🥁🪇 Children ages 5-12 of all abilities are welcome, and will rotate through three groups: Music Therapy | Art | Yoga

This is a drop off event. Parents are invited to a session on nurturing creativity with your child, followed by coffee at a local shop to connect with other parents. Co-hosted with my friends and colleagues at Tonality Music Therapy.

Sunday, February 8, 2026 from 1:00-4:00pm at 123 Baltimore Street, Suite 208 in Gettysburg

We cannot wait to come together as a community to make music, move, and create art!

Reach out via our contact form or email Amy@WHmusictherapy.com for more information and to register your child!

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I am on a mission to figure out how to use “not so therapeutic” songs therapeutically.

I know for me, it is really tough when my clients or students like songs that are not necessarily “appropriate” for school, or seem to me to have little therapeutic value due to the content and lyrics.

But it’s important to me to learn how to use these songs in our sessions as a way to: a) validate my clients’ musical taste (therefore validating THEM!), and b) better engage them to work on their goals and objectives.

My brain LOVES this creative challenge, so I am sharing what I’ve come up with in this blog series.

In last week’s post, I shared how to facilitate Name That Tune with a Twist – it’s a simple way to work in those songs that you don’t know how to otherwise use purposefully.

(And to work on attention perception skills).

Today, I’m sharing another way to use not-so -therapeutic songs therapeutically: use them in relaxation experiences.

I play most of the music used in my sessions live, but for relaxation experiences I’ll often use recorded music. This way, my hands are free to model movements.

Here are some of my favorite songs to use during relaxation experiences:

• “A Thousand Years” from Twilight – Piano Guys version
• “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran – Conkarah Reggae cover
• “Meant to Be” by Bebe Rexha on violin
• “Someday” from Disney’s Zombies ballad or reprise  – karaoke track
• “Bird Song” by The Wailin’ Jennys (I use this in my Spring-themed sessions)
• “America the Beautiful” (for my patriotic-themed sessions)
• “Buchanan Mist” by Paul Machlis (for St. Paddy’s day sessions)
• “Wintersong” by Ingrid Michaelson & Sarah Bareilles (for winter-themed sessions)

These songs are familiar to my tween and teen clients, so there is instant engagement, but they also lend themselves to stretching, breathing, and winding down at the end of a session.

Here’s how to make this super customized for YOUR unique clients:

Search for the instrumental versions of their favorite songs (like “Meant to Be” on violin) or the karaoke track of their favorite songs (like “Someday” karaoke).

If this idea has helped or sparked something for you, keep that spark alive! Now through August 31, 2025, you can sign up for Elevate at a discounted rate AND with some awesome bonus material.

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 Fall.

There are three packages to choose from: the Teen Package, the Attention/Perception Package, or The Holidays & Themes Package.

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.

Click here to sign up for Elevate now through August 31st, so you can take advantage of the discounted rate AND bonus material: Keeping Things Cool for Your Teen Clients in Music Therapy.

In this bonus PDF, you’ll get:

• Where to hang out to find new music for teens
• Great pop songs for movement with teens (2025 edition!)
• How to keep things age appropriate and cool
• Why & how to use client preferred music

The post Using Not-So-Therapeutic Songs Therapeutically: Pop Music Relaxation appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

Have you had a chance to catch up on the last two Session Idea Blasts?

The first was about a Musical Game called Music Man that allows you to easily insert your clients’ and students’ preferred singers, bands, and songs into it (leads to instant engagement!)

The second was a Pop Song Listening Game. This one is super fun to plan and facilitate – it allows you to incorporate your clients’ and students’ musical faves as well.

Today’s post is about how you can incorporate Popular Music and Art into your sessions, to facilitate creativity and self-expression.

The Tune In To Teens and Attention & Perception E-Courses are open for enrollment this week only, at a discounted rate AND with some incredible bonus material included:

The Ultimate Pop Song Bonus is a 12-page creativity pack with tons of ideas for how to use current pop songs by Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Jason Aldean, Miley Cyrus, Imagine Dragons, and many more, therapeutically.

In it, you’ll learn how to use one of Taylor Swift’s popular songs, along with an arts experience, to promote self-expression, increase self-esteem, and increase communication skills.

You’ll learn how to facilitate a lyric analysis for Kacey Musgraves’ beautiful song “Rainbow,” and create artwork that promotes communication and self-expression in your clients and students.

You’ll also learn my favorite song to use at the beginning of each year to get my students dreaming about their goals and plans for the year ahead. It involves a song discussion and art project that incorporates meaningful lyrics from the song.

The Ultimate Pop Song Bonus includes tons of other musical experience ideas that target speech and language, attention, executive function, and relaxation goals in ways that are engaging and cool for your teen clients.

