clinical skills

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 “accelerated [...]

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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.

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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” [...]

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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 and [...]

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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 Dad looks [...]

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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 field.
What [...]

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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, was [...]

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