Introductions

[Meredith Pizzi]

Introduce yourself to the group. Tell us about your professional experiences and what motivated you to take this course. Be sure to include where you live, if you are already doing work in early childhood and how you would like to make this information part of your practice.

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone. My name is Erika Svolos. I am the online moderator for this training. I live in New Jersey with my husband, my 11- month old daughter, and our four cats. It is a joy to be apart of this fantastic program and to join in your Sprouting Melodies journey. I am a graduate of Marywood University and have been a music therapist in New Jersey for the past 15 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, private practice, and a private special education high school for individual’s with emotional and behavioral disorders. In August 2013 I started my own business/private practice; Music Therapy Services of New Jersey, LLC. I completed the April 2013 Sprouting Melodies training and I am so happy to offer Sprouting Melodies in my practice. I began offering Sprouting Melodies classes this past January and I am truly enjoying working with my SM families.

I will be assisting with any questions and/or technical difficulties. I recently sent you an email with information about the online forum technology and my contact information. If you did not receive the email, please contact me at erika.svolos@gmail.com

[Lysa Wright]

Hello! My name is Lysa Wright. I am a music therapist working in Grand Forks, ND. I like in a small community outside of Grand Forks with my husband and two small dogs. I graduated from the University of North Dakota in 2011. I primarily sub-contract under Music Therapy in Motion, LLC and have been providing early intervention music therapy services to area day care centers and preschools. Through the past three years I have also been able to work at a hospital in the inpatient pediatric unit and outpatient pediatric therapy, local public schools from pre school to high school, and provided summer music parent/caregiver interactive groups.

I’m very excited to learn more about everything Sprouting Melodies has to offer! I’m very interested in child development and think this will be a great opportunity to expand my knowledge, rejuvenate my skills, and potentially create more sessions!

[Laura Myers]

Hello! I’m Laura Myers from the st. Louis area. I graduated from Western Illinois University and did my masters through Saint Mary Of The Woods in Indiana.I am married and have two daughters. One is almost 9 and the other is 14 months. My professional experience has been strictly with older adults in the nursing home and psychiatric setting. I have been working, since moving to Missouri 5 years ago, at a Catholic based nursing home with their nursing home and assisted living residents. Prior to this, I was in Virginia working at nursing homes and a psychiatric hospital.
Since I had my little one last year I have been wanting to branch into early childhood music. I see how there is no active music making at her daycare and I thought this is a void I could fill.
I have no experience working musically with young children, and am excited about the information Sprouting Melodies will provide.

[Kana Kamitsubo]

Hello! My name is Kana Kamtisubo and I live in Queens, New York. I graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston and since I moved to NYC, I have been doing private practice. With its growth and my husband’s willingness to collaborate with me, we have opened a music school this year (actually we opened last week!). The school is called HUG MUSIC. As a music therapist, my professional experiences are in two areas. The main population I work with is children with autistic spectrum disorder. I have created an original method that combines music therapy and education which has been pretty effective. Many of my clients come to my practice for this. Another area is in clinical improvisation. I have been teaching music therapists who want to improve their clinical improvisation skills. I am a course author for Berklee’s Master’s programs (which will launch in 2015) and I developed one of their courses called, Clinical Music Improvisation. Upon opening the music school, my husband (who is a composer and guitarist) and I decided to run groups for babies and toddlers. We are creating it using our own approach but since Sprouting Melodies was designed by music therapists, I wanted to know how we, music therapists, can make a difference from many other early childhood music programs and offer programs with high quality. I am very excited about (finally) starting the course!

[Ian Crawford]

Hello! My name is Ian Crawford, typing all the way from Minneapolis, MN. I graduated from the University of Minnesota a few years ago and have since worked as a music therapy subcontractor in San Antonio, TX and here in Minneapolis. I’m currently working at a facility that serves individuals with autism and also contains a preschool for kiddos without autism. Since my previous jobs have involved middle school and high school age groups, I’m hoping to gain more knowledge about early childhood development and how to approach my groups/classrooms with more focus and attention to individual developmental levels.

[Ericha Rupp]

Hello music friends!! My name is Ericha Rupp from Shakopee, MN. Graduated from the University of Minnesota a while ago and have been working in early childhood since the day I became a music therapist. Currently working for a non-profit organization with children ranging from age 2 to 14 years old primarily diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Afer learning about Sprouting Melodies mission and vision, I hope to gain a different perspective on how to meet my family’s needs. Can’t wait to begin!

[Meredith Pizzi]

Welcome to all! I am very excited to see the experience, talent, education and diversity of this group. We will get to know each other well over the next few weeks, and the community that is created through the forum will become an invaluable resource. Besides Raising Harmony, I work three days a week at a wonderful early intervention and therapeutic preschool site here in New York called Alternatives for Children. I also have the pleasure to teach music therapy at Molloy College, just outside of New York City.
My own children are grown, and so I can assure you that the day to day work of parenting is worth all the effort.
Looking forward to all you have to share.
Beth

[Meredith Pizzi]

I’m thrilled to be on this online course with all of you! I am Meredith Pizzi, proud to be a Board Certified Music Therapist and excited to see the course finally launch online after a year of planning, research, design and development! Here we are about to embark on a 10 week journey together and I am sure we are all going to learn a lot together.

