is right around the corner! I've been using The Costume Rap in my sessions this month and it's been a hit. I use this musical experience to work on verbal and non-verbal communication skills with my tween and teen clients. Many of you have mentioned that it's tough to come up with musical experiences for [...]
{Thanks to everyone for your kind comments following my post about Hurricane Irma and how Julie Andrews helped during my evacuation with my two babies. I really enjoyed hearing from you. We are still cleaning up in Miami and it's been a slow process, but things are slowly getting back to "normal."} One thing that [...]
When I was a kid, I LOVED back to school time. I loved shopping for new school supplies (Lisa Frank notebooks and Bic pens were my thing!) and was always so excited for the first day of school. I try to bring some of that same excitement into my music therapy sessions on the [...]
