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Welcome to my new music therapy blog! I will be sharing everything from basic information for music therapy consumers, to interventions and research of interest to the professional, board-certified music therapist. Please subscribe to updates in order to have the most reliable access to content. I look forward to sharing with you and hope you come back!

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Movement Ideas with Music, #1: The Parachute

I finally got a parachute!  It has taken me way too many years to acquire one!  In fact, it's been a windfall year for parachutes--a 12' parachute was donated to me and a 6' parachute was finally found at a super affordable price that fit my budget.  I'm really glad it worked out that way, as I need the smaller one for my tiny groups, but the big one is great for my big groups and my big kids! After check-in, I like to begin my groups with a fun movement activity.  This energizes the group, increasing their attention and motivation for the course of the session, and setting the stage for whatever work we will do later.  Sometimes it's just something fun, and other times it is directly related to other goals we will address later in the group. This is a simple activity that is paired with a relatively recent pop song, so I find it appropriate to use with all ages of children.  Grab your parachute and a copy of " Shake It Off " by Taylo...
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Effective Behavior Management

Building Rapport One Step at a Time Last month, I did a short presentation at my former graduate school for the student music therapy association there.  One of the programs I work in is a public school day treatment setting with adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders, and the organizer of the event felt that presenting on behavior management strategies would be most informative for the group.  I thought I would share parts of my presentation here, as a new series on the blog. If you're anything like me when I was going through my music therapy practica, this is the population that produces the most anxiety for you.  Hopefully these practical, concrete tips will ease some of that anxiety, because I feel this is a very fulfilling pouplation to work with, and I hope you get the opportunity to do so someday.  It's also possible that you are very comfortable with or excited about working with this population. If that is the case, I hope this series reaff...
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Emergency Calming Session

My littlest kiddos came in after a rambunctious round of PE outside that had been punctuated by a lot of larger students also outside--who were out of control and interfering with their group.  As a result, my littles were escalated and upset and out of sorts when they came to me.  So my emergency calming protocol kicked in. Every class includes our hello song, a movement activity, an instrumental play activity, and a boo k , capped by a goodbye song.  Today we still included all those components, but changed them up a little. First we dimmed the lights.  I have 3 rows of lights, and I turned off 2. Next, I began fingerpicking on guitar, using the chords for our hello song. Once everyone was seated and settled, we began our hello song intervention, but I shortened our greeting practice, decreasing demands but increasing support in order to improve emotional regulation. We did some gentle movement imitation, using scarves to this relaxing AniMusic video ....
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