trauma

It’s Blog Sponsor Week! Support AMTA’s Japanese Relief Efforts

April 18, 2011
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I am about to do something I’ve never, ever done before on this blog. Perhaps I’m feeling inspired after conference or maybe just super-productive now that it’s finally getting warm outside again. Regardless, this is a first for the Music Therapy Maven.
I’m going to write a blog post a day for the next five days.
Truthfully, [...]

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Tsunami Relief and Recovery: How to Help Our Japanese Friends

March 24, 2011
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The vast majority of the time, this blog serves as an educational tool and resource for you. But every once in a while, I ask that you “take action” for a cause or event.
This is one of those times.
Many of us have been watching the horrific events that have occurred in Japan over the past [...]

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[Video] The “Right-Left” Song: An Intervention for Children

June 10, 2010

One of my readers, Jeremy, left a comment awhile back asking me to share a song/intervention he’d heard me describe before: the “Right-Left” song. Well, Jeremy…here it is!
I can’t take credit for writing the “Right-Left” song–a wonderful music therapist named Michelle Hardy wrote it. I heard her describe it in a workshop several years ago, [...]

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The Traumatized Brain: Discover 3 Ideas that Will Change How You Work With Clients

November 5, 2009

If you are a music therapist, you probably know that our national conference is next week in San Diego (Yay!). This will be a time for us to learn, meet-and-greet, and get inspired being around like-minded people. There are hundreds of presentations and so many people to connect with–I can’t wait!!!
On Saturday November 14, I’ll [...]

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Tune In to Secondary Trauma and Self-Care

August 21, 2009

Tune in to The Music Therapy Show with Janice Harris tomorrow, Saturday August 22nd at 3pm MST (5pm EST, 4pm CST, 2pm PST).
I was on the show about 2 months ago talking about my work with trauma-influenced children. A listener asked how I keep from experiencing secondary trauma. In other words, what are some things [...]

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Book Review: Ghosts From the Nursery

August 13, 2009

I have a confession – I actually wrote this book review about a year ago for the biannual newsletter of the Colorado Association for Music Therapy (or CAMT). But, the book had such an effect on me and my practice that I wanted to share it with you. So…here you go:
Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing [...]

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7 Simple Ways to Calm an Angry Child

July 23, 2009

We’ve all made this mistake. It’s human nature. Evolution, really. We can’t help it. We’re wired to respond this way.
A child gets angry. The child cries, yells, hits, pinches. Our blood pressure rises. Our voice gets louder. We get in their face so they pay attention to us. We bark at them.
Does this work? Maybe. [...]

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The 3 Facets of a Music Therapist

June 9, 2009

If you visit my company website, you will notice the pictures up top labeled “science,” “music,” “therapy.” I was introduced to this concept in graduate school, the idea that a music therapist encompasses being trained as a musician, a scientist, and a therapist.
A true story for you:
Yesterday, I was scheduled to facilitate some music therapy [...]

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Crossing the Midline: What’s the Big Deal?

May 21, 2009

Crossing the midline.
That’s a goal (or objective) frequently used in music therapy sessions. I have used it for children with autism, children with developmental disabilities, and for trauma-influenced children. It also seems to be a common therapeutic goal for occupational therapists.
A Sample Intervention
There’s an intervention I use in my weekly sessions with trauma-influenced kids. I [...]

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