Today, I did an entire refresh of my Music Jeopardy game for teens. I updated all the songs for the Name That Tune and Finish the Phrase categories, and all the artists for the Name That Singer and Name That Style categories. I do a refresh like this every few weeks, since the music that's [...]
Over the past few weeks, I've shared some posts that've hopefully boosted your creativity if you work with school-age clients or teens. In this post, I showed how to therapeutically use songs that don't appear (at first) to have therapeutic value. And here, I shared how I keep things age appropriate (and cool!) when working [...]
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 [...]
One of the Tune In To Teens course features I hear the most positive feedback about is the Challenging Scenarios & Strategies for Success section, in Chapter 3. Working with teens is one of the most enjoyable things I’ve had the opportunity to do in my music therapy career, but it does come with some [...]
When it comes to looking at goals and areas of need for my teen clients, creativity and self-expression continually come to the top of my list, in terms of importance. With the upheaval that teens have experienced due to the pandemic, promoting creativity and giving them opportunities for self-expression seem more important now than ever [...]
As music therapists and educators, we know the importance of using client-preferred music in our sessions, especially when working with teens. Teens have a very personal relationship with the music that speaks to them. And when we show acceptance for our clients' music, what we're communicating is that we accept them. Using client-preferred music engages [...]
I vividly remember the first time I led a music therapy session with a group of teen clients. I remember thinking it would be easy to build group cohesion among 30 adolescents that didn't know each other, and that we'd be songwriting and rapping in no time. Well, that wasn't exactly the case. It took [...]
It's finally time: the doors for the Tune In To Teens E-Course are now open (but just for a short while)! This week only, March 9 - 13th, 2020, the course is open for enrollment (so everyone can progress through the course at the same time). Following that, the doors close and I don't really [...]
Over the past few weeks, I've given you a little sneak peak into the Tune In To Teens E-Course: how the course helps you with organizing all your music therapy materials, and teaches you social skills interventions (and raps!), motor skills interventions and how to make looped hip hop beats, and how to find music [...]
One question I'm asked more than any other is this: "What music should I use with my teen clients and students?" I get it, because it stumps me sometimes, too. First, it's hard to find songs that are: a) appropriate (lyrics and content-wise), b) able to be used therapeutically, and c) considered cool by your [...]
