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

Whenever I survey my clients about their favorite singers, I inevitably hear names like Drake, Future, Travis Scott, and Bad Bunny. I’ll be honest though, most of the time I have to Google these rappers so I can be up to speed on who they are. But since I know that rap and hip hop are a favorite of my clients, especially the middle and high school students, I try to find as many ways as possible to incorporate this genre into my sessions (even though my comfort zone is Bruno Mars and Taylor Swift!) Here are a few simple ways I incorporate rap and hip hop music and artists into my music therap ..read more

The temperature is dropping here in Pennsylvania, Thanksgiving is behind us, and I am ready to bust out ALL the winter musical experiences in my sessions. I’m thinking creative movement, freeze dancing (of course), and creative listening to winter-themed classical music. If you’re feeling inspired by the drop in temperature too, but need a little session planning boost, check out Elevate. Elevate is an email idea subscription designed to help you infuse creativity and fun into your music therapy sessions with middle and high school students with autism and related disabilities. It’s pre-appro ..read more

Today we are wrapping up the Music Therapy in Action series with some of my most favorite videos – our Special Performances and Events! I worked for seven years at United Community Options of Miami, facilitating music therapy for children with autism and related disabilities. During that time, my interns and I prepared many different types of performances for families and donors. We helped the children perform several different shows, complete with an original script, songs, and dance moves. One was a Halloween-themed show called “In the Woods,”; another was our spin on the classic “Little Red ..read more

Last week, I posted about the Music Therapy in ACTION page, and how music therapists can use it to get new ideas and watch videos to see what different techniques look like when implemented. In that post, I highlighted the sections on the Cognitive, Sensory & Motor/Physical domains. But there’s more! On the Music Therapy in Action page, you can also check out examples in the following areas (click on each picture below):You’ll watch a video demonstrating: Modified Rhythmic Speech Cueing to work on increasing expressive language and speaking in complete sentences In this section, you’ll ..read more

I don’t know about you, but when I’m learning new music therapy techniques, I love to see them IN ACTION. It’s one thing to read about techniques in a book or hear about them in class, and it’s another to see them being implemented in an actual session with clients. That’s why I created a Music Therapy in Action Page on my site (all shared with permission from the client families). This page is for parents and administrators to see what music therapy could look like for their children or students. And it’s for music therapists to get new ideas and see how they might implement techniques ..read more