I am a graduate of Duquesne University’s Music Therapy Program and I had the joy and honor of working with Beth Schwartz as my internship supervisor. I learned so much from her in my internship and really developed a love for working in early childhood. After my internship, I had a very successful private practice on Long Island, NY before moving to Boston in 2006. Once settled into Boston, I founded Roman Music Therapy Services, and in 2009 Sprouting Melodies was born! Since 2009, we have seen our revenues at Roman Music Therapy Services skyrocket, more than tripling in 3 years and a lot of that has to do with the growth of Sprouting Melodies and how well it has been received in our community. What brings me here is the desire to share with others what I have learned about early childhood and music making. And with all of the effort that has gone into growing Sprouting Melodies, I want to give other music therapists the opportunity to now make it part of their practices. I’ve learned so much, and the branding and program development is done! I just want to get it out there to music therapists and families all around the country!
I look forward to traveling this early childhood learning journey with you!

[BJ Waelz]

My Name is B.J. Waelz and I am a music therapist working primarily with Seniors in Rehab and Nursing home facilities at this time. I am a graduate of SUNY New Paltz in New York State and I did my internship many moons ago at New Beginnings in Albany, N.Y. which was an E.I. program. I am a former Special Education Teacher and have always enjoyed early intervention! I currently teach an 18 -36 month old parent / child music class and a 4-6 year old music class for low income families as a community outreach through my church and I am hoping this training will help me grow and expand this ministry and possibly begin serving in other E.I. facilities near me. I enjoy being able to serve ages at both ends of the spectrum! I am new to the class and playing catch up from the first 2 weeks.

[Shonda Malik]

Hello everyone. My name is Shonda Malik. I work in Ohio in the Dayton and Cincinnati areas. My music therapy alma mater is Ohio University. I interned at a child and adolescent pyschiatric facility/school in Richmond Virginia. I am a mother of four boys. I have been working as a board certified music therapist for 8 years. I opened my own music therapy practice in 2011. I recently completed my masters degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in December 2013. I work with a range of populations including geriatric hospice, adult developmental centers, private child clients with special needs, and public schools with a caseload of children ages 5-13 with autism and other developmental diagnosis. My individual private clients have been as young as 18 months and I in the past led some preschool music therapy classes before budgets were cut. I absolutely delight in working with early childhood ages. I have attempted to form classes at my local YMCA and recreation centers in the past but sign-ups have never been enough to run a class. My reason for taking this class is to learn marketing strategies to successfully run classes. I’m going to start with the idea Meredith shared of offering free 1x a month sessions at my local library. I most look forward to learning lots of new songs which I will be able to use with my private clients as well as group classes. I also wish to learn more details about development and the use of age appropriate instruments. I look forward to reading everyone’s posts throughout our training. -Shonda:)

[Meredith Pizzi]

Welcome, Shonda!

[Kristina Rio]

Hello everyone, sorry for my late introduction here on the forum. I had technical difficulties regarding my access to the forum online. Everything is sorted out now, and I am so excited to get to know all of you and read what great things have been going on the past several weeks!

My name is Kristina Barbo and I am also an online moderator for this course. I live in Reading MA. I graduated from Anna Maria College, and I currently work at Roman Music Therapy Services(RMTS) with Meredith Pizzi as a music therapist, Sprouting Melodies Provider, and practicum student supervisor. I work with a diverse clientele from birth to end of life in various populations. I have been a Sprouting Melodies Provider for just over two years. I participated in the live training in NY with Beth and Meredith in June of 2012, and completed the online training in November of 2012 after I became a board certified music therapist. My online training experience was unique as I had already started to lead SM groups of my own, which was very helpful as a refresher, and gave me the opportunity to absorb the information in a more applicable way. I will be present during this entire online training course to be a resource for you throughout your experience. I am here to respond to any questions you may have and offer my support as best I can, so please feel free to contact me here on the forum! You can also contact me by email with any specific questions you may have atkristina@romanmusictherapy.com. I look forward to getting to know all of you over the next several weeks!​

[Kristina Rio]

My apologies for the late response here on the forum. I had technical difficulty regarding my access to the online training. Things have been straightened out, and I’m so excited to get to know everyone participating in this training, and to read all of the great things that have been happening the last few weeks.

My name is Kristina Barbo and I am also an online moderator for this course. I live in Reading MA. I graduated from Anna Maria College, and I currently work at Roman Music Therapy Services(RMTS) with Meredith Pizzi as a music therapist, Sprouting Melodies Provider, and practicum student supervisor. I work with a diverse clientele from birth to end of life in various populations. I have been a Sprouting Melodies Provider for just over two years. I participated in the live training in NY with Beth and Meredith in June of 2012, and completed the online training in November of 2012 after I became a board certified music therapist. My online training experience was unique as I had already started to lead SM groups of my own, which was very helpful as a refresher, and gave me the opportunity to absorb the information in a more applicable way. I will be present during this entire online training course to be a resource for you throughout your experience. I am here to respond to any questions you may have and offer my support as best I can, so please feel free to contact me here on the forum! You can also contact me by email with any specific questions you may have atkristina@romanmusictherapy.com. I look forward to getting to know all of you over the next several weeks!​

[Adrienne Salmon]

Hi,

My name is Adrienne Salmon, and I recently started working at Connecticut Music Therapy Services, LLC. I live in New Haven, CT, and my clients are all around the state. I am, so far, really liking the job, but am very busy learning about all of my new clients and getting everything together, week to week, day to day. I get to meet so many incredible people. My clients right now range in age from 2-50 (or so), with lots of preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten groups. They’re all really wonderful, but love to share their germs! Haha

I am taking the Sprouting Melodies training for a couple of reasons. First, my new employers have encouraged/required their employees have the training. Second, I love children and I hope that this will help me be the best therapist that I can be, especially with such young clients who are at such a mysterious time in their brain development.

Sorry for the haste in the post, but I was locked out of the site due to a technical glitch on my end, so it will take me a little longer to catch up. I’m really looking forward to this course, what I will learn, and sharing it all together.

Best!!

-Adrienne Salmon

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