One therapist's opinion about music, the brain, and life.
I’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 […]
Read MoreRecently, I went back and began to re-read older posts of mine, surprising myself with some of my own words of advice that I had forgotten over the last year of blogging. I found that many posts surprised me so much that I almost didn’t believe I wrote them, just because they still applied to many […]
Read MoreAs a result of my TEDx talk, I’ve received emails from a lot of people asking me how they can become a music therapist or go about a career change. What an awesome response from people! Initially, I attempted to respond to each email, but realized this is probably a better platform to answer those questions. So, if […]
Read MoreIt’s been a few months since I’ve shared some original intervention ideas for mental health. Within the music therapy world, we don’t often have the opportunity to share ideas and build off of one another. I think it’s important to create a resource for other music therapists to see each other’s work and ideas, which […]
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