definition

What’s in a name? Reflections on describing the work we do

September 3, 2020

Note: This is a blog post with no answers. Socrates (470-399 B.C.E.) is credited with saying “The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.” In my work, this “definition of terms” idea can be expressed in various ways, such as through operational definitions.  (An operational definition is a description of a variable, procedure, process, […]

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[#MTAdvocacy Press Release] Setting the Record Straight: What Music Therapy Is and Is Not

January 30, 2014
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Last fall, I received an email Jennifer Peters, a Communications Intern for the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA). Jennifer was working on a press release about music therapy and asked if I’d be willing to help distribute the release. She sent it to me this week and well…it fits quite nicely with this month’s Social […]

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#MTAdvocacy: What We Are

January 23, 2014
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The second definition for “identity” in the Merriam Webster dictionary reads: the qualities, beliefs, etc., that make a particular person or group different than others. This month marks the 4th annual Social Media Advocacy month, a project whereby music therapy bloggers, podcasters, tweeters, Instagramers, and Facebook users flood the online airwaves with articles, likes, and shares […]

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Standing on Our Own Unique Feet

September 13, 2012
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A friend of mine recently posted the following quote on Facebook: For years music therapy has been wearing a mask because of our inadequacy to describe and understand her fully. We disguise her in medically acceptable terms. We speak only of observable data. We superimpose statistical formulae, hoping that if we develop the scientific side, […]

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Music Therapy Is…Music Re-Learning?

June 1, 2011
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My husband is a band director and music educator. He first heard about music therapy over 10 years ago–before we met–after getting his first college teaching job. Given his first-hand experience of the power of music, he was very interested in learning about music therapy…and, more specifically, in the difference between music therapy and music […]

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