Newsletters & Blogs
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Cancer treatment | Drums | Music Therapy newsletters and blogs | Portfolio | Sound Healing | Wellness
Using Tibetan Bowls for Cancer Treatment:
My Brother’s Story My large Family has been separated by time, distance and the vast sea of differing ideologies. The first blessing was that we were able to come together and surround Steve with love and family support as he embarked on this journey. My siblings and extended family members stepped up in…
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There really is a Conference for Drum Circle Facilitators!
I just returned from the 2024 Drum Circle Facilitators Guild (DCFG) conference, held this year in Prescott, AZ. The theme of this year’s conference was “Cultivating Connections” and that is exactly what we did. You may be wondering what a drum circle is and why we have conferences about this stuff? Maybe you’ve seen a…
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Presenting: Happy Family Hour!
FOR ALL AGES Join our creative and talented music therapy team as they sing, dance, and play in a live, interactive family-oriented music session. Mondays and Wednesdays, 5 pm MST This is an inclusive program and all are welcome to join in! Please pay what you are able to contribute to keep our programs going! Pay through…
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Sing Me a Book – April
When my daughter was in Kindergarten, she decided that she was going to be a Paleontologist. Her kindergarten teacher was amazed that she knew the word, let alone what it meant. Although my daughter changed her mind about her life’s vocation and is now a concert violinist, she still has a love for dinosaurs. And…
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Sing Me a Book – March
Flower Garden by Eve Bunting Eve Bunting is an award winning children’s author and has a long list of titles to her credit. I was drawn to this book by the beautiful illustrations by Kathryn Hewitt. The story is an excellent sequence of a father and daughter planting a window box garden for the Mother’s…
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Sing Me A Book – February
Ah February, the month where we recognize love. There are so many children’s books about Valentine’s Day and even more about love. But even though I have tried many of them, I keep coming back to one of my all-time favorite children’s books. EVER! I first heard this when my daughter was in pre-school and…
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Music Therapy Advocacy Month
It is January, and with the dawning of a new year comes the annual Music Therapy Advocacy Month sponsored by the American Music Therapy Association www.musictherapy.org and the Certification Board for Music Therapists www.cbmt.org. This is a time for us to advocate for our profession as a collective group. As I read through posts from…
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Sing Me a Book – January
Hello, Happy New Year and welcome back to the Sing Me a Book Blog series. Transitions can often be difficult for children in special education. Many kids want to pick up where we left off in Dec. and sing holiday songs. Now while “Jingle Bells” and “Frosty the Snowman” are winter songs, I try to…
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Sing Me a Book – The Thanksgiving Song
There are a lot of books published about the Thanksgiving holiday and many of the ones that tell the Thanksgiving story are very wordy and complicated or very silly. I am a big proponent of silliness and if you have been following this blog series you know that I use a lot of silly books….
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Sing Me a Book – Halloween
By this time in the month of October, the kids are getting excited about Halloween and that’s really all they want to talk about. Of course there are lots of options to address goals and objectives within this great theme! There are a LOT of Halloween books that are written to go to a specific…
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Sing Me a Book – Fall Farm Animals
I have worked in Special education pre-schools for 20 years now and most of the teachers I have worked with have a farm animal theme in the fall. There are a LOT of books that go with this theme so here are two of my tried and true favorites. Cows in the Kitchen Cows in…
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Sing Me a Book – “Old Black Fly”
Welcome back to “Sing Me a Book” The book I am featuring today has been my favorite alphabet book since I first learned it during my undergraduate work almost 25 years ago. This is my “go-to” book when teachers are doing a thematic unit on bugs, but it’s so fun that I don’t wait to…
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Sing Me a Book
Welcome to “Sing Me a Book” I love to read and write almost as much as I love making music. So incorporating books into my music therapy sessions was a natural occurrence and has become one of the favorite interventions in all of my children’s groups and individual sessions. In this blog series, I will…
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I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie – a fun and favorite Thanksgiving book
I sing a book near the end of almost every session that I do with kids. With Thanksgiving upon us, I would like to take a few moments to share my favorite Thanksgiving book. “I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Pie” by Alison Jackson is also my favorite of the very many “Old…
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Dementia | Music Therapy newsletters and blogs | Portfolio | rehabilitation | Special Education | Stroke
PASSION – My passion to serve – part 5 of 5
In the first 3 posts for this series I talked about the importance of passion, for music, for music therapy and for the profession. In the last post, I talked about my love for singing and stated that my father wanted me to do something “more substantial” with my life. After my dad’s untimely death,…
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PASSION – My musical journey – part 4 of 5
This is a series about passion for music, for music therapy and for the profession of music therapy, (read the previous posts here) so I will take this opportunity to briefly describe my journey and my passion. I come from a large family, the 4th child out of 6 kids and the first one born…
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PASSION – For the Music Therapy Profession – Part 3 of 5
In my last two blog posts, I talked about the importance of passion as a musician and as a music therapist. (Read those posts here). There is a little bit of difference being a professional music therapist and having passion for the profession of music therapy. As a working MT-BC you can choose to focus…
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PASSION – For Music Therapy part 2 of 5
I began my last post with the question “What makes some music therapists successful while others are struggling to get enough income to live on?” (Read that post here). The simple answer is that music therapists have to be passionate about music, but they also need to be passionate about the practice of music therapy….
