Hello, Hello, Hello to You!

Hi, everyone, another quick video sharing my current hello song and some tips for guitar use with students and clients with fine motor difficulties. Plus, I talk about how I use my hello song as an environmental cue, to build rapport, and to increase conversational greeting skills. Enjoy! I'll be back later this week with a whole new use for it!

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Joint AMTA/CBMT Social Media Advocacy Project

Just popping in to share this recent press release with you: "In January 2011, the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) and Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT) are spreading the word about music therapy advocacy and government relations through the social media airwaves. Through the month, music therapy bloggers and podcasters will be sharing their thoughts, ideas, and questions about what it means to be a music therapy advocate, what the State Recognition Operational Plan entails, and how you can be involved. The following sites are supporting this project: Beyond the Music (blogger: Michelle Strutzel) Developmental Community Music (blogger: Kalani) Eclectic Guitar (blogger: Sara Sendlbeck) Key Changes Music Therapy (blogger: Natalie Mullis) Listen & Learn Music (blogger: Rachel Rambach) Mindful Music Therapist (blogger: Roia Rafieyan) More with Music (blogger: Amanda Ellis) Mundana Music Therapy (bloggers: Megan Resig and Kimberly Thompson) Music...

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...

Strategy #4 for Building Client Relationships

In this series, we discuss various strategies for creating a relationship through therapeutic rapport. To see the entire series, click here . Take advantage of out-of-group interactions . Greeting clients warmly if you see them around the building, stopping and chatting with them when they're waiting by the front office, etc., can go a long way. Sometimes, I am the recipient of results from their weekly cooking class, get to see videos of piano playing that happened in the sensory room while I was gone, or get thrown a big holla and wave when I walk into the building. I am not in this facility full time, and so I take full advantage of any random encounter I may have to touch base and have a positive encounter with my clients. For me, this may look like simple eye contact and a head nod, a big smile and wave, or responding warmly to a conversation they initiate. To me, this has built trust and attachment which has allowed us to have some truly remarkabl...

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