Head, hands, heart, humanity: The Creative Dementia Collective is taking a whole person, whole team approach to caring for those living with Dementia and their care partners. Using music therapy, art therapy, pet therapy, and Dementia Education specialists, they are empowering their clients to celebrate who they are, until the end of life.

Today, we speak with JD Hogue, a statistician and music therapist, to discuss the relevance of effective data collection as a clinician.  JD shares how effective data collection and communication is crucial for advocacy and improving your practice.

Happy fall ya’ll! The change of seasons is an opportunity for seasonally themed interventions so we’re honing in on Halloween and Harvest season. We always need to exercise our best clinical judgment on when it’s appropriate to use themed sessions. Some reasons why you might want to include themes are for reminiscence, orientation, increased engagement with novelty experiences, bringing changes to your session planning, and opportunities for introducing new and familiar music that you can’t use all year round.

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month! This week we are celebrating what it means to be differently abled and how music therapy can support the abilities and needs of those with Down Syndrome.

And with each step you take, notice how you feel more and more alive with a bounce in your step…and it’s hard not to grin. Walking feels effortless and invigorating …like you’re gliding upon a magic carpet. Walking along, your tiredness melts away, and more and more you notice feeling renewed … There’s a spring in your step and it feels great to be here.

Today Ellisa discusses literature on intergenerational music therapy. This kind of programming is the bringing together of multiple generations in a group music therapy setting. From cognitive stimulation, to physical function to social connections, music can bridge the gaps and make a common ground for amazing intergenerational experiences.

Elizabeth reads a children's story for our wellness segment.

Long ago, there was a rock floating through space, searching for where they belonged. They would visit many planets and travel to the farthest reaches of the universe, but would they find what they were looking for? The Stellar One is a tale of self-esteem and self-discovery. Story by Daniel Errico.

In his book Defining Music Therapy (1998), Kenneth Bruscia outlined 4 main methods for music therapy practice: receptive, re-creative, improvisation, and composition. Of these methods, perhaps the most overlooked is receptive. Ellisa calls on the literature, taking a closer look at clinical applications and philosophy of the receptive method within music therapy.

Ellisa sits down with Ciele Knox and Ryan Johnson, two medical music therapists, to talk about music therapy in hospitals. They touch on music therapy in the NICU, general hospital and rehabilitation center at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare in Tallahassee, FL. As a reminder, you can watch this conversation on our Youtube page, here.

Our work stresses, thoughts and worries need a container to live in so that when it's time, we can pick them up. Make a small routine of "setting it aside" as you transition home each and every day. It is as important as checking your email but a small and even non-time consuming ritual can create healthy boundaries for your work in your life that will prove deeply rewarding in time.

Music therapists are prone to several mental health risk factors: as a helping professional, we are prone to compassion fatigue and burnout while doubling as professional musicians puts us at an increased risk of depression, anxiety and high rates of stress. New years are new beginnings and perhaps this is the year that you prioritize your mental health.

Grab a seat on the couch with the whole Giving Song team as they share a song that was significant from 2021 and sing us into the new year.

You can still experience the reassurance of fire as its logs crackle and pop, the beauty of snow sparkling in the sun, and the filling warmth of hot chocolate on cold nights. The world is cold, the winter is dark, but you are not without joy. You are not without peace.

The truth is when we are in the thick of designing our sessions we often forget some of the basics. Unless you have consistent supervision we are often not aware we are overlooking these vital concepts. So, today I’ve pulled my top 5 concepts reminder, which are more like mental notes that I’ve observed can be stumbling blocks when designing music experiences.

This week’s learning comes from a recent article published in the Journal of Music therapy: "Individualized Education Program Team Members’ Perceptions of Music Therapy: An Interpretivist Investigation" by authors Rebecca West, PhD, MT-BC, Amy Furman, MM, MT-BC, Michael J Silverman, PhD, MT-BC. 

Record Store Day which was October 24th! The day before this episode airs. This is a fun, obscure little music holiday so let's celebrate by first giving a little history of the vinyl record and then talking about using music recording as an intervention in music therapy sessions!

Today, the Giving Song team gathers around the table to share drumming interventions in honor of National Hug a Drummer Day! Pull up a chair, a drum and join us for some clinical inspiration.

I will leave you with a final quote from the authors “it is possible that these young people are more familiar and comfortable with chaos than we are as music therapists. It may then be counter-intuitive to attempt to eliminate chaos so that we can experience ordered, highly structured groups at odds with the environments to which young people return.”

GIM is also known as The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music because it was developed by Dr. Helen Bonny. She was a pioneer in the music therapy field and was one of the first people to understand that music has a profound impact on a person’s psyche and went as far as to make it her life’s work to do research on the subject and develop her own method of music therapy.