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PASSION – For Music – part 1 of 5
What makes some music therapists successful while others are struggling to get enough income to live on? That’s really not an easy question to answer because there are so many facets to being a music therapist. It starts with passion. Children are naturally musical and exploration of sounds and patterns starts in very young children….
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Music Therapy with Tibetan Singing Bowls
A few weeks ago I was at my favorite grocery store and ran into a friend and colleague. Jane Shallberg, M.Ed, MT-BC is the director of Arizona Sound and Music Therapy Institute. If you have read my previous posts, then you have probably figured out that, while I do work with adults, my primary experience…
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Reflections on the “Alive Inside” Movie
The Alive Inside movie by Michael Rosatto-Bennett chronicles the journey of a social worker, Dan Cohen, as he developed and implemented an iPod project where he distributed iPods to patients with dementia. The movie gained attention when a clip featuring a patient named Henry was released on youtube last year and went viral in a…
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Vocational and Wellness Group for Teens
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the ways that music therapy can address vocational skills, you can read that post here, the clients that I was referring to in that article had diagnoses such as developmental delays, autism and Cerebral Palsy and they attend day programs. But this week I had the opportunity to…
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Autism | Brain Injury | Dementia | Music Therapy newsletters and blogs | rehabilitation | Special Education | Stroke
This Summer I Took My Clients On A World Wide Vacation
So I didn’t hire a car, plane, boat or train to transport us to far off places but we did pretend The topic of summer vacation is pretty universal, most of us have schedule changes to accommodate for vacations and the ending of one school year and the start of another. I like to start…
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Addressing Vocational Skills in Music Therapy Groups
Each week I work with a variety of people, from very young children in preschool to older adults in memory care and skilled nursing facilities. One of my adult groups has individuals from age 22 and up with the oldest member in her late 50’s. They have all been diagnosed with a variety of developmental…
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Autism | Brain Injury | Dementia | Music Therapy newsletters and blogs | rehabilitation | Special Education | Stroke
Physiological and Neurological Changes: the Most Important Reason for Weekly Music Therapy Sessions
The research is published and the word is out. Participation in music making interventions improves physiological functions such as regulation of heart rate and respiration and the release of endorphins into the system. We also know that participation in the music making process supports neurological functioning throughout the brain. Music therapists have specialized training in…
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Autism | Brain Injury | Dementia | Music Therapy newsletters and blogs | rehabilitation | Special Education | Stroke
Consistency: The Second Reason Weekly Music Therapy Sessions Are Important
In my last post, I stated that having weekly music therapy sessions supports social skill development and retention (read that post here). The second reason that I feel weekly music therapy sessions are important is Consistency. Having sessions every week allows participants to understand the routine, they enjoy attending and look forward to the groups….
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Autism | Brain Injury | Dementia | Music Therapy newsletters and blogs | rehabilitation | Special Education | Stroke
Social Skill Development and Retention: The First Reason Weekly Music Therapy Sessions are Important
A recent survey of music therapists reported that the majority of therapists see clients in weekly 50min sessions, some in groups and some individual sessions, in order to maximize treatment goals and objectives (Kern, P, et al., Journal of Music Therapy, 50(4), 2013, 274–303). The survey didn’t include why music therapists chose to treat clients…
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The Ocean Drum, A Great Tool For Engagement With ASD Children!
The methods I described last week, in The Ocean Drum, A Great Tool for Music Therapy Groups! have been very successful in the group setting. But I have also used the ocean drum as an effective method to reach children that were unable to join the music therapy group. William was in a self-contained class for…
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The Ocean Drum, A Great Tool for Music Therapy Groups!
The ocean drum is an important part of the multi-sensory approach, because, in addition to providing visual, tactile and auditory input, presenting the drum in this way also addresses auditory sensitivity issues.
