Introductions

[Julie Palmieri]

Share your professional experience with the group and what your hopes and expectations are for this course.

Be sure to come back and respond to others as well.

[Erika (TeamRH)]

Hello everyone, my name is Erika Svolos. I have been the online moderator for the Sprouting Melodies training for past 9.5 years. I live in New Jersey with my husband, my 9.5 yo daughter, and our cats Moose and Sir Didymos.

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 finishing up my graduate degree at Montclair State University. I’ve been a clinical music therapist for the past 24 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 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!

[Talia Morales]

Hello to all and looking forward to getting to know our group! My name is Talia Morales and reaching out to you from San Diego CA. I got my undergrad in MT from University of Kansas and have a MA in expressive arts therapy from European Graduate School. I have had the privilege to work in school based settings for the past 20 years conducting assessments and providing direct and consultative services as part of the IEP for Pre-K-High School student sand love the collaborative aspect of working alongside students, teachers, slp’s, ot’s and parents.
My birthplace of Peru often calls me home and I enjoy visiting my family there and had a chance to work in school setting in the Andean town of Urubamba for a number of years and still lead retreats on our family farm in the Sacred Valley from time to time. My experiences have highlighted the need for Spanish speaking music resources for underserved communities, not only in South America but also here at home in San Diego and in the US. Inspired by this, I recently embarked on a new journey and started my own business ¡ÁnimoMúsica! which I am, little by little, building and have a long list of Spanish and Bilingual song ideas and lessons I’m working on! I am hoping that this training will inform the on-going development of the resource library I am currently building and it be a sound, evidence-based foundation to grow on.
Looking forward to our time together and learning from you all!
Talia

[Sarah Braverman]

Hi Talia!
I think it’s amazing what your doing and I’d love to learn more about your business. I’m a huge culture person and I love learning new languages. Currently, I’m trying to become fluent in Spanish; however, as of right now I can only speak and understand some Spanish. I have some clients who are children that come from households where Spanish is their primary language (which makes me super excited!). I would love to add more Spanish and Bilingual songs to help my personal practice become more multicultural. If you have any ideas or songs, I’d be more than happy to hear about them!

Hope you’re enjoying the course! 🙂

Sarah Braverman

[Erika (TeamRH)]

Hi Talia,

Welcome! It is wonderful to have you with us in the training. Thank you for sharing your background and all the wonderful things you bring to the field. The work you are doing is so important to the field and what a wonderful resource you are for music therapists. I look forward to learning more about your business and the resources you are creating!

-Erika

[Julie Palmieri]

Talia, it is so wonderful to meet you! 🙂 Cannot wait to hear more about your resource library!

[Brooke Langley]

I agree with Sarah! I would love to learn some of your Bilingual or Spanish songs! We have a new family in our music group that is Spanish speaking and I would love to have the boy be able to participate more in his own language!

~Brooke

[Sarah Braverman]

Hi Everyone!
I’m Sarah Braverman and I am a music therapist for Healing Rhythms in Rochester, MN. I just started working in the field of music therapy about a month ago, so I’m super eager to get started. Currently my caseload consists of working with children with autism, Apraxia, developmental delays, language delays, and other various types of disabilities. I hope to get out of this group some techniques and ideas that I can use to help my clients sustain their attention and engage more in the music therapy session. I expect to learn about how to use music that can help my clients reach their goals in a fun and meaningful way.

I’m really excited for this course and I can’t wait to get to know everyone!

[Erika (TeamRH)]

Hi Sarah,

Welcome! We are so glad to have you in the training.

I am neurodivergent (ADHD and Autistic, SPD, Visual Processing Disorder, Visual Perceptual Disorder and recently my doctor discovered I have hyper mobility and may have Ehlers-Danos Syndrome which is a common co-occuring condition within Autism). My daughter is also ND with a similar profile to myself. I specialize in working with Neurodivergent and Disabled children. I am happy to answer any questions along the way to help connect the training materials and relate how they can be used within a neuro-affirming approach to support neurodivergent and disabled individuals.

-Erika

[Julie Palmieri]

Sarah, welcome to the field of music therapy and congratulations as you begin your career! How exciting!

[Julie Palmieri]

Hi everyone! I am Julie Palmieri, and I currently live in Rockford, Michigan. I work as the Marketing Coordinator for Roman Music Therapy Services, and I have been a board-certified music therapist for 20 years (WHAT!?!?). As part of my work at RMTS, I handle the setup of the course, which means you’ll also see my name/profile that I use for the technical side of this website. 🙂 I hope it doesn’t get too confusing along the way – I think you’ll be able to see when I respond as a student of this course. 🙂

Early on in my music therapy career, I discovered very quickly that I really loved working with young children. I loved their energy and their curiosity and their openness. When I became a Mom of two beautiful children, music was a constant in our house. I was constantly singing throughout our days – in the morning, at lunch time, at night during our bedtime routines. Now my daughters are teenagers/tweens, and they still remember some of the songs we used to sing. Now, they are both studying musical instruments, participating in band, and playing piano. It is the biggest joy to be the parent in the audience, watching your kiddo play in recitals, band concerts and marching band performances!

I am really looking forward to getting back to my roots and immersing myself in the world of early childhood music once again. And I look forward to learning with all of you!

[Brooke Langley]

Hi Julie!!
That’s so exciting that your children are growing up with such a big musical influence! My son is 3 years old and since both my husband and I are Music Therapists, there is A LOT of music going around at our house! He loves singing and playing his little guitar to all the music videos haha I can’t wait to see him begin performing and really learning music and instruments in the future!

[Brooke Langley]

Hello! I’m so late to the program here but glad to be joining now! I have been a Music Therapist for just about 5 years now!!! I’m from Oklahoma and currently living in Enid, Oklahoma where Music Therapy isn’t heard of often…. So with that I have multiple jobs. I am the Program Director for a non-profit company called 4RKids where we employ adults with developmental disabilities. Because Music Therapy isn’t accepted on DHS waivers or through insurance and Medicard yet… I decided to start my own private practice in Music Therapy to help the clients here at 4RKids and in the community! My therapy business is called Health and Harmony Music Therapy, LLC. I really got into therapy in the hopes to work with the elderly, but I’m really enjoying the children and adults I see here right now! We just recently started a small children’s group that’s offered to the community so I’m hoping to learn more about leading with the child and coming up with newer interventions for my sessions!
An interesting story, my husband and I met at school while we were both studying Music Therapy! He is a Music Therapist at a mental health facility for in patient adolescents. We have a son that just turned 3 this year! (COVID Baby….the social skills for this child were something else!) He absolutely LOVES music! Which is so fun to watch him sing, dance and try to play instruments at home!

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