Summer is in full swing!

My kids and I just returned home from an amazing trip to Colorado (it was our first time!)

We went on horseback rides with the Rockies as our back drop, rock climbed in the Arapaho National Forest, and tried archery for the first time.

We made some incredible memories, and now I’m back home catching up on emails and writing (even though I was able to keep up with a fair amount of work virtually).

Today I want to share a songwriting experience that I facilitated for teen students in the autistic support classroom of one of our nearby high schools.

One of the class periods I saw them happened to fall on Valentine’s Day, which can be a sensitive time for students who have mixed feelings about the holiday.

I decided to bring in the song “Nice To Have a Friend” by Taylor Swift and focus on friendships and the other non-romantic relationships we have.

Here’s how I facilitated this experience:

1. First, I handed out lyric sheets and we sang through the song together.
2. On the second page of the lyric sheet, I had a blank box where students, depending on their level, could write or draw things they like to do with their friends.
3. Next, we turned the ideas from the box into song lyrics for a Verse 3. We’ve done songwriting from scratch in the past, so we focused on the use of “rich language,” and the teachers and I helped the students craft lyrics using as much rich language as possible.
4. If each student was comfortable, we then took a turn singing through their Verse 3. They could sing it alone, or I could join with them.
5. Then, the whole group finished by singing the chorus together.

For students who didn’t feel comfortable singing, I offered egg shakers to softly play along with the music. This way, everyone could participate at their comfort level.

The song worked perfectly because it was simple and easy to learn, even if students had never heard it before. And, the structure of the song lent itself nicely to this type of songwriting.

Do you have Swifties in your music therapy groups or music classes too? Looking for more ways to use her songs therapeutically?

Check out this blog post with a Session Sneak Peak into how I use Taylor Swift’s songs and other pop songs in a goal-oriented way with my teen clients.

Here’s how I use “Trouble” by Taylor Swift to work on attention goals,

And, here’s how you can create an entire T. Swift-themed music therapy session!

For even more ways to infuse CREATIVITY and FUN into your sessions and classes, check out Elevate. It’s subscription where you receive music therapy session ideas for school-age students (Grades K-12) straight to your inbox each month!

You can choose from the Teen Package, the Attention Package, or the Holidays & Seasons Package (my personal favorite!) Each package is pre-approved by CBMT for 10 continuing education credits.

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Valentine’s Day is just around the bend.

With that theme in mind I’ve been incorporating lots of “love”- and friendship-themed songs into my sessions: “Love Story” by Taylor Swift, “Rhythm of Love” by the Plain White T’s and “Count on Me” by Bruno Mars.

Although I’ll be the first to admit that it’s fun to plan a themed-session, as music therapists we have to remember to always keep our clients’ therapeutic goals at the forefront of our minds.

Many of my school-age clients are working on auditory perception goals in our sessions. This means I’m engaging them in musical activities that target listening skills and direction following (skills that translate directly into the classroom setting!)

Here is one example of how I’m combining the Valentine’s theme + auditory perception goals this week.

I pass out a variety of instruments to the students (maracas, bells, rhythm sticks, etc.) I instruct them that I’m going to play the song “Rhythm of Love.” Every time they hear the word “love,” they should switch instruments with the person next to them.

This is a great way to work on:

• listening skills
• direction following
• selective attention (they need to tune out distractions and focus on listening for the word “love”)
• and, social communication skills (when they switch instruments)

This musical experience can be used with any song, at any time of the year. Just choose a word or phrase (or even musical element!) that you would like the students to listen for. Then give them the cue for what to do when they hear that word or phrase.

I love this musical experience because it’s versatile and can be tailored to the unique needs and musical preferences of our clients.

Have a Happy Valentine’s Day and if you need more holiday inspiration, hop on over to the Session Planning Page.

The post Need to Target Auditory Perception Skills? Add One Instruction To Your Instrument Songs. appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

Valentine’s Day will be here in just a few days! (Click here for some VDay intervention ideas!)

While this makes me excited, I know that for some of the teen clients I work with this holiday can bring up mixed emotions.

They feel a lot of pressure to have a boyfriend or girlfriend and if they don’t have one they can feel sad and left out.

So, for my teen sessions this week I decided to focus on friendship, rather than romantic relationships.

I wanted to incorporate a variety of interventions that focused on how we can each work towards being a better friend to those around us. With that in mind, I came up with a brand new idea called the Friendship Rap.

I used a looped hip hop beat (or “rap track”) that I created on GarageBand as my backtrack and wrote a chorus that we repeated over and I over.

For the verses, I prompted each client to finish the phrase “To be a friend ____________” by sharing one idea for how to be a good friend.

The intervention went SO well!

The clients really got into the rap (they were tapping their feet and bobbing their heads) and they came up with some very insightful responses for how to be a good friend.

I’d love it if you could also put this idea into practice in your sessions this week!