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Music Therapy Saves Money In Special Education
So you just read the title and clicked on this post, all the while you may be thinking to yourself, “Oh come on, how can a service that I have to pay for out of my already stretched thin budget really save my facility money?”First of all let me say that YES, You will have…
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Music Therapy Saves Money On Health Care Costs
So you just read the headline and clicked on this blog post, all the while you may be thinking to yourself, “Oh come on, how can a service that I have to pay for out of my already stretched thin budget really save my facility money?” First of all let me say that YES, You…
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Rhythmic Entrainment in Music Therapy to Assist With Social Awareness part 4 of 4
In Meghan’s case it was the instrument playing that was the motivator for her, and when she did start to play, she was able to play rhythmically with the group. This was a signal to me that even though Meghan appeared disconnected and unaware at the beginning, she was still receiving the input on a neurological basis.
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Rhythmic Entrainment in Music Therapy to Assist in Language Development part 3 of 4
“All music therapy goal-directed activity is aimed first and foremost at enhancing the functioning capacity of each client’s brain” (Taylor, 1997 p. 14).
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Rhythmic Entrainment for Motor Planning part 2 of 4
In the last post “What is Rhythmic Entrainment ? And Why is it Important in Music Therapy?” I stated that “Rhythmic Entrainment in music therapy is a specialized practice used to assist in helping people become more “in tune” to their own rhythm and the rhythms of the world around them.” Babies hear their first…
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What is Rhythmic Entrainment? and Why is it Important in Music Therapy? Part 1 of 4
Rhythmic Entrainment in music therapy is a specialized practice used to assist in helping people become more “in tune” to their own rhythm and the rhythms of the world around them.
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SENSORY INTEGRATION – Not Just for Autism Spectrum Disorders – Part 4 of a 4 part series
Part 4 – Sensory Integration Interventions for Adults in Music Therapy This is the final blog in a 4 part series about Sensory Integration. Three weeks ago, I defined sensory integration dysfunction as a neurological processing disorder that results in a disconnect in the internal sensory system(click here to read). The second post was about…
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SENSORY INTEGRATION – Not Just for Autism Spectrum Disorders – part 3 of a 4 part series.
Part 3 –Music Therapy Interventions for Children with Sensory Processing Disorders Two weeks ago, I posted my definition of Sensory Processing Dysfunction (click here to read that post) and last week I posted about some of the ways that children exhibit sensory processing issues (click here to read that post). This post will talk about…
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SENSORY INTEGRATION – Not Just for Autism Spectrum Disorders – A 4 part series.
Part 2 – How does Sensory Integration Dysfunction present in children? Sensory integration issues are prevalent in individuals on the Autism Spectrum and often times is listed that a person has “autistic tendencies” that are related to sensory processing. In last week’s blog, I defined sensory integration as a neurologic processing disorder that results in…
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SENSORY INTEGRATION – Not Just for Autism Spectrum Disorders – A 4 part series
The purpose of this blog series is to inform the reader about sensory integration, describe how sensory integration dysfunction affects different people and how to address these issues in the music therapy setting.
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SING ME A BOOK!
I just produced and published my very first video about our “Sing Me a Book” program, so I decided to share a little bit about the books that I used in the video. I had the opportunity to work with a music education grad student, Sue Kujawski, who taught me two of the books that…
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World Cerebral Palsy Day
In honor of World Cerebral Palsy day I wanted to share about my work at UCP. But let me start at the beginning: Cerebral Palsy is: • A number of disorders of the developing brain affecting body movement, posture and muscle coordination. • Caused by damage to one or more specific areas of the brain, usually…
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The Value of Professionalism
In order to be a Board-Certified music therapist (MT-BC) you must first pass an examination and then take continuing education courses to re-certify every 5 years. Part of this training includes adhering to a strict code of ethics about our music therapy practice. My role as a small business owner further extends the level of…
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How do you put a value on something?
Car manufacturers look at the cost of parts, manufacturing, distribution, commissions for sellers, cost of running a dealership and probably thirty other factors all to determine the price of their car. Car brands add value as well as reputation and history. A Mercedes Benz is much more expensive than a Ford, and the buyer…
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Sing, Dance & Play – Register Now!
Register today at the Community Education Parent Portal: https://susd.icareparentportal.com/ Download a PDF version of the Sing, Dance, & Play flyer here.
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Music Therapy Could Ease Anxiety In Patients With Respiratory Failure, Study Finds
For critically ill patients who need ventilator support, listening to some favorite tunes could help quell anxiety levels, according to a new study. Researchers from Ohio State University found that patients who were on acute ventilatory support because of respiratory failure had decreased anxiety when they listened to their favorite music, compared with usual care….
