clinical skills

Important Lessons from a Deaf Musician

February 23, 2011
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My husband introduced me to this TED talk by percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie. Glennie–who, incidentally, happens to be deaf–illustrates how “listening” to music involves so much more than using your ears. I’d like to share this video with you because I feel it contains several relevant and important reminders for us therapists. Aren’t we, too, […]

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What is a typical music therapy session like?

February 9, 2011
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See the title? That’s a question that can’t really be answered. There is no such thing as a “typical” music therapy session. A music therapy session will look vastly different depending on who we work with and where we work with them. That said, there are certain components that are inherent to a music therapy […]

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How (and Why) to Accelerate Your Personal Development

October 6, 2010
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Have you watched some of the previews for that new TLC show “Sister Wives”? Although it’s not my type of show (I’m more into crime dramas and comedies), there’s a certain clip they’ve showed that has stuck in my mind. In this clip, Kody Brown, the husband in the series, describes his four marriages as […]

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4 Ways to Help a Client Work Through Loss

September 8, 2010
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Rachel Rambach at Listen and Learn music wrote a post last week about the challenges of helping a child with autism process and understand death. What a challenge… Grief and loss is a difficult topic whether working with a child with autism, a family coping with cancer, or with yourself. It’s a challenge to feel […]

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Is It Just Me, Or Does This Really Work?

August 12, 2010
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You may recall that, in addition to this blog here, I also blog at Psychology Today–though not nearly as often! 🙂 This morning I published a story about an experience I had a couple years ago where I was able to use music to calm two boys in an active “fight, flight, or freeze” response. […]

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How The “Undercover Bosses” Learned to Be Like Therapists

May 13, 2010
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Did you watch the CBS show “Undercover Boss“? The premise is that one of the head-honchos in an organization (e.g. the President, CEO, or COO) spent a week “undercover,” working in the lower ranking positions in their organization. The boss of Waste Management spent time picking up trash, the boss of 1-800-Flowers swept the floors […]

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Therapy is Like Skiing (Kinda)

March 25, 2010

I went to Breckenridge last weekend with my Dad and my two kids. It was my first time skiing in four years (it’s hard to ski when your pregnant or nursing a newborn!). My Dad’s been skiing almost yearly for about 50 years. Me? I’ve been a couple dozen times over the past 15. My […]

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Which is More Critical: Science-Based Treatment? Or Skilled Therapists?

January 26, 2010

Over the weekend, I listened to a very interesting debate on NPR Science Friday. The three guests were psychotherapists discussing whether there should be a scientific basis to clinical psychology. I’ve summarized the three viewpoints below. I wanted to share this debate with you, because I think we have similar discussions in the music therapy […]

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Why Therapists Need to Shut Up

October 20, 2009

One of the hardest skills to learn as a therapist is to shut up. Silence is hard. Silence makes us uncomfortable. The other week, I was with a client, “Tony.” Tony is 10 years old and is a very angry child. He has a right to be angry–he grew up in a chaotic, abusive environment, […]

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