Share your thoughts with the board members on the role of music therapy in community based settings.

[Meredith Pizzi]

[Tracy Schoenberg]

Music therapy in community based settings is about promoting healthy development and bonding in all children. It also might help parents connect to other parents with children that are similar ages and stages. It is not clinical music therapy, but more about helping children grow and develop through multiple musical approaches and techniques. Some community based settings are early intervention program, wellness program, or may even be included in new baby education classes. I’ve seen mommy and me yoga and baby message through hospital programs. My youngest was premature and after the NICU experience, they gave me a whole lot of information on classes and resources to check out for helping your baby and child’s development. These classes were extremely helpful and important to new sleep deprived grumpy moms 🙂

[Alice Sorensen]

I began to understand it most when I was watching the first video, and Meredith and Beth were making the distinction that the groups aren’t music therapy, but it’s music therapy based. I agree that there is a need in music therapy in communities – from an advocacy standpoint and from a need for service standpoint. It is important for everyone to be able to experience music therapy based programs, whether or not there is a developmental delay – our skills as music therapists go beyond only working with children with special needs and those skills are very much needed in our communities. I recall Meredith talking about referring to it as a class but not to us as teachers, and that made a lot of sense to me because we’re offering a class, a learning experience, but we’re not teaching – we’re intervening, providing music interventions and music therapy based approaches to child development instead of teaching parents what they should be doing or otherwise formally imparting knowledge. I think that’s a really important aspect of music therapy in communities.

[Anonymous]

I love your answers! They are insightful and right on point. Thank you for your contribution to this question.

[Cassandra Reyna]

I think that the key word in this phrase is “community.” Music has, since the dawn of civilization, been a community event, bringing the members of a specific community together to share in the experience. Our society has decided that music is only for those who are “musicians,” but I believe that music is for the masses, not just a select few individuals! Through these community settings, we are exposing individuals, who may not otherwise have the opportunity, to live music and allowing them to participate as well, even if they feel they aren’t what society has deemed “a musician.” Through music, we are building communities of babies and their caregivers, which is just as valid a goal as those we may have in more clinical settings.

[Marchele Gilman]

For me, the key words were to “meet the needs of the community”. If I am understanding correctly, this model is a model of wellness. We help them to be well using our skills as a music therapist without the formal assessment, documentation, and objectives. Our main objective is to help people to grow successfully, be well, and in the case of early childhood, to help them bond with their caregivers. We are working with strengths to help them to continue in wellness.

[Rachel Lighty]

I think music therapy is much needed in the community. These groups bring people together for a common purpose and can provide another support system when they might not have had one before. Similar to what was described in this week’s videos, the Sprouting Melodies groups allow parents to meet other families that have children around the same age and are most likely experiencing similar life changes and obstacles. This allows them to bond and build a relationship with another support system they might not have had otherwise. I feel that is one of the most important roles of music therapy groups in the community.

[Jessica Triana]

I resonated with the points Meredith and Beth made about the potentially fuzzy definition of music therapy in the setting of a community-based program. I currently provide a few open, community-based groups on an inpatient medical unit. I personally make sure to label them “community music groups” and shy away from “therapy” because the work is not strictly clinical music therapy. The interventions are based on evidenced-based music therapy practices and may hold therapeutic value to the group members. However, as was mentioned in the video, I do not create a treatment plan for all of the patients that may attend groups. Despite this, I think music therapists can provide some of the highest level of care and expertise in these community settings. These services, especially in early childhood, can offer a wealth of benefits to the children and families alike. For parents and family members, community programs can provide empathetic support, instill confidence and self-assuredness, allow for intimate time with the child, motivate parents to leave the house and engage in their communities, and give parents practical resources.

[Flora Whitmore]

I think the role of music therapy in community based settings is to bring awareness and bring people/ families together. I like to think about what group music making, and a shared goal does to bring people together, and how music has such an ability to break down barriers and facilitate communication and interconnectedness. I think in a community, a music therapist may be less in the role of a strict clinician and more of a highly informed facilitator. The role is crucial and delicate in a community setting. As music therapists, I feel we are in the unique position of being able to provide a great deal of information, support and guidance, but also have the risk of scaring people away if our approach is too clinical or narrow. It’s a very delicate balancing act, but if done correctly, can really educate, build awareness and be something very cohesive and healthy for all involved.