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Music Therapy Saves Money
A multi-state, 2 year study in the US published in the Journal Arts & Heath monitored medication usage of two groups: one group that resided in long term care and one group that resided in long term care AND participated in a regular group music program 3 times per week. The participants in the music…
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Music Therapists Do More Than Sing
“Any place a social worker might work, it may be possible to find a music therapist there.” by Andy Mulkerin @andybotpgh Michelle Montgomery Muth demonstrates a music-therapy drumming exercise, with an assist from the photographer’s nephew, Sebastian Mull. Michelle Montgomery Muth took the long way from her hometown of St. Paul, Minn., to Pittsburgh. The…
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Music Therapy and the Military
It was very fitting that between Veterans’ Day, when we recognize our veterans and all they have done for our country, and Thanksgiving, when we show our gratitude for so many and for so much, the creation of a music therapy program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and at the National Intrepid Center of…
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American Idol & Music Therapy
Kree Harrison, a finalist on American Idol visits a Los Angeles hospital and learns about music therapy.
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Welcome To 2013!
Hello and Happy New Year! As we have reviewed the past year we are thrilled that we are growing and increasing our business each day. We have set some big goals for the upcoming year. First, our plan is to grow our business by accepting insurance reimbursement for music therapy services. Secondly we are increasing…
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It’s Too Darn HOT!
The heat is on in the desert southwest! Arizona has already passed the 100 degree point for a full week now. The school year will be ending soon and we are making plans for summer programs. Here’s a fun video of Ann Miller’s “Too Darn Hot” from “Kiss Me Kate” One of my college students…
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Mind-Full Spring Cleaning
This is the time of year when we are packing up winter clothes, (OK we don’t really have winter clothes in PHX, AZ!) rearranging closets and sweeping the dust bunnies out from under beds and furniture (we have ginormous dust bunnies in PHX, AZ!). This is a process we go through several times a year,…
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Spring is in the air
March 21st is just around the corner and in addition to being J.S. Bach’s birthday as well as my beautiful sister, Dot’s birthday; it is also the first day of spring. While many areas are still having frigid temperatures and even snow, spring has already visited the desert southwest. The air is crisp and the…
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THUMP, THUD, CRASH! DRUM ENSEMBLE PROGRAM
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” Henry David Thoreau</font color> What is a drum circle? A drum circle is a group of people making in-the-moment music with percussion…
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The importance of pictures in music therapy
Auditory learners hear things and are able to understand, cognitively process and then respond to the auditory stimulus. But in the special education setting, most children have sensory processing disorders, so they may take longer to comprehend and process auditory cues. This is especially true for individuals on the autism spectrum. In her 1996 book…
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Music Therapy Advocacy Month
The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) and Certification board for Music Therapists (CBMT) have joined together to make January Music Therapy Advocacy Month. This is our time to tell others about the many aspects of music therapy. I have been reading blogs from many of my colleagues around the country. They cover issues such as…
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Starting Over
A year ago I was miserable. Unemployed, lost, angry and sad all at once. I had been a music therapist for 15 years and worked for the Scottsdale school district for 10 when I was laid off. I was applying for jobs but not getting interviews so I was substitute teaching. I was ready to…
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Thanksgiving Thoughts
It was Thanksgiving morning – I was up fairly early to stuff the turkey and put it in the oven. Then I came back to bed to read, drink some tea and then decided to check Facebook. Later, I was writing my blog about how very thankful I was that my career is getting back…
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MIND-FULL MUSIC
MIND-FULL MUSIC: A Multi-Sensory Approach to Support Neurologic Development in Early Childhood A GREAT RESOURCE FOR: *Music Therapists *Special Education Teachers *Early Childhood Teachers *Speech/Language Pathologists *Physical and Occupational Therapists CONTAINS: *The importance of music *Specific Examples *Session Structure *Case Studies *Full Curriculum CD with 14 original songs plus “Bright Light”
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GRAND OPENING OF MINDFULLMUSIC.COM VIDEO
WELCOME TO THE GRAND OPENING OF MINDFULLMUSIC.COM – VIDEO
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Welcome to Mind-Full Music Therapy
Hello, Thanks for visiting Mindfullmusic.com. While I realize that the word mindful only has one “L” I chose to use this spelling because I feel that it is a better description of the work that I have done over the past 15 years as a Board-Certified Music Therapist (MT-BC) structuring interventions to facilitate neurological development….
