1. Tell us any last piece of advice?
I think it is important to focus on your strengths. If you love working with the elderly, than specialize in that. If you do your best work with kids, than focus on that population. Once you find your niche, find mentors in the music therapy field and other related fields, and develop deep and long-term relationships with them. The most successful people, no matter what the field, all have mentors to guide them along the way.
2. Explain me a bit about your work as a music therapist?
I am in private practice and specialize in working with children with special needs. I see clients individually and in groups in the home, clinic and school settings. I also supervise two music therapists and I am a mentor to young music therapists just starting out.
3. Tell us why do you feel the music therapy approach of this course is right for you?
Psychotheraputic is I believe an approach that I can trully relate to and understand as I have seen the powerful tool of music as a mechanism to facilitate therapy- through music studies of various repetiore I have seen music's expressive capacity.
4. Tell me how do you use music therapy with children who don't have special needs?
Usually, music therapists are not asked to work with neuro-typical children. But that does not mean typical children can't benefit from music therapy. If I were to work with a typical child, I would find out if she or he had any academic, social or behavioural difficulties and focus my interventions on those areas. We would be using music to work on non-musical goals.
5. Tell us what is one of your favorite music therapeutic activities?
I wrote a song called “Copy My Beat” where a client needs to listen to my drum beat and then repeat what I do. It is a great song for imitation, correspondent counting, sequencing, receptive communication, sustained attention and many other goals. It is also adaptable to different developmental levels by changing the complexity of your rhythmic pattern.
6. Explain me how can music therapy be used to teach school subjects better?
For particular subjects, music therapists can put academic information into a song format to make it easier for a child to remember. It is a similar approach to the one most of us grew up with, such as learning our ABCs with the ABC song.
7. Tell us what do music therapists do?
Music therapists do many things. I personally work with a variety of clients through a music contracting company. I work with children with severe emotional disturbance and also some with developmental handicaps. I also work in a nursing home. Outside of the contract work, I do a kindermusic program - an early childhood music program.
8. Tell us how do you think music-therapy will develop in the next 10 years?
Internationally, I think that music therapy will become an established field of study and profession in many more countries. It is already in more than 70 countries worldwide, but that will increase.
In the US, I think that it will become more commonplace in settings such as hospitals, nursing homes, and schools. We are rapidly growing as a field and there are new positions being created on a weekly basis. There is also more research being done worldwide and this will help guide the work of future music therapists.
9. Tell me what do you like most about being a music therapist?
I enjoy helping clients reach unattainable goals. Music therapy touches people the way no other therapy does.
10. Can you tell us something about your job?
Whenever I think about my job as a music therapist, I feel very fortunate. It is such an innovative, engaging and rewarding line of work. Music therapy feeds the souls of my clients, as well as my own. It is truly a symbiotic relationship.
