One therapist's opinion about music, the brain, and life.
In the music therapy world, there’s an unspoken feeling among colleagues of being movers and shakers and big risk-takers in the healthcare world. Conversation between music therapists eventually lead to discussions of program proposal dreams, advocacy work, and general convincing of music therapy’s effectiveness to others. It’s with our advocacy that we create opportunities for […]
Read MoreLast week, I posted some additional therapeutic revolution ideas for the mental health settings. Read below for some more of my original and adapted ideas. THERAPEUTIC REVOLUTION #17 “Mood Playlists“ Goals: Elevate mood; increase positive coping skills; increase emotional awareness; increase mood regulation Therapeutic Revolution: I borrowed this idea from a colleague, and adapted her […]
Read MoreIt’s been a busy year for me, despite having finished my masters degree. I took on some additional non-music therapy related projects at work, which took most of my creative juices, but I’ve still been hit with the occasional “revolution-ary” idea for session plans and therapeutic revolutions. I’ve found that session ideas have proven to […]
Read MoreI’ve had the opportunity to work within the same acute inpatient psychiatric facility for two years. It’s not a long time in the grand scheme of a career, but it’s enough to collect some insight on how things work in our world. When I started this particular job, I had a certain assessment of who […]
Read MoreI often don’t listen to a lot of music at the end of my workday, allowing myself a break from my musically analytical mind. It’s something that I do that is specific to me, but is what I’ve learned that works for me to allow for some separation from my work-mind and my home-mind. My […]
Read MoreAn analog clock consists of a fixed-numbered dial and moving hands. The hands are composed of hour, minute, and second hands. Graduations along the clock face indicate the minutes and the hours, while the various clock hands cycle through each graduation of time, making one revolution around the clock face for every minute, hour, and 12-hour cycle. […]
Read MoreWhen I was an intern looking at job applications and attempting to prepare myself for the workforce, I was at a loss with how to prepare. I did not feel there were many resources available to music therapy students in order to figure out where to find jobs, at what point we should start looking, […]
Read MoreIn my last post, I discussed questions I received from high school students during a Q&A. One question that stood out to me was: You said in your TED talk that music can be harmful. How is music harmful and why? This question caught my attention because it addresses a big misconception about music therapy – that it’s […]
Read MoreIn December, I had the privilege to speak with some high school students from Franklin, Wisconsin about music therapy. I was contacted by a teacher who had seen my TEDx talk and was showcasing music therapy to his students as a career path. He asked if I would be willing to video conference call with them […]
Read MoreWorking in mental health, I don’t disclose a lot of personal information about myself to my patients. This population already deals with a mixed-up understanding of personal boundaries. It’s part of who I am as a therapist to define what I do or do not reveal about myself that keeps these boundaries therapeutic. The question I […]
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