It’s valued at $25, and is included FREE when you enroll in Tune In To Teens or The Attention & Perception E-Course by Sunday, January 19th.

Following that, the courses will no longer be available for purchase, as I will be focusing on other projects and offerings.

If you’re on the fence, hop off and enroll now!

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It’s a snow day here in Pennsylvania – a far cry from the 80 degree Januarys we experienced when we lived in Florida!

Before I go outside to shovel and sled with my kiddos, I wanted to write up a quick blog to continue the Session Idea Blast Series I started last week.

In the last post, I shared about a musical game that my middle and high school students LOVE.

They love it because it’s competitive, allows them to work in teams, and incorporates their favorite music.

I love it because it allows me to easily customize the goals to fit the needs of each of my unique students.

Today, I’m sharing about a musical experience called Pop Song Listening Games.

Games that help our clients refine the auditory perception and listening skills that help them succeed in classroom and work settings.

Here’s how it goes –

Start by creating a list of popular and client preferred music.

Then, on your favorite video platform, look up versions of those songs played on different instruments.

For example –

“Havana” by Camila Cabello played on flute.

“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Encanto on trumpet.

“Antihero” by Taylor Swift on clarinet.

You can also play live versions yourself!

Play the song for your clients, and they’ll guess the song AND the instrument that is playing.

You can turn it into a game by dividing your clients into two or three smaller groups, or have the group participate as a whole.

After they correctly guess the song and instrument, play the original version of the song and everyone can jam and sing along.

This game is a great way for students to practice those oh so important attention and perception skills!

If these ideas are sparking your interest, then you’ll be glad to know that the doors for the Tune In To Teens E-Course and The Attention & Perception E-Course will be opening next week, on January 13th (at a discounted rate and for a limited time).

The session ideas and content in the courses are all geared toward school-age (K-8) and high school-age clients with disabilities, but can easily be adapted for other ages and clinical populations.

Each E-Course has three packages to choose from, ranging from 5-15 continuing education credits that are pre-approved with the Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT).

Lynda Miller, MT-BC, had this to say about The Attention & Perception course:

“Thank you for creating The Attention and Perception E-Course!  I have been encouraged, inspired, and moved to action by the way you presented this subject.  Instructions to “Stop now and fill out creativity worksheet” were effective and I used several of the ideas that same week.  My clients have responded positively to both the interventions and my renewed excitement.  Your E-Course has been worth every penny and my clients  and I thank you!”

And Anna Ruffle, MT-BC, shared this with me about Tune in To Teens:

“Thank you for sharing your tips and experience with this population!! The features I enjoyed most were the resources, session ideas, implementation tips – all of it!! I would definitely recommend to anyone struggling with building rapport, coming up with ideas, presenting engaging, relevant content to teen groups. It was a very organized, detailed, helpful course! It is such a great, thought-through, and thorough course that I have already recommended it to other MTs I work with.“

More than 400 music therapists, educators, and professionals have taken Wholesome Harmonies E-Courses and successfully put the ideas into use in their sessions and classrooms.

Stay tuned when they open for enrollment at a discounted rate and for a limited time next week!

The post Session Idea Blast for Tweens & Teens – Pop Song Listening Games appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but summer is winding down, and the school year is right around the corner.

Today’s post will be the last in my Summer Session Sneak Peek series, where I’ve been giving you a little glimpse into my music therapy sessions with middle and high schoolers with autism and related disabilities.

I’ve found there are not as many resources out there for this age group, so I love to share what’s been working well!

Catch up on the past posts:

Session Sneak Peek #1: Imagine Dragons + The Affirmations Rap

Session Sneak Peek #2: Musical Hangman + Taylor Swift

Session Sneak Peek #3: Pop Singer Movement Combos + Guess Who

Today, our theme is none other than….The Olympics!

We’re celebrating everything related to the Olympics. The sports that are played and the incredible, inspirational athletes that are performing.

Here is how I therapeutically incorporated The Olympics into my music therapy sessions (some of the ideas came from a Facebook thread I read several years ago, so if you created these ideas, please let me know and I’m happy to give credit!):

Opening Ceremony: Ask clients some opening questions about where the Olympics are taking place this year and teach them how to say Hello in the language of that country.

Movement to The Olympics Theme Song: March, move arms up & down and back & forth, and march again to “Olympic Fanfare & Theme” by John Williams.

Summer Olympics Charades: To the tune of “Chariots of Fire” by Vangelis, you and/or clients act out sports from the summer games: swimming, basketball, volleyball, softball, surfing, tennis, and weightlifting. Clients must guess the sport you are acting out.

Musical Olympics: Create musical games for your clients to play, based on their therapeutic goals. Award bronze, silver, and gold medals.

