Introductions

Hello!

My names is Greta Yates. I have a bachelor’s (2013) and master’s degree (2015) in Music Therapy from the University of Minnesota. I became board certified in 2014. I am currently the lead music therapist at Masonic Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. I worked in a wide variety of settings but have been the program lead since 2019 after beginning my work at Masonic in 2016. I began my career in adults/geriatrics/hospice and my internship was in those fields. I’m currently experiencing intervention burnout and am looking for new ideas for how to improve and expand my therapeutic work and repertoire in the hospital setting. I’m hoping to increase my song repertoire along with learning more about early childhood development that I missed in my internship experiences.

Hello everyone. My name is Erika Svolos. I am the online moderator for this training. I live in New Jersey with my husband, my 8.5 yo daughter, and our cat Moose. It is a joy to be a part of this fantastic program and to join in your Sprouting Melodies journey. I am a graduate of Marywood University, currently, a graduate student at Montclair State University, and have been a music therapist in New Jersey for over 22 years. Over that time, I have worked in a variety of settings including in-patient child/adolescent psychiatry, a private clinic for autism, a large urban public school system, private practice, a private special education high school for individuals with emotional and behavioral disorders, and a private Orthodox Jewish special education school. In August 2013 I started my own business/private practice; Music Therapy Services of New Jersey, LLC. I completed the April 2013 Sprouting Melodies online training and it was a wonderful addition to my practice. I began offering Sprouting Melodies classes in February of 2014 and I’ve truly enjoyed working with my SM families. I have been moderating the Sprouting Melodies Online Training for the past 8 years.
I will be assisting with any questions and/or technical difficulties.
You will be receiving an email with information about the online forum technology and my contact information. If you do not receive the email, please contact me at erika.svolosmtbc@gmail.com.
I am looking forward to getting to know each of you over the next ten weeks!

Hi Everyone! My name is Maggie and I live and work in the Chicagoland area. I have been a board certified music therapist for 11 years now. I graduated from Arizona State University in 2010 before returning home to Illinois. Over the past 11 years, I have worked in a variety of settings: a therapeutic day school (child/adolescents/young adults 3-21), an inpatient psych hospital with adults, and currently at a VA hospital (with a variety of clinical populations) and, more recently, a very part time position at a local music studio in town (teaching adaptive lessons and early childhood groups).

Because I didn’t have the opportunity to work professionally with children younger than 3 y/o until very recently, I was looking for a training in early childhood music. There were several options out there and this seemed to be the best fit.

This is actually my second “go around” at this course. Between working 2 jobs and life, I had a difficult time keeping with the course during the last session; therefore, I will be reviewing a good portion of the sessions with you and also finishing strong over the final weeks with you. So far this training has been incredibly useful in my part time job and Erika, Meredith, and Elizabeth have been a pleasure to work with! I’m looking forwarding to learning from and aside you over the next 10 weeks!

Hello!

My name is Lynn Rechel (our last name rhymes with “freckle”). I am currently in the Professional Studies Program at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA. (I had the privilege to take a course with Elizabeth; I only wished we could have done it in person!) I have completed coursework and am working on my internship placement, which was delayed due to COVID. My family consists of one husband, one 11-year old boy, one fish, and four cats! We are in the middle of a move to Lovettsville, VA.
I am a career switcher, having spent the past 25 years in music education. I have worked with children from 18 months through undergraduate students. Part of my work was with children with special needs (as identified by IEP’s in various school districts).
My hope is that taking this course will continue to challenge and refine my perspectives of music therapy, and what my role is as a music therapist. My long-term goal is to work with young children and their families.
My expectations is that this course will add to my understanding of young children and their development, both musically and non-musically.

Hello everyone,
My name is Jee Yoon, and I live in Portland, Oregon with my husband and my two little ones who are now 3 years old and 9 months old. I received my bachelors in Music Therapy at Marylhurst University in 2017. I served adults in an inpatient psych hospital, and older adults with dementia and/or other diagnoses in different settings (foster homes, large assisted living facilities, for almost two years before I had my first child. Since then I have worked very minimally, especially since COVID as most of the facilities I worked at put music therapy contracts on hold.

After having children I realized what a need there is for the kind of community-based early childhood music groups that Elizabeth and Meredith talk about. Being a new mom I have experienced that need very keenly thus I wanted to become trained so that when my littlest is old enough I can provide such groups to the community I live in. And as a music therapist I want to become more skilled in working with young children and their caregivers/families.

It was a pleasure to meet each of you “virtually” and to learn all about you! Thank you so much for your thoughtful introductions and for connecting with each other in this first week. Meredith, Elizabeth, and I have found that when participants interact throughout the training they get a much deeper and more meaningful experience with this training. In my own time, taking this training, I can say that participant interaction had that effect.