Today I was leading group music therapy sessions with adults with intellectual disabilities. We were playing Musical Jeopardy (a crowd favorite!)

There was a moment in the middle where I realized I had filled up every second of the session with what I thought was most important – SOUND.

From the second the session started, I was excitedly greeting clients, telling them how happy I was to see them, and asking them questions.

As we were going through the Jeopardy questions, I was constantly prompting them, in hopes they would get the right answer.

I realized that in my excitement, I had not left space for one of the important components of music therapy.

One that is equally as important as sound.

It’s SILENCE.

It’s the space you give after you ask a question, when you give your client time to process what you’ve asked, formulate a response, and share that with you, verbally or nonverbally.

It’s the space you give during Finish the Phrase, when you’ve sung the first part of the phrase, and you’re waiting for your client to fill in the blank.

It’s the space you give when you strum a V7 chord, sloooooowly building up anticipation before you continue on.

I’m glad I caught myself mid session filling up that space and made a change.

Glad that I slowed down, waited, and gave my clients the space to process and engage.

After writing this post, I found one on the same topic here from 2014!

Check it out and  see – is there an area in your music therapy sessions that could use more silence rather than sound?

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It can be tough to find songs to use with our teen clients, I totally get it.

Some songs have questionable content or lyrics, and some have videos that may not be appropriate for our clients to see.

I am always on the hunt for songs that are appropriate, ones that can be used in a therapeutic manner, and ones that are uplifting.

I’m excited, because I recently found a few that match that criteria!

“Born To Fight” by Imagine Dragons and Sia 

This one would be awesome for instrument playing, followed by lyric analysis and song discussion.

Check out these lyrics –

“But I’m still not backing down,
even when my heart is weak.
Even when I’m out of breath,
I haven’t given up yet.”

“I was born to fight.
Through the fire and the pain,
through the storm through the rain,
through the voices in my brain.
If I fall a thousand times,
I will stand a thousand more
because this is who I am.”

I plan to use this in an upcoming session with a classroom of high school teens with autism. Teens can pick out lyrics that stand out and are powerful to them. They can create artwork with those lyrics that can be put up in their locker or bedroom, as a reminder of how strong they are.

Imagine Dragons are always a fan favorite with my teen clients, so I know they will be open to listening to and exploring this song.

“Love Wins” by Carrie Underwood

Carrie Underwood is another favorite with my clients. Her song “Love Wins” also has some beautiful lyrics that lend themselves well to lyric analysis, song discussion, and artwork to highlight meaningful lines.

“I hold onto hope and I won’t let go cause
I, I believe you and me are sisters and brothers,
And I, I believe we’re made to be here for each other.
We’ll never fall if we walk hand in hand.
Put a world that seems broken together again.
Yeah I, I believe in the end love wins.”

I hope this gives you a little burst of creativity and some new ideas for how you might use these songs therapeutically in your sessions.

Did this idea spark something for you?

Keep that spark alive! Check out the Elevate Email Idea Subscription.

It’s a resource that is designed to help you infuse creativity and FUN into your sessions with school-age & teen clients with autism & other developmental disabilities.

You’ll earn 10 pre-approved continuing ed credits per package. With five individual packages to choose from, you can earn up to 50 credits (these are CMTEs for music therapists and professional development credits for educators).

These resources will super charge you and get you ready for your music therapy sessions and classes this Fall.

There are packages in each of the following categories: ideas for Teens, ideas that target Attention/Perception, and ideas for Holidays & Themes (which is the most fun, in my opinion!)

With each of the packages, you’ll receive brand new musical experience ideas in your inbox each month for six months, creativity worksheets to brainstorm goals, objectives, and ideas for your unique clients, and unlimited, personalized instructor support by your truly.

You can learn more here. Be sure to mark your calendar, because from August 24-30, 2026, each Elevate Package will be available at 50% off, and with added bonus material.

This is the way to get the school year started off right!

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Since 20026 Wholesome Harmonies has provided music therapy services and adapted music lessons to individuals with autism and related disabilities across Southeast Florida (in Miami-Dade, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach).

We are now expanding to Tampa, Florida!

If you are looking for group or individual music therapy services, early childhood classes, Rockin’ & Readin’ sessions at the library, or adapted music lessons from one of our board certified music therapists, reach out to Amy by phone: (305) 349-3680, email: Amy@WHmusictherapy.com, or our contact form.

We can’t wait to connect with you!

