What value do music therapists bring to families of young children?

[Meredith Pizzi]

What value do music therapists bring to families of young children? Post your thoughts and comments to the board. Reply to the contributions of the group.

[Corie Barkey]

Music therapists specifically bring not only their own education, clinical experience and musical ability to each session but we also bring the support of one of the greatest groups of people in the world. I personally love the music therapist community. I have never heard of another group of strangers who can come together and support each other like we do… worldwide. We have each other as a unique resource. We also have our unique differences that make the session rich and because we as music therapist recognize and celebrate our own differences we are also great at identifying and celebrating the unique characteristics of others in a way that makes everybody feel individual and true to themselves yet connected through the music.

[Mary Carter]

Corie, I had not considered your answer although I think it’s one of the greatest resources I use as a music therapist! That of the willingness of my peers to help, support and collaborate with me along the way. Of course we have education in developmental approaches, the creativity to adjust activities on the spot if they are not going the way we planned or we see a way in which they can better attain the goals of our clients, or the desire to connect with the client on a really humanistic level. This could be true of many types of therapists.

I think as musicians we are taught early on the value of collaboration. When you play in an orchestra or sing as part of a choir you learn to listen to the people around you, to work as a group and to practice with others. I can not tell you the number of times as a new music therapist I called my college friends on a Sunday night panicking for a Monday morning session that I had been stressing about all weekend and that friend would help me work through the idea until it was something usable and I could get to sleep! My downstairs neighbor in my apartment building is also my best friend from college who is a Music Therapist as well and we implemented Music Therapy and Martini Mondays where we would have a fancy cocktail and share new songs, interventions, practice and talk about how we could better serve our clients. Now that I am starting a private practice, the Music Therapy facebook groups for business owners, private practices etc. is a fabulous resource when you have questions about what the heck you are doing when starting a business or other things that they NEVER went over in college, and other groups that share their songs and interventions, successes and stresses.

So yes, in agreement of the above statement, I as a music therapist do not just bring my personal knowledge and skills to the families of young children, but I bring an entire community of music therapists and their knowledge to the classes that I facilitate.

[Mary Kerrigan]

I really love what Corie and Mary have said in their posts in regards to the music therapy community. I 100% agree that really is such a special part of our world as Music Therapists and especially being such a small and specific field we are kindred spirits with each other and always willing to support each other due to our uniqueness. To add a bit to that idea, my mother (an 8th grade english teacher) came with me to a free one day International Music Therapy symposium at Temple University this past April because she had the day off and being one of my BIGGEST supporters was curious about learning more about MT. She was amazed at how friendly and informative and willing to share all the music therapists were. Even though she was the “outsider” that day she said she didn’t feel that way at all. She had lots of questions and a confused face sometimes, but everyone was so wonderful to help engage her in the conference and share their knowledge and expertise which was so amazing to see.

When we were asked in the video to think about this question the first thing that popped into my head was that parents with “typically” developing children would immediately hear the word “therapy” and turn away from SM because they don’t think their child needs therapy and there is sometimes a stigma that comes with that word and it was great to see that mentioned later in the video and explained. I think that being a Music THERAPIST makes SM even more valuable than other music based childhood programs because we do have the extensive background in human development as well as working on our skills as a musician and as Mary mentioned having the creativity and flexibility to adapt our music to directly impact the human development we have learned about and experienced through our many clinical practices. The therapeutic environment is not just for those with developmental delays or mental health or declines in health, but also beneficial for typical growth and development in life. Everyone is always intrigued about music therapy because it is so unique and many people immediately know the benefits and value of music in a person’s life, especially in early childhood and having the structure and support therapeutically I think only enhances the quality of the experience of music in early childhood which is an incredible value you won’t really find in many other early childhood programs.

[Anonymous]

I am so glad to see how you are truly seeing what a value music therapy is and what a value you are as a music therapist.
Mary I love that you have a fun peer supervision with Martinis! What a great idea! Mary I love that your mom joined you and had such a positive experience!

[Cynthia Cross]

First of all I have to say ditto to the above comments about the Music Therapy community. I think we have a profession that excels in knowledge and application of our craft. We also are incredibly supportive of each other and the quality of training available through conferences, trainings and the like is pretty remarkable. As I watched this video I made the following list of reasons someone would come to me for services:

experience with children and music
knowledge of development, continue to learn and develop myself
individualized attention
dedication to providing service excellence

In starting a business I am finding that it is SO important to find my own value and then learn how to talk about it!

