In music therapy, the music is what we use to captivate and engage our clients so they can work on attention goals, social goals, communication goals, or whatever the goal areas might be. But as music therapists, we have to find and use the music that our clients actually like. That music might be Drake, [...]
In preparation for Earth Day, my girls and I have been jamming to “The 3 Rs” by Jack Johnson ALL week. (My little one asked me to put it on repeat!) So today I wanted to share how I’ve been celebrating Earth Day in the music therapy sessions I've facilitated this week: We started off [...]
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 [...]
In a previous blog post, I shared one of my favorite brand new ideas (for either virtual or in-person learning) - Hip Hop Meets Classical. If you haven't checked out that post, do it now! It is sure to be a hit with your school-age and teen clients (and is also a great way to [...]
“Hip Hop meets Classical” This simple search on YouTube led me to find some neat videos and create a brand new musical experience that was pretty cool for my teen clients. Many of them are working on improving their attention and auditory perception skills. So, their task was this - Listen closely to the hip [...]
Wow has it been a LONG time since I've written a new post! I had to look back and see that it was at the end of July that I last published a blog post. I hope you'll excuse me. It has been quite a whirlwind summer: My family and I moved from Miami, FL [...]
We are more than halfway through summer, which feels unbelievable. Weren't we just celebrating the last day of school?! Recently, I've been enjoying Hawaiian/summer/beach-themed sessions with my middle school students and teen clients. I always enjoy a good theme, and this one in particular makes me feel relaxed and happy. Maybe it's the colorful lei [...]
My kiddos are now 4 and 7 and I have learned a thing or two about parenting in that time (still learning though!) As I was leading a group music therapy session online earlier this week, something struck me. Much of what I've learned as a parent frequently comes into play in my music therapy [...]
One thing I hear very often from music therapists and educators who work with teens is that they have trouble finding musical experiences that are considered "cool" by their clients and students. I can relate 100%. I worked with children for so long that it was hard to crawl out of that headspace and create [...]
