Role of Music Therapy

[Anonymous]

Share your thoughts on the role of music therapy in community-based settings on the forum.

[Erika Svolos]

This question is a great way to help you identify how your background and skill base is valuable to community based work and settings.

[Holly Jurca]

Music therapy can promote a healthier community that is more informed/educated, as well as joyful in music. As parents reported, Sprouting Melodies has promoted their children to react to music more outwardly and expressively from a younger age. Though Sprouting Melodies isn’t music therapy, it leads the community to more ways to promote joy and bring people together. Another thing music therapy can provide is a consistent and predictable structure to lives that might lack in this, or simply reinforce safety and predictability.

My experience with music therapy has been promoting connection to others and the clients themselves. I have observed this in assisted living facilities, schools, and within individual sessions in any setting.

[Diandra Doble]

Music therapy plays a very important role in the community. It is accessible to everybody and is unique in the way that we are trained professionals doing this work. We not only help build upon that bond between a parent and their child, we educate the parents on the development of their child overtime and we can give resources to parents who may be struggling with something in their own lives. We can point them in the right direction and give them any resources they need. I also liked how Elizabeth worded what we do. We “promote healthy development” and we don’t “get rid of symptoms” from disabilities.

[Meghan Hanley]

Music therapy plays an important role in providing emotional support and education to the community. We can inform parents on development stages as well as provide resources for how to bond and interact with their children. We also provide a support for doubts and concerns as we can encourage parents to enjoy the moment with their children and focus on the children’s abilities and interests.

[Elizabeth Bentz]

I am a music therapist and also a mother of a kiddo in early intervention (yes, he gets music therapy). His music therapist has been extremely helpful. She not only uses music to help him meet his developmental milestones, but she also is constantly assessing his progress in other areas. For example, today she mentioned his feet seem less turned out than previously, which indicates his ankles are getting stronger. Additionally, she gives us strategies to work on at home to help our son reach his milestones.

I absolutely love what we do, because we are sort of therapy ninjas; nobody knows they’re getting therapy services because everyone is having too much fun with the music. I think we are a great way for families to ease into the early intervention world, since music is fun and not as intimidating as some of the other therapy services. Additionally, we have the background and knowledge to share and say when we think another service may need to get involved, such as PT or SLP.

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