• Rhythms – see who can match rhythm patterns with you most accurately. Rhythm patterns can have an Olympic theme, such as “O-lymp-pics” or “Gold med-al,” or “ice skat-ing.”
• Drumming – drum and count in the language of the country where The Olympics are being held
• Speed drumming – see who can drum the fastest
• Marathon – see who can hold a note the longest
• Pole vault – sing intervals that go higher and higher. See who can go highest!

“We Will Rock You” by Queen: Begin with the pat pat clap movement that goes along with the song; then sing with a pretend microphone; then play air electric guitar.

Olympic Video “Rise Up” by Andra Day + Song Discussion: Watch the video that shows Andra Day singing while inspirational clips from the Olympic games play. After watching, have a discussion about the meaning of the song. Discuss the lyric where she sings “Rise up and do it a thousand times.” Discuss what is means to be a champion – Do champions give up or keep trying? Do they give minimal effort or give their best effort every time? Do they think about themselves or work as part of a team? How can we be champions in our everyday lives?

Dancing: Dance to “I Like to Move it” from the movie Madagascar or “Whoomp! There It Is” from Kidz Bop.

Closing Ceremony: Say goodbye in the language of that country.

I hope this gave you a few creative ideas for your Olympic fans.

If you’d like more creative ideas for your sessions as we round out the summer, check out the Summer Session Planning Pack. The E-Book is packed with creative, summer-themed session ideas for your school-age and teen clients.

Ashley Lewis, MM, MT-BC says “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.”

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I am back to working with preschoolers and I am LOVING it!

I recently started a new contract, providing group music therapy at Amazing Kids Club Autism Center, part of True North Wellness Services in Hanover, Pennsylvania. I provide weekly group music therapy for the preschool program, and….

I had forgotten how physical it is to work with preschoolers!

We are up and moving around the room to music, playing instruments under our chairs, using music and movement to learn academic concepts, like you can see in these videos here, and sometimes we’re even inside a drum (check out videos here!)

After working mainly with teens for several years, it’s refreshing to be back to using some “oldie but goodie” original songs I’d written, printing out new visual aids, and of course, getting in some exercise as I keep the students engaged with lots of movement.

If you’re a music therapist looking for creative ideas for working with children with disabilities, check out the entire collection of ideas here for FREE. There are over 100 posts with session ideas, as well as ideas for enhancing your clinical practice!

And if you are looking for virtual or in-home music therapy services around the Gettyburg, Hanover, Littllestown, or Fairfield areas in Pennsylvania for individuals with autism and related disabilities, reach out to me via email or by phone: (305) 349-3680.

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I don’t know about you, but when I’m learning new music therapy techniques, I love to see them IN ACTION.

It’s one thing to read about techniques in a book or hear about them in class, and it’s another to see them being implemented in an actual session with clients.

That’s why I created a Music Therapy in Action Page on my site (all shared with permission from the client families).

This page is for parents and administrators to see what music therapy could look like for their children or students.

And it’s for music therapists to get new ideas and see how they might implement techniques with their own clients and students.

I always get inspired and invigorated when I watch videos of music therapy in action.

On the Music Therapy in Action page, you can check out examples in the following areas (click on each picture below):

You’ll watch videos showing:

• An original song with gross motor MOVEMENT around the room to teach shapes (one of my faves!)
• An original song with MOVEMENT to teach -AT words
• An original song and colorful file folder activity to work on matching numeral to quantity
• A singable story about mixing colors
• And, two attention & perception techniques implemented in a fun, creative way

You’ll watch videos showing:

• Musical Sensory Orientation Training with the cabasa to provide tactile stimulation
• Several music therapy experiences to work on sensory integration (one with the therapy ball, one with paint brushes used during a singable story, one with the trampoline, and one with the gathering drum used for spinning) – all used for my clients on the autism spectrum and with sensory processing disorders

Here, you’ll watch videos showing:

• How I use my primary instrument from college, the clarinet, to facilitate on gross motor movements

There’s plenty more to see on the Music Therapy in Action Page, so be sure to check it out and let me know which techniques you’ll be implementing this week!

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Happy Happy New Year!

I’m kicking off this year with a series of 3 “How To” posts.

Today we’re looking at something I hear again and again from participants who take the Tune In To Teens and Attention & Perception E-Courses:

How do I plan engaging experiences for groups with mixed ages and abilities?!

Read on friend because I’ve got some ideas for you.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked in a wide variety of clinical settings with individuals ranging in age and ability.

I’ve provided services at schools, libraries, adult day centers, and a variety of organizations for individuals with autism and related disabilities.

I have a lot of experience in this area.

