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.

It is becoming increasingly common that music therapists work with clients who are from other countries and cultural backgrounds. Music can play an important role in the culture of every client, so when preparing client-preferred music it’s important to be intentional about honoring different styles, genres, and languages of music that are client preferred in order to connect with your client and be most effective in therapy. This can be daunting at times, since you may not be able to speak the language, you don’t share the same background, or perhaps western instruments are not even capable of producing the same sounds and notes. This is where we have to get creative!

In this episode I sought out to gather specific music strategies for “trauma-informed care”.....but you know what I found. EVERYTHING! I found every kind and type of intervention. To summarize the techniques being used in trauma-informed care would be a review of what interventions a music therapist can do.

As music therapists, our bodies are our main tool for work.  We depend on our voices, and our hands and often the line is blurred between “used” and “abused” to put it bluntly. It is  so important to be mindful of how we may be causing harm to our voices, hands, backs, and every area of our body in the ways that we use them.  I’m going to share 5 ways to tend to your body everyday and I strongly urge you to prioritize these wellness practices as an essential part of your music therapy practice. Just as you maintain your instruments, you must maintain yourself.

I do believe that some people respond better to this approach than others, but when it is all that you have, I’ve seen teachers, paraprofessionals, students and even myself, make the most of it!

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.”

I’m going to be going over some very basic and doable techniques for vocals, guitar and piano that will add some character and authenticity to your music performance. I’m no expert by any means……..but I want to give you some ideas from things that I’ve thought about and link you to teaching resources so that you can take your practice to the next level.

Welcome back to the conversation today. We are talking about wellness. I think a good place to start is by sharing our background with wellness. How did it look? Did our families talk about wellness and did we even know what it was or what it meant?

I like sets of 3 so the formula we will use for this second half is 1) Awareness 2) Learning and 3) Intention. The first step in implementing effective trauma-informed care is awareness. This part is what we’ve already addressed. Awareness of the prevalence of trauma and awareness of those three main factors of predictability, connection and learning social and emotional skills. Now comes learning! This is where you look at effective strategies that can help in combating the effects of trauma for your clients, students and children.

Today I’ll be comparing and contrasting Neurologic Music Therapy and Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy. In the small, but ever growing field of Music Therapists, most everyone recognizes these names and also recognizes the small, but maybe not so subtle, differences between the two. Are these two approaches really as contrasting as we think? What makes them so different and why have they become so polarized? These are just a few of the questions that came to mind when I chose this topic.

With the advent of instant and unlimited music streaming and headphones, it may be hard to keep tabs on what music kids and adolescents are consuming for almost 15 hours a week. A question that many parents ask, and some may not know to ask is- how does explicit content in music affect my child? And for music therapist’s out there, when utilizing songs with explicit content, or entering into lyric based discussions- it’s important to know how your client’s preferred music may be influencing their behaviors and attitudes in your session and in day to day life.

Today, we are going to talk about wellness. Some of the questions that came up when preparing this episode were: What is the difference between wellness, well-being and self-care? Do all of these terms fit together in some holistic package? Or are they all bringing something different to the table? Today, I am going to dive into what Wellness is, what these terms really mean, and how it all fits together in Music Therapy.

Having a starting point for authenticity is important as we discuss what it means to replicate music. A large portion of the day-to-day study that we do at work is building a repertoire of music. Now, oftentimes your working repertoire is greatly determined by your clients, the setting you’re working in, the approach etc. But often, we need to be equipped with a basic variety of music to appeal to a range of tastes and preferences.

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.