The post In-Home Music Therapy Services For Individuals with Autism in Tampa, Florida appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

Since 20026 Wholesome Harmonies has provided music therapy services and adapted music lessons to individuals with autism and related disabilities across South Florida.

All of our therapists are board certified music therapists and we truly LOVE what we do!

In 2021, we began providing services in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and are now expanding to the Frederick and Baltimore areas in Maryland.

If you are looking for group or individual music therapy services, early childhood music classes, Rockin’ & Readin’ sessions at the library, or adapted music lessons from one of our board certified music therapists, reach out to Amy by phone: (305) 349-3680, email: Amy@WHmusictherapy.com, or our contact form.

We can’t wait to connect with you!

The post In-Home Music Therapy Services For Individuals with Autism in Baltimore and Frederick, Maryland appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

If you are in need of some summer session planning inspiration, I have got you covered!

Summer is here – can’t you just smell the grill and taste the gooey marshmallows?

With this inspiration, I created the Summer Music Therapy Session Planning Pack to share musical experiences that are work well for school-age and teens clients, and are effective in helping you connect (really connect!) with them.

If you’re feeling in a creative rut, or are lacking in planning time, I’ve got you covered.

In the E-Book, you’ll learn creative musical experiences that are designed for middle and high school students, but can easily be adapted for other populations. 

Each experience and the complementary materials has a Summer theme, to keep things interesting and engaging for both you and your students.

Nell Miller, MT-BC called the Spring Session Planning E-Book  “creative and wonderful” and says “I appreciate your ideas. You’ve helped me think of more varied things to try.”

In the E-Book, you’ll learn: ideas for singing and song discussion, creative movement, and songwriting; how to facilitate a Musical I Spy Game and Finish the Phrase; and how to use mini raps to engage and connect with your teen clients.

You’ll learn creative ways to use these ideas in a variety of themed sessions, including Summer and Patriotic Themes.

Along with the E-Book, you’ll get: beautiful visuals, colorful picture cards, and lyric sheets that can be printed or pulled up on your device. You’ll also get: musical game templates, songwriting templates, and looped hip hop beat MP4s. Everything you need to implement the ideas in your sessions right away!

Ashley Lewis, MM, MT-BC says of the Spring Session Planning E-Book “I of course love your resources and I think you are brilliant. Your visuals are the best I’ve ever seen! I’m a huge fan of yours and I can’t wait to see what you come up with next because I will be buying it.”

SUMMER SPECIAL: From July 3 – 10, 2026 you’ll get Creative Improv Cards for Summer included with your purchase!

The post Summer Music Therapy Session Planning Inspiration appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

In my last post, I shared fun and creative ways to enhance the quality of your musical presentation and gave some challenges for you to implement those ideas in your sessions right away.

How’d it go?

Remember, our musical presentation is so important in music therapy.

Music is the tool we are using to bring about therapeutic change.

Thus, we want our presentation to be high quality and engaging. This means we need to have strong musical skills on a variety of instruments AND be able to create musical accompaniments that are interesting.

Today I have a few more ideas to share.

3. Change up your guitar strums –

Branch out from the good ol’ “down down up up down up” that we learned in Guitar 101, and add some groovy guitar strums to your music therapy sessions.

Watch Groovy Guitar Strums 1 here and Groovy Guitar Strums 2 here to get ideas for new finger styles and strum patterns to use (including ones that were specifically created for movement activities!)

Try It Out Challenge – choose one new finger style pattern or guitar strum and use it in your next session.

4. Keyboard auto accompaniments

I looooooove auto accompaniments on keyboard.

They are such a fun and easy way to bring out the style of music, such as samba, reggae, or rock.

Watch this video to see exactly how to use your keyboard auto accompaniment to enhance your musical presentation, thus increasing engagement and interest, and encouraging your clients to work toward achieving their therapeutic goals.

Try It Out Challenge – learn how the auto accompaniment works on your keyboard, and use it to accompany one song in your sessions this week.

Not only will these ideas increase engagement, I’ve found they also make me more excited to come into my sessions!

If you’re looking for more ways to increase engagement and interest in your clients (especially those tweens and teens!), I’d love for your to check out Elevate.

Elevate is pre-approved by CBMT for 10 CMTE (continuing ed) credits, and there are three packages available. 

The post More Fun & Creative Ways To Enhance the Quality of Your Musical Presentation in Music Therapy appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

Our musical presentation is so, so important in music therapy.

