Happy fall ya’ll! The change of seasons is an opportunity for seasonally themed interventions so we’re honing in on Halloween and Harvest season. We always need to exercise our best clinical judgment on when it’s appropriate to use themed sessions. Some reasons why you might want to include themes are for reminiscence, orientation, increased engagement with novelty experiences, bringing changes to your session planning, and opportunities for introducing new and familiar music that you can’t use all year round.

Consider using a metronome if you’re going to be creating pattern sequences! Steady beat primes the brain for attention and creates the predictability for motor planning. You need a beat to synch to a steady rhythm.

And with each step you take, notice how you feel more and more alive with a bounce in your step…and it’s hard not to grin. Walking feels effortless and invigorating …like you’re gliding upon a magic carpet. Walking along, your tiredness melts away, and more and more you notice feeling renewed … There’s a spring in your step and it feels great to be here.

In this fun clinical segment, Elizabeth discusses the benefits of and uses for boomwhackers in a music therapy session. If you’re looking for some new ideas on how to use these versatile instruments, you’re in the right place!

In his book Defining Music Therapy (1998), Kenneth Bruscia outlined 4 main methods for music therapy practice: receptive, re-creative, improvisation, and composition. Of these methods, perhaps the most overlooked is receptive. Ellisa calls on the literature, taking a closer look at clinical applications and philosophy of the receptive method within music therapy.

Our work stresses, thoughts and worries need a container to live in so that when it's time, we can pick them up. Make a small routine of "setting it aside" as you transition home each and every day. It is as important as checking your email but a small and even non-time consuming ritual can create healthy boundaries for your work in your life that will prove deeply rewarding in time.

Today, the Giving Song team gathers around the table to share drumming interventions in honor of National Hug a Drummer Day! Pull up a chair, a drum and join us for some clinical inspiration.

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Music Therapy and Beyond. My name is Maggie and I am so excited for today’s episode. If you have been listening to previous episodes, like “Authenticity in Music pt. 3” and “What Does Wellness Look Like?”, you may have noticed that I came from a different college than Ellisa and Kristin. We have some differences in our theoretical orientations and today I want to dive into why that is. I have done some deep diving and found my course load for each semester during my undergraduate MT program and I have asked Ellisa and Kristin to do the same. I have asked them to join me in this episode as we discover what differences and similarities we have in our undergraduate MT programs and why we developed different theoretical orientations.