Music Therapy

I realized that my saying I'm a music therapy student in my "About Me" section might not make much sense to everyone that reads this.  So, for your viewing pleasure, I present to you a brief look into my life as a music therapist.

I hate when people ask me the question "What is music therapy?"  There are so many different definitions out there and so much we do!  Here's the American Music Therapy Association's definition of music therapy:

• Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.

Everyone lost?  Great...basically, music therapy uses musical activities to address non-music goals.  It's not music lessons and we are not music educators.  We address cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and academic goals, just to name a few.  Lots of people can benefit from music therapy.  We work with people with Alzheimer's, developmental disabilities, Autism, TBI, ADD, physical disabilities, Down Syndrome, etc.  Turns out, music is a global process in the brain, meaning it takes different areas of the brain to process all of the components of music.  That being said, people can use music to communicate when other means of communication have been damaged.

I pretty much love music therapy.  It's the perfect combination of music, medical, and helping people.  I love the clients and the therapists I work with.  And I'm glad I've stuck with it.  It has taken 4 years of school and a 6-month internship, which I am still working on.  I should be done with my internship by the beginning of April.  Then it's back to Springfield to get my Masters.

Hopefully this helps explain what I do and why I do it.  Time to get back to work!  Enjoy your day!

"Music expresses feeling and thought, without language; it was below and before speech, and it is above and beyond all words."  ~Robert G. Ingersoll