Music is the tool we are using to bring about therapeutic change.

Thus, we want our musical presentation to be high quality and engaging. This means we need to have strong musical skills on a variety of instruments AND be able to create musical accompaniments that are interesting.

I’m putting together a two part series with creative ways you can do this.

In the series, I’ll share the idea/s first, and then give you a “Try it out” challenge to push yourself to not just read this post and put it away, but to implement the ideas in your session THIS WEEK.

Here are some ideas to get you started –

1. Use your primary instrument / a symphonic instrument –

Here’s a cool example of how using my clarinet let to some incredible responses in a classroom of children with severe and profound intellectual disability. You can click here to watch a video of me using my clarinet in that classroom.

Here are a few creative ways I use my clarinet in sessions with toddlers. You can watch the video of us movin’ and groovin’ here!

And for your tween and teen clients, you can use your primary or symphonic instrument in Name That Tune with a Twist (instructions here). This is also a fun way to work in those “not-so-therapeutic” client preferred songs.

I have had practicum students and interns bring in every instrument you can think of – from the violin to the trombone to the banjo, and the responses from clients have always been positive.

Try It Out Challenge – use your primary instrument or another symphonic instrument in your session using one of the ideas from the posts above (or in an idea you come up with!)

2. Add in non-traditional accompaniment instruments –

I used to give my interns challenges: Accompany yourself with just a maraca for this song, for example. Or, lead this singable story with a bongo as your accompaniment instrument.

It was their challenge to come up with a creative rhythm pattern on that instrument that would keep the beat or keep the groove of the song going as they sang.

Try It Out Challenge – look through your instrument bag and find some non-traditional accompaniment instruments that can accompany you in your next session!

I’m going to refresh my sessions and try these ideas out this week.

Be sure to stay tuned next week when I share more creative ways to enhance your musical presentation, thereby increasing engagement, and helping your clients reach their therapeutic goals.

If you’re looking for more ways to increase engagement and interest in your clients (especially those tweens and teens!), I’d love for your to check out Elevate.

Elevate is pre-approved by CBMT for 10 CMTE (continuing ed) credits, and there are three packages available. 

The post How To Enhance the Quality of Your Musical Presentation in Music Therapy – Part 1 appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

At Wholesome Harmonies, adapted music lessons are one of our most popular offerings.

All of our music teachers are board certified music therapists who specialize in working with students with special learning needs.

So whereas a traditional music teacher might expect the student to sit at the piano for the full 30 min lesson, we have training and experience working with students of all abilities, and have strategies to help those students feel successful learning a musical instrument.

One of the things we need to keep in the forefront of our mind is student retention, or preventing student drop out.

Playing a guitar can be painful when you are first learning, before you have built up calluses.

Learning to read sheet music for piano can be frustrating when there are so many new signs and symbols to learn.

We want students to get over those hurdles so they can successfully play the instrument they want to learn.

Here are three strategies to help prevent lesson drop out and keep students engaged in learning.

1. Dig deep into the music your student likes and use that as lesson material. Lesson and theory books are important. They provide a solid foundation for learning the language of music. But bringing in music that the student loves is the key to keeping them engaged.

I use the Alfred lesson and theory books for my beginner students. But in addition to that, I supplement with sheet music for whatever music they like. For one student it was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I went onto YouTube and listened to the song on repeat while I notated it. For another student, it was “Good Directions” by Billy Currington and “Check Yes or No” by George Strait. These songs kept the students excited about lessons and made them take the initiative to sit down and practice – because they wanted to!

2. Use musical games. Create a musical games like Go Fish or Memory for students to learn note names and musical symbols. Step by step instructions for those games are here. These games are a great way to get students up off the piano bench or lesson chair, moving around, and engaged in something creative and fun.

3. Show them what they’re working toward. When a student is knee deep in theory books, it’s hard for them to keep in mind the end result they’re working toward. I love to play recordings of accomplished musicians and invite them out to live concerts where they can see performers up close and interact with them after the concert. The awe they feel when listening to those performances often gives the student the motivation they need to press through the challenging moments of learning an instrument.

Use these techniques to keep your students engaged and enjoying their lessons. I’ve got lots more adapted music lesson inspiration here on the blog.

And if you’d like to work with me one on one, I offer consultations on customized adapted music lessons for students with autism and related disabilities.

The post Keeping Students Tuned In: 3 Strategies for Preventing Lesson Drop Out appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

Spring has just about Sprung!