[Emily Baroody]

Like everyone else I will restate the above comments about our community because it is a really really good point. We don’t just bring our individual strengths as music therapists into music making with us we bring the strength of our community. I also want to take a second to totally agree with Cynthia. It is really hard to talk about my value. I feel valuable, but how do I articulate it? I also think that one of the more important things that we bring to music making as music therapists is that we see with a clinical eye. Sure what we are doing with SM groups is not music therapy, but what we are doing is still backed my clinical research to be as supportive as possible to developmental needs. We are not just singing kids songs 100x over because babies like it. We are implementing musical activities and experience to help support families. We are also offering expertise about children from what we know and are learning about development to families who need that kind of feed back. And lastly as a music therapist I think I offer flexibility to music groups. I am prepared to throw out my plans in a second if they do not feel right in the moment and that is something my music therapy training allows me to do.

[Molly Moses]

I agree with everyone that not only do we bring music therapy to our separate communities, but we also bring the support of the whole music therapy community. I think that although some parents might feel strange about the word “therapy”, it means that we bring more than just music. We have training and experience in child development as well, and can therefore adapt to fit the needs of each child.

And Mary, I love the idea of Music Therapy and Martini Mondays!

[Kristina Rio]

What wonderful reflections everybody! I agree with all of you that community and peer supervision is so important and valuable. I am lucky enough to work with a team of 6 music therapists, and we have a weekly group supervision meeting that is so helpful. Not only am I learning and growing by bringing my questions, but I am learning from my peers’ questions as well. This in turn is a value that is passed on to the families and individuals that I work with.

Once you complete this training, and if you decide to sign on to become a Sprouting Melodies Provider, then you will continue to get support through our online Sprouting Melodies Provider Site. Resources are readily available, and there is a forum to ask questions and learn from other providers!

[Mary Jane Dibble]

I like how it was pointed out that each music therapist brings individual and unique differences to our sessions. I think that music therapist bring a lot of value to families with young children. Some of these are:
Quality time spent between parents and children (parents get to play with their children), the parents and children are able to take songs home with them to continue to use, and parents and children are able to socialize and relate with other parents and children.

[Laura Silvestain]

I like the emphasis on individuality and community. I know that I’ve experienced a part of the music therapy community as a student, but it is a great reassurance that the community is just as strong in the professional world.

I also believe that the value music therapists bring specifically to families with young children is a unique opportunity early in life. Young children are being helped developmentally with music therapy sessions, but also taught the value of music, socialization, and alternative ways of learning. The young children are brought closer to their families with this shared experience that is unlike almost any other they may have in their early years.

[Melaine Pohlman]

I think the emphasis mentioned in earlier posts on the community and camaraderie within the music therapy profession is key to this question. We are unique in that we work towards a common goal and cause and often put aside any sense of “competition” among us to work together in collaboration as we meet the needs of our clients. I feel that as a profession we are willing to seek out resources and help when we need it if it will benefit our clients. As music therapists I think we also have a unique sense of compassion and a willingness to connect with all, regardless of their needs. Our professional musicianship, knowledge of human development and clinical knowledge (wrapped up with our own human-ness) allow us to be in the moment with our music as we adapt to those in our sessions. As well, we offer a broad base of knowledge that encompasses many areas so that our impact can be far and wide as we look at the whole picture a client presents.

[Brianna McCulloch]

I love what everyone has to say about our music therapy community (I’m a huge fan of the various music therapist facebook pages…questions are often posted that I wouldn’t even think to ask and many perspectives are offered in response…I glean so much from those groups!).

Aside from that, for me it’s the RESEARCH BASE of music therapy. I’m a total nerd–I love reading brain research, music ed research, music therapy research, rehab research…it makes me so excited to know not just THAT music can effect change but WHY music can effect change. The video talks about that–about educating parents about the choices we make. Honestly, I’m great about explaining the whys behind the interventions I use with my individual MT clients with developmental disabilities, but I haven’t been good about that in my mommy and me groups. I’m excited to start working more of those conversations into my classes!!

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