Elizabeth sits down with Stephanie Lopes to discuss her work as a recreational therapist, Social Worker, and her recent work with biofeedback in an acute psychiatric unit. We will speak specifically about the heartmath approach to biofeedback, which measure heart rate variability.

My attention is not divided. I’m not multitasking. I’m not half-way listening. I’m REALLY listening so deeply so I can hear you.

“We all need the same things” - Elizabeth sits down with Dr. Andrew Knight, PhD, MT-BC to discuss compliance based goals, goal writing and IEPs through the lens of music therapy. This conversation extends beyond the field of music therapy and gets at the building blocks of goal writing and attending to the root of our clients’ needs.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that we probably have seen this play out in our own lives. Certain songs (or patterns of sound) elicit a full body response with sometimes an increased heart rate, feelings of elation, and even body chills. This is when we’ve experienced that “sweet spot” where the music is somehow better than our neurologic expectations.

In music therapy, we have a physical and auditory medium to promote regulation in the body organically within our practice. If we use Polyvagal theory to help inform our regulation practices in all types of therapy sessions (but especially when working with clients with trauma backgrounds) we can join in this groundbreaking approach to traditional psychotherapy and utilize the fullest potential of our toolset within the body- starting with the brain.

Attachment is defined a little differently depending on who you are speaking to, but the first attachment theorist, the British psychologist, John Bowlby, described attachment as “a lasting psychological connectedness between human beings.”

This is the place where we as music therapists and other creative therapists come in. The unique nature of music and other creative arts experiences provide a space for this consistent and predictable environment, positive connection to others and awareness and learning of social and emotional skills and regulation.