How’s your summer been going? So far, my kiddos have done tennis camp and music camp. We’ve sprinkled in lots of pool time, play dates, and even some blueberry picking, (followed by blueberry pancakes for dinner, which I highly recommend!) In addition to these fun summer outings, I’ve also been busy here on the blog. This summer, I started a Session Sneak Peek Series, where I give you a sneak peek into some of my sessions with tweens and teens with autism and related disabilities. I always love to see what other music therapists are up to, and I thought you might too! In the first blog ..read more

This summer, I started a Session Sneak Peek Series, where I give you a sneak peek into some of my sessions with tweens and teens with autism and related disabilities. I always love to see what other music therapists are up to, and I thought you might too! Last week, I gave you a peek into a session where I led a movement experience to a popular Imagine Dragons song, did The Affirmations Rap by Snoop Dogg (with some add ons), and led an auditory perception experience with pop music (“Despactio” on marimba anyone?) This week, we’ll look at how I incorporated Taylor Swift into my sessions…in a t ..read more

Summer is here! Can’t you just smell the grill and taste the gooey marshmallows? Last weekend, my kiddos and I went away with some friends. We rented a cabin in the mountains, went rail biking, and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the campfire. My mouth is watering just thinking about how good the s’mores were. This trip definitely put me in the mood for all things SUMMER. So, I decided to do a little refresh of the Summer Music Therapy Session Planning Pack and put it on sale now through Friday, June 14, so you can get all prepped for your summer sessions. In this E-Book, you’ll learn ..read more

I don’t know about you, but I love to take a peek at what other music therapists are doing, especially if they work with a similar population as I do (middle and high schoolers with autism and related disabilities). It helps give me some fresh ideas, which are sometimes needed after nearly TWENTY YEARS in the field!! I thought maybe you would like to do the same, so over the next few blog posts, I’ll be doing a summer series called Session Sneak Peeks. You can take a peek into what I’m doing with my MT clients and students, and see if the ideas spark some new ones for you. This past week, in ..read more

This Spring,  I was invited to give a two-part business presentation to music therapy graduate students at University of Miami. It wasn’t until I started preparing this these talks that I realized…I love sharing about business ownership. I realized I not only have a wealth of information to share on this topic, but I also really enjoy putting the information into easily digestible nuggets. Starting a music therapy business can be extremely overwhelming. There are taxes, licenses, insurance, and different business structures. There are NPIs and EINs and everything varies by state! But own ..read more

Musical Games are one of the most used musical experiences in my repertoire when I work with teens in music therapy. SO MANY therapeutic goals can be worked into musical games: Auditory perception goals in Name That Tune, Social communication goals in Musical BINGO, and Academic goals in Musical Spacemen (Hangman). The great thing is that these goals are packaged in a “cool” musical game that is inviting and engaging for teens. One musical game I created several years ago that is always well received is called Guess Who. In Guess Who, I create different ways that clients and students can Gues ..read more

I used to start all my music therapy sessions with teens the same way I would start my sessions with kids – a Hello song. I cringe now because for many of the teen clients I worked with, I think this made them feel like a child. This was definitely not my intent. My intent was to have a way to bring everyone together and mark the start of the session. So, I moved away from Hello Songs and began using Group Rounds. Here are some of the group rounds I’ve used that have been effective with middle and high school students with autism and related disabilities: Drumming Round – Each student selects ..read more

When working with tweens and teens, I try to incorporate popular and client preferred music into my sessions as much as possible. This immediately helps engage them and gets them excited about the musical experience. In this post and this post, I highlight how I make my movement experiences totally age appropriate for my teen clients, and share songs that have been working well to get them up and moving! Below are the songs I’ve been using in 2024. Incorporate the ideas from the blog posts shared above and you’ll be good to go! “Houdini” by Dua Lipa “Friends” by Giulo Cercato “As It Was” by H ..read more

Wholesome Harmonies began way back in 2006 when I started seeing one private client after work at my full time job at United Community Options of Miami. Soon after, I received more calls and more referrals for private services from my alma mater, University of Miami (UM). Parents would call the music therapy program director at UM to inquire about private music therapy services and the director would refer them to me. Soon, I was seeing private clients almost every afternoon and evening after work, and on Saturdays and Sundays. This continued on until my schedule started getting very full and ..read more

The Tune In To Teens and Attention & Perception E-Courses will soon be going on hiatus for the foreseeable future. It makes me a little sad to say that. These have been passion projects for me – putting my knowledge and passion about music therapy with tweens and teens into these E-Courses, hearing your positive feedback and stories of success, has been a joy. As a continuing education provider for the Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT), I pay to be a provider, and for each and every course offering so the credits will be pre-approved. Since I’ll be putting my energy ..read more