Top 10 Music Therapy Events I’m Excited About in 2013

A couple weeks ago, I shared my top 10 music therapy-in-review list of 2012. But what about 2013? Here are the top 10 things I’m excited for about new year. Some are work-related, some are personal, and some are related to music therapy friends. Let’s hear it for exciting things to come in the New Year!

1. Passing several major PhD milestones. If all goes well, by the time I do my 2013 review post next December, I will have written, defended and passed my PhD comprehensive projects—thus being an official doctoral candidate and ABD (“All But Dissertation”)—I will have gotten my dissertation proposal approved, and I will be analyzing and writing up my data. Plus I’ll be less than a year out from being a doctor. It’s gonna be a big PhD year.
2. Upcoming music therapy legislation. Many of you know that I am involved in state-level advocacy and legislative work through my role with the Certification Board for Music Therapists. We have had a highly successful past couple of years regarding state recognition of music therapy and 2013 is looking to be more of the same. I can’t wait!
3. The 3rd annual social media advocacy month. In a topic related to music therapy state recognition…in January we will be having our third annual social media advocacy project! I love getting the year off to a running start reading all the music therapy advocacy posts published by my blogger friends. Stay tuned for more details to come…
4. More awesome infographics from George Center. The Atlanta-based music therapy practice The George Center launched a blog this year and have started posting music therapy-related infographics. Check out these on music therapy in the NICU, music therapy and dementia, and how to become a music therapist. In short, these infographics ROCK and I can’t wait to see what they create next year.
5. Attending my first international conference in Toronto. It looks like I may be heading up to Toronto next August to attend the Society for Music Perception and Cognition conference. Not only is this my first international conference, but it is also my first music psychology and neuroscience conference. I am super-pumped!
6. Crazy cool schemes from Kat Fulton. One person who continues to impress me with her ingenuity and creativity is San Diego-based music therapist Kat Fulton. This year she launched MusicTherapyEd.com…and I can’t wait to see what she has up her sleeve for next year.
7. Submitting my first research manuscripts for publication consideration in 6.5 years. That’s right…manuscriptS, as in multiple. Although I am halfway through my doctorate and have yet to submit a manuscript for publication, I will be more than making up for it this year by potentially submitting up to 4 papers. Don’t worry…I’m sure I’ll keep you posted 🙂
8. Expanding families of dear music therapy friends. The world will be welcoming several new music therapy babies in 2013! I am so excited for my friends who are entering the parenthood journey and it has been a blast watching them document their pregnancies through social media.
9. Continued growth of the music therapy presence in social media. One of the highlights of this year’s AMTA conference was connecting and networking with fellow music therapists on Twitter. It was fun, useful, and invigorating and I am blown away by the growth of the music therapy presence on Twitter over the past couple of years. And it’s not just Twitter—multiple music therapy FB groups have popped up this year. I’m excited to witness more of that growth in 2013.
10. More and more research. It seems that almost every month we learn a little more about how music engages and changes our brains and bodies. I can’t wait to see what new information is in store for us in 2013.