Are you feeling a burst of creative energy like I am?

Because of the great feedback we’ve received, plus multiple requests, I’ve put together Round 2 subscriptions for the Teen and Attention Elevate Packages.

This means MORE creative ideas + MORE CMTEs.

The Round 2 Teen Package includes so many goodies:

• The Soundtrack of Your Life…this one is always a crowd favorite
• Song Exploration & Discussion…multiple examples and ideas for extension are included
• Accordion Poetry & Songwriting…this one is so cool
• Creative Movement Cards
• Auditory Perception Training with Pop Songs…THIS is where you can easily incorporate any and all of your clients’ favorite songs to engage them
• Rap Writing & Rapping…step by step instructions are included to walk you through the process, as well as ideas to get the creativity flowing

The Round 2 Attention Package does too:

• Creative Listening Experiences…with an added art component
• Pop Song Listening Guides
• Music & Relaxation Experiences…with suggestions for exactly which pop songs to use
• Music & Movement Ideas…choreography provided, as well as multiple holiday & theme ideas
• Auditory Sequencing with Pop Song Ideas…a great way to incorporate movement into your auditory attention & perception experiences
• Themed Rhythmic Combos…THIS is how you incorporate your clients’ preferences into your musical activities, whether it’s video games, Star Wars, baseball, or Taylor Swift

The Round 2 Combo Pack (most popular!) =
Round 2 Teen Package + Round 2 Attention Package

All the ideas are brand NEW, plus you can earn 10 CMTEs per individual package; 20 for the Combo Pack.

The rate for each package will be discounted through next Tuesday, March 31, 2026!

If you’re on the fence –

Here’s what Bri Walstra, MT-BC had to say about Elevate –

“I thought the email portion was helpful! I actually really like the creativity worksheets because it forces me to sit down and think about the six ways to adapt one intervention. I think as music therapists we often get so busy and we read about intervention ideas but never figure out how we can implement them best.”

And Ashley Lewis, MT-BC shared this with me:

“I, of course love your resources and I think you are brilliant. Your work needs to be celebrated and I’ve told my friends about your website and how awesome your resources are.

The support I get from your resources makes my planning so much easier and less stressful. I am huge fan of yours and I can’t wait to see what you come up with next bc I will be buying it! I can’t wait for the next E-Book, keep crushing it over there!!”

The post MORE Creative Ideas + MORE CMTEs appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

I just love St. Patrick’s Day, and finding ways to incorporate that theme into my music therapy sessions with children with autism and adults with developmental disabilities.

There are so many fun ways to work leprechauns, shamrocks, and Irish music into our sessions to target therapeutic goals.

Check out this post, creatively titled “St. Paddy’s Day Session Ideas,” to learn how to play the crowd favorite game I created called “Irish…or Not Irish?” There is a FREEBIE in that post, so you can download the materials and use this game in your sessions right away! In this post you’ll also learn how to “play a rainbow” using your rainbow colored instrument sets.

In the also cleverly-titled post, “MORE St. Paddy’s Day Session Ideas,” you will get just what it says – more creative ideas to implement this week and next. You’ll learn how to incorporate Irish music into your sessions – both up tempo jigs and more mellow piano tunes.

In addition, I share about my FAVORITE instrument to use to enhance my St. Paddy’s Day Sessions.

It is the oh so versatile…..

Duck quacker.

I use the duck quacker to be the sound of the leprechaun laughing! This instrument has been, across the board, for the past 20 years, one of the most engaging instruments for my clients.

Any time they hear the sound, they stop what they’re doing, perk up, and listen.

So, I use the novelty and interesting sound of the instrument to engage my clients so they can work on their therapeutic goals.

In the post, you’ll learn about the game I play called “Where is the leprechaun?“, how I utilize the canary stick, and what goals can be targeted.

And if you want even more creative inspiration, check out Elevate.

Elevate is an email idea subscription designed to help you infuse creativity and FUN into your sessions with school-age & teen clients with autism & related disabilities.

You’ll earn 10 pre-approved CMTE credits per package.

These resources will super charge you and get you ready for your music therapy sessions and classes this Spring.

There are three packages to choose from: the Teen Package, the Attention/Perception Package, the Holidays & Themes Package, and the popular Combo Pack.

Each package is approved by the Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT) for 10 continuing education credits.

You’ll receive an email with new musical experience ideas in your inbox each month for six months.

Check everything that’s included in Elevate HERE.

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