If you’d like the complete description of The Friendship Rap intervention (along with the lyrics for the chorus) PLUS an MP3 of the rap track and a sample of what the friendship rap would sound like, click below and I’ll send it your way:

If you’re already on the mailing list, you’re good to go – I’ll be sending out an email to you tomorrow with the goodies listed above!

The theme of friendship and how we can be the best friend we can be is a great topic for teens not just around Valentine’s Day, but any time of the year!

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Valentine’s Day is right around the corner!

Over the past few days, I’ve shared a few of my favorite V-Day themed interventions. In today’s blog post, I’d like to share the V-Day session plan I created for my tween and teen sessions.

1. Valentine’s Day BINGO

2. Instrument Playing to “Love Story” by Taylor Swift
* (a favorite of this group)

3. Valentine’s Day Songwriting to “Put a Little Love in Your Heart”

4. Social Skills Hearts (see picture above)

– Cut out medium size hearts on pink and red paper

– On each heart, paste a different social skills question. (Check out Tuneful Teens: Creative Ideas for Engaging Adolescents in Music Therapy for the template!)

– On the day of the session, place all the hearts inside a tambourine. Play “Count on Me” by Bruno Mars or “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” by Randy Newman (you know, the one from Toy Story) as you pass around the heart-filled tambourine. When the music stops, the person holding it must take out a heart, read the question aloud, and answer it.

– Continue until each group member has a chance to answer a question. Encourage the group to sing along with you!

5. Relaxation with scarves to “All You Need is Love” by the Beatles

This was a fun session to lead because it generated all kinds of ideas from the group about love and friendship. What are YOUR favorite Valentine’s Day themed activities?

Looking for more inspiration for your adolescent groups? You’ll want to check out this resource ~ Tuneful Teens: Creative Ideas for Engaging Adolescents in Music Therapy

The post More LOVE-ly Ideas for Valentine’s Day appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

Love is in the air!

I’ll admit that I am a big holiday person. Now that Valentine’s Day is around the corner, I’m excited to be implementing my themed activities for this holiday of love. (Too cheesy?)

My previous post was about Valentine’s BINGO, a musical game I use with my tween and teen clients. Be sure to check out that post so you can see how to access the template and use the game in your sessions right away!

Today, I want to share a Valentine’s Day songwriting activity that I implemented yesterday with my group at Friendship Circle of Miami. I used the song “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” by Jackie deShannon as a template and left blanks for the group to fill in.

My very large post-it paper looked like this:

________________________________________

Put a little love in your heart

________________________________________

Put a little love in your heart

And the world will be a better place (repeat)

For you, and me, just wait and see!

I like this song because it’s catchy and has just enough repetition.

Most of the group had heard the song before and the rest caught on quickly. I sang through the original song so they could hear the melody and flow of the song. Then, I asked for lyrics to fill in that had to do with love or friendship.

This is what they came up with:

We love the Friendship Circle, it’s a great place to be

Put a little love in your heart

Music and art and crafts, yoga and sports and dance

Put a little love in your heart!

And the world will be a better place (repeat)

For you, and me, just wait and see!

You are my friend you see, I will give love to you

Put a little love in your heart

Valentine’s Day if here, come on and spread your cheer,

Put a little love in your heart!

And the world will be a better place (repeat)

For you, and me, just wait and see!

I was very impressed with the lyrics they came up with!

One of the group members had just started a new relationship, so he had a lot of feelings to draw from (hence Verse 2!). We sang the song through a few times and they were very happy with how it all turned out.

Next time we meet, I am going to record them on GarageBand and send the MP3 to each of them so they can keep their work. Very meaningful for them!

What are YOUR favorite Valentine’s Day themed interventions?

* Looking for more inspiration for your adolescent groups? You’ll want to check out this resource ~ Tuneful Teens: Creative Ideas for Engaging Adolescents in Music Therapy *

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I am a BIG fan of using musical games in my music therapy session. I use these games to facilitate social interaction and work on group cohesion with my school-age and teen clients.

Today’s post is about one of my favorite creations…Valentine’s Day BINGO (aka HEART)! Here’s how it works:

1. CREATE
First, create various BINGO cards (but instead of BINGO at the top, you’ll write HEART). Each square has a different “love song.” Then, you can use a special hole punch to make little pink hearts to use as markers. Check out Tuneful Teens: Creative Ideas for Engaging Adolescents in Music Therapy for the template. It’s all ready for you to print and use!

2. PLAY
On the day of the session, divide your group into three teams and provide each with a different HEART card. Then, sing and play each song listed on the card. Your clients or students will mark each song as they hear it with a little pink heart marker. Once they get five across, down, or diagonal they have won HEART! (Although we always say – “Everyone’s a winner!”)

This game was a huge hit last year and I look forward to playing again this year!

* Looking for more inspiration for your adolescent groups? You’ll want to check out this resource ~ Tuneful Teens: Creative Ideas for Engaging Adolescents in Music Therapy *

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