[Beth McLaughlin]

I have been providing music therapy services in the clinical setting (school) for so long that I find it very exciting to expand my practice to meet the needs of children and families in a community based setting. It is a paradigm shift for me to think of providing music experiences based on a wellness model rather than a prescriptive model. My work has been done in a very restrictive environment due to the complexity of our students’ needs. Community based programming has always been a high priority for our students but was not always possible within the music therapy program other than to attend plays and concerts with other schools. As Beth mentioned, with the passage of IDEA in 1974, the recognition of inclusive services was made clear but I know families in some communities still feel isolated with few opportunities for their children to interact with others their own age. Music can be the great equalizer and I feel the strength of this program (as Beth and Meredith have mentioned) lies in the expertise and training of the music therapist and their ability to focus on strengths while promoting healthy development thru music in a fully inclusive environment.

[Gwendolyn Van Baalen]

I think the distinction between music therapy in clinical and community groups can be somewhat subjective, but I appreciate the importance of carefully considering how we as music therapists present the services we’re offering to families. In the setting in which I currently practice, groups primarily consist of children who are enrolled in early intervention and their caregivers. This means that they have been formally evaluated, have an IFSP, and have or will have a termination plan. That being said, many of these groups are also open to members of the community (children who are not enrolled in EI and their caregivers) and the siblings of EI children under three. I can see how this type of group might sometimes resemble a clinical group and sometimes more closely resemble a community model.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your insights and postings. Cassandra, great insight about the “musician” only. I found many parents were fearful of doing music with their child because they didn’t have any music background and some were not able to sing in key. They were relieved to hear when I would say, every class, you do not have to be a trained musician to do music with your child and it impact their development. I had few adults who did not, eventually, sing in my Sprouting Melodies classes and I think it is our community model that supports and inspires them!

[Alison Albino]

There are definitely times when music therapy can be used in community based settings, especially community settings where children do have specific goals that need to be met. As Meredith and Beth mentioned, the Sprouting Melodies classes aren’t necessarily providing “music therapy” by clinical definition. I also really like the idea of looking at strengths instead of weaknesses, this is something music therapists do particularly well. As I’ve mentioned in prior weeks, music therapy in community based settings is just fun! It’s a fairly noninvasive way to promote development and to educate families on that development. This is why these classes really need to be run by music therapists, because we can focus on strengths and we really understand development in early childhood.

[RaeAnna Zinniel]

I think music therapy in a community based setting is such a wonderful thing. I think that it does what its name implies that it is for the community and when I think of a community I think of growing together and building relationships. This program is such a perfect example of how we can use music to foster growth in communities and give new networks for parents and caregivers who at times may feel alone or isolated. I also see how important it is that a music therapist runs this type of program because we understand how music can affect people both positively and negatively and thus we understand how to best utilize it.

[Elizabeth Ferguson]

The role of music therapy in community based settings is to provide quality music that is developmentally appropriate for nero-typical children as well as those with special needs and their families. Growing right along through successful music experiences. Music is a part of all cultures across the world in one form or another. Music is valued for a variety of reasons at all stages of life. Music therapists have a wonderful set of tools that allows us to serve the communities musical needs at any stage of life and support growth as individuals and as community members.

[Ayelet Weiss]

What resonated with me regarding the role of music therapy in a community based setting is that, as Beth said, “we are looking to promote healthy development vs. getting rid of symptoms of disabilities”. This emphasizes health and wellness in the use of music to support the healthy development of children so that they can create strong interpersonal connections and bonds. A community based model of music therapy also gives music therapists the opportunity to showcase what we do and what makes us special to a wide range of people that may never otherwise encounter us.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely! And you will find so many parents who need that support to see the development and health in their child, regardless of their level of development. I had so many parents “terrified” that there was something wrong with their child or going to have something wrong. Many of them developed these fears from the typical questions and comments by their pediatricians.

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