Creative Arts in Therapy

I recently took some time to read the Affordable Health Care for America Act* (also formerly referred to as “H.R. 3962” and commonly called “the health care bill”). While complementary and alternative medicines are underrepresented within the H.R. 3962 law, there are sections therein, which could potentially impact music therapy research and practice (even [...]

*Please note that while the client examples are based on real experiences, the identifying information has been fictionalized and/or modified to protect privacy and identity of actual music therapy clients.

Why should we develop a personal or professional perspective? I have been thinking a lot about this since interviewing Brian Abrams on May 7 about Development [...]

Who is going to take care of you? No one will take better care of yourself then you. But sometimes, we get so wrapped up in taking care of other people–family, work, and other responsibilities–that we neglect ourselves. We have to change our focus, though, because if we don’t take care of ourselves, then we [...]

I have observed that within the context of music therapy, there are many misconceptions about ‘evidence’, and ‘evidence-based practice’ (especially in cases were the concepts related to ‘evidence-based practice’ are discussed interchangeably with those reflected in ‘evidence-based medicine’ and/or ‘evidence-based treatment’).  This is partly confounded by the fact that there is no generally accepted definition [...]

Parents make an inpact–even in utero.
We know that, as expectant mothers, we need to be acutely aware of what we eat and drink, what medications we take,  how much to exercise, what to avoicd, etc.
It’s also important to remember that our emotions effect our developing baby–and by 20 weeks, the baby can hear our voices.  [...]

Remember that instrument you used to play in middle school or high school? Try picking it up again and joining a community band or orchestra. Or if you’ve never played, pick an instrument to try and take some lessons. You’re never too old to learn an instrument and you could gain some significant health benefits.
I [...]

I have a client with fairly severe developmental disabilities. He is in a wheelchair, has no functional communication skills, and limited functional use of his hands. His cognitive abilities are difficult to determine, due to his inability to communicate. So after completing his assessment for music therapy services, I determined that my primary goals would [...]

So how does music relieve pain?  Despite conducting research on this very subject, I cannot give you an exact answer.  Yet, the results of my studies points in two different ways music can impact how much pain we feel.
To understand how music affects pain, we must first explore pain.  Pain is multidimensional.  The first is [...]

As a hospice clinician, I frequently walk into the rooms of comatose patients and find music being played (by CD player or other device).  More often than not, this music is too loud, too stimulating/too varied in dynamic changes, and/or too incongruent with the patient’s musical preferences.  This scenario is always a problem because it [...]

Deaf individuals can enjoy music.  One of my Deaf friends is an accomplished drummer.  Another is a professional dancer.
Yet another is a Broadway actor and certified Deaf interpreter for Broadway musicals.
As a music therapist, I worked with young deaf children in a therapeutic preschool class along with hearing children
of Deaf parents. The deaf children in [...]