Here is the #1 way I plan engaging experiences for groups with mixed ages and abilities:

I have two levels of participation (high and low) for each and every musical experience.

I’ll give a few examples –

Instrument playing: I might bring in an experience where students are prompted to play instruments. One level of students needing less support, plays a rhythm pattern for the verse and another rhythm pattern for the chorus. The second level of students needing more support, would play their instruments in any way.

Winter Vacation Rap: This week, my students and I are doing a rap about what they did on their winter break. One level of students shares what they did on vacation using a full sentence. The second level of students needing more support, points to a picture, from a choice of three, that shows what they did during the break.

Parachute: One of my favorite ways to engage clients is with manipulatives. And my clients and students of all ages LOVE the parachute. During a parachute activity to the song “Happy” by Pharrell, one level of students would shake and raise the parachute up every time they hear the word “happy.” The second level of students needing more support, would shake the parachute throughout the song.

In these ways, I’m allowing my clients and students to participate and feel successful at their level, whatever that level is.

Students who need more support can feel successful by playing their instrument or shaking the parachute.

And students who need less support can still feel challenged, because I’m increasing the complexity of the instructions I’m giving them.

If you have groups with mixed ages and abilities, see how you can plan each of your musical experiences with two levels of participation. Get creative and see how much more your clients are engaged!

And, if you’re looking for ways to infuse more CREATIVITY in your sessions, I would encourage you to sign up for a subscription of Elevate.

You’ll receive monthly musical experience ideas sent straight to your inbox each month, have access to instructor support for any questions, AND complete Creativity Worksheets to double or triple the number of ideas you walk away with and earn 7 CMTE credits.

Choose from the Teen Package, the Attention & Perception Package, or grab the Combo Pack!

Enrollment will be open (at a discounted rate) from Jan 16 – 20, 2023!

The post How To Plan Engaging Experiences For Mixed Ages & Abilities appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

Therapist. Client.

Two well defined roles.

But what happens in music therapy when you switch up those roles?

When the therapist feels what it feels like to be the client, and the client feels what it feels like to be the therapist.

This idea came to me a few years ago when I was working with a group of teens with autism in Miami.

I was facilitating a musical experience around the idea of being brave and each client was sharing  a time they felt afraid and had to be brave.

After everyone had shared, one of the teens turned to me and said “Ms. Amy, when was a time you had to be brave?”

I was more than a little caught off guard. It took me a moment to gather my thoughts, but I remembered how earlier that week I had gotten blood drawn and that was definitely a time I had to be brave.

Looking back, I’m grateful for that moment – and for many moments like that that have followed in subsequent years – where I was asked to be vulnerable, share something about myself, rap lyrics I’d just written, or improv on a drum.

These are all things we frequently ask our clients to do and we often take for granted how open and willing they are to answer, share, improv, and sing.

I always think back to that moment before I ask my clients to do something in front of me or a group.

I remember what those butterflies and nerves felt like, so I can have empathy and understanding for how hard it may be for them to be vulnerable.

The role reversal benefits work the other way, too.

Have you given your clients the opportunity to stand in your shoes and lead the group, conduct a song, or facilitate a discussion?

Have they had the opportunity to choose what musical experiences you’ll be doing next time, what songs you’ll be singing or what goals you’ll be working on?

The feelings of empowerment that come from this kind of role reversal are significant.

Just some food for thought before you step into your next session.

The post How Role Reversal Works Wonders in Music Therapy appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

50% off ALL E-Books, now through April 8th.

If you need creative inspiration or new ideas (especially for tweens and teens), I encourage you to take advantage of this sale.

Some E-Books, like the Pop Song Mini Pack, are just $6!

Check out:

Tuneful Teens 1 and Tuneful Teens 2 (which were just updated), Sensational Songs & Activities, and The Rap Pack For Teens (with 12 looped hip hop beats included).

All are available for half off the usual price.

You can even grab the POWER PACK, which has all the E-Books listed above in one, discounted bundle.

The Virtual Music Therapy Session Planning Packs for Spring & Summer have been flying off the E-Shelves (both also 50% off):

In the E-Books, you’ll learn creative musical experiences that are effective in teletherapy and easily customized for your clients.

You’ll learn: musical game ideas, instrument activities, and creative movement experiences; how to use listening guides; and some brand new ideas that were created just for virtual sessions.

Along with the E-Book, you’ll get: visuals, picture cards, a musical game template, sample listening guide, and sample mini musical bio, as well as a looped hip hop beat MP3.

It’s everything you need to implement the ideas in your virtual sessions right away!

There is so much great content packed into these E-Resources that I rarely discount them (only once per year).

Have fun browsing the E-Aisles for resources that’ll boost your creativity and elevate the quality of service you’re providing.

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