Music Therapy

Why Therapists Need to Shut Up

October 20, 2009

One of the hardest skills to learn as a therapist is to shut up. Silence is hard. Silence makes us uncomfortable. The other week, I was with a client, “Tony.” Tony is 10 years old and is a very angry child. He has a right to be angry–he grew up in a chaotic, abusive environment, […]

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What is Music Therapy? (The Video)

September 24, 2009

I feel like I’ve finally entered the 21st century. Millions have done it before me, but I have procrastinated, putting it off until I felt “ready.” But I finally bit the bullet and buckled down until it was done. I just uploaded my first video to YouTube. In this video I answer the question “what […]

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Autism, Dying, Newsletters, Cancer, Alzheimer’s, SmartPhones, & Streakers

September 8, 2009

(And, yes, I somehow manage to touch on ALL these topics in this post. Keep reading…) NEWSLETTERS I am very excited to announce the launch of the Music Therapy Maven email newsletter! This newsletter is easy to subscribe to (just fill in your name and email address below) and absolutely free. Each newsletter will include […]

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Therapeutic Relationships and Treatment Protocols: Can You Have It All?

September 1, 2009

Music therapists tend to specialize in a certain clinical area. Thus is makes sense that a board-certified music therapist can get advanced trainings and certifications beyond the MT-BC credential that help them work with certain clinical populations. Examples of available advanced trainings include: NICU Music therapist (NICU MT) Hospice and Palliative Care Music Therapy (HPMT) […]

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The Modern-Day Protest Song

August 27, 2009

I hope you’ve heard this story. It’s pretty cool. David Carroll, a singer-songwriter, tried to work with United Airlines for over a year because they broke his Taylor guitar and refused to cover the repair costs. So what does Mr. Carroll do to fight this mistreatment? Sue? Nope! Mr. Carroll promised United he would write […]

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Tune In to Secondary Trauma and Self-Care

August 21, 2009

Tune in to The Music Therapy Show with Janice Harris tomorrow, Saturday August 22nd at 3pm MST (5pm EST, 4pm CST, 2pm PST). I was on the show about 2 months ago talking about my work with trauma-influenced children. A listener asked how I keep from experiencing secondary trauma. In other words, what are some […]

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It’s All About the Relationship

August 20, 2009

I was reminded recently about how important our relationships are with out clients. Music therapists often talk about the power of music and how beneficial it is. And it is, but the therapeutic relationship we have with our clients is of primary importance. One of my clients is the Namaqua Center, a residential treatment center […]

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And the Music Calmed Them

August 11, 2009

This is a post about mental illness. I know a little about mental illness and children, given that I work primarily with trauma-influenced kids. I know less about adult mental illness. But my husband and I just watched the movie The Soloist last night, which got me thinking. (The Soloist, by the way, is a […]

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POLL: How is Music YOUR Therapy?

August 6, 2009

You may know that I am active on Twitter. I usually use a desktop application (Tweetdeck…it’s wonderful AND free!) and have a search column set up that searches for the words “music therapy.” I’ve noticed something interesting while perusing the search results. Most of the tweets that pop up say things like: “Deep thoughts. Music […]

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