Harmony Kids Music Class: learn by playing!

This January has marked two years as part of the Therabeat team. One of my greatest joys has been teaching Harmony kids music classes. Every Tuesday morning I am met with the sweet faces of tiny ones ready to learn. Except, they aren’t aware that they are learning--they come to play, and that is exactly the goal!

We build our Harmony kids curriculum to foster learning, growth & development, and interpersonal skills through musical play. We accomplish this by planning classes that are interactive, structured, and give time for free exploration. In every class, we want to get your little one moving, singing, playing instruments, and playing with their peers.

This Spring, we are offering two different classes for you and your little one as we break in our brand new group room in our new clinic!

Stories & Songs: Mondays 11:00-11:45

Ages 0-5

This is our newest offering! This class will focus on fostering a love of language and the telling of stories. Each month, we will focus on the reading of 1 cherished story book. Your children will get to know these stories through focusing on themes and concepts in the story through movement, singing, and instrument play. This class will  be taught by Hayley Echols, LPMT, MT-BC.

Music & Me Family Class: Tuesdays 11:00-11:45

Ages 0-5

This class is perfect for the whole family! In this class, we will sing, dance, and play instruments! We will be focusing on the play of 1 instrument family each month to learn age appropriate concepts, foster the love of music, work on fine and gross motor skills, and learn how to play with others. This class will be taught by Perry Wright, LPMT, MT-BC.

Call 770-345-2804 to sign up for class today and join the fun!

Registration is $55/month per child. Worried that you might not be able to make every class? Don’t worry! Although we suggest coming consistently to one class, you are more than welcome to come to either Monday or Tuesday Class in order to makeup classes.

We can’t wait to see our new group room filled with bright faces ready to engage in music!

Music Therapy with Generalized Anxiety Disorder

     Anxiety related disorders are being diagnosed at higher rates than ever before. 18.1% of adults in the United States are diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder making it the most common mental illness in the U.S. Unfortunately; only 36.9% of those suffering are receiving treatment. (Anxiety and Depression Association of America) 

    In 2015, Gutierrez and Camarena completed a study on using music therapy with generalized anxiety disorder. They took a slightly different approach than previous studies by including active and receptive music therapy interventions. The receptive interventions meant the participants weren’t involved in the music making. During the active interventions they used their voices, bodies, or musical instruments to participate in the creation of the music.

     The study utilized receptive MT first and focused on stimulating patients to identify their problematic symptoms. The music therapy then shifted to active while the participants engaged in emotional expression exercises.  Lastly, the music therapy was used to address issues such as self-esteem and assertiveness before final processing and conclusions.

    This study found that those participating in music therapy alongside their conventional pharmacological treatment had significant positive effects. Their anxiety significantly decreased on two different assessments used by the researchers.

     This study is unique in that it specifies how music therapy was used throughout the progression of the sessions. Music therapists can use this information to inform their clinical choices and better serve their patients.

-Lauren Booke, Music Therapy Intern

Gutierrez, Octavio Flores, & Camarena, Victor Andres Teran. (2015). Music therapy in generalized anxiety disorder. The Arts in Psychotherapy 44, 19-24.

Songwriting in Music Therapy

            When people think of Music Therapy, writing songs with deep emotions is the first thing that comes to mind. Expressing deep emotions through the practice of songwriting is a technique that is used in a Music Therapy session.  However, there are many ways to use songwriting in a session with a variety of diagnosis. In the podcast, “Music therapy and neuroplasticity: Rewiring the brain through therapeutic songwriting”, they discuss three different scenarios where songwriting was used in a music therapy session.

            The first scenario was a client with a traumatic brain injury. The client had aphasia, the loss of the ability to understand and express speech, and dysphasia, the inability to correctly form words. The client was able to communicate with a picture book but felt it made her diagnosis obvious. The client was able to sing because that portion of the brain was not damaged. The music therapist took phrases the client would need in everyday life and put it to a melody line. The client would learn the phrase, practice the phrase, and then test it out in the appropriate setting.

            The second scenario was a teenage girl who also had a traumatic brain injury. After the injury the client communicated with one word answers and would not reciprocate conversation; her parents wanted her to ease back into high school. The music therapist had the client write a song about a topic most teenage girls wish to talk about: boys. The music therapist ask the questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how; these helped facilitate the songwriting process. Once the song was completed the client then had points to talk about in conversation with other girls her age.

            The final scenario was a group setting of high school students who did not have particular friend group or a club they were a member of. These students went through a group songwriting process lead by a music therapist. At the end of the process the students recorded a music video and performed two flash mobs; one flash mob took place in police office. After the students danced with the police officers and sang their original song one student stated that the police have never had a good memory of the police and now that had been changed.

            These are all various scenarios that use songwriting as a therapeutic technique to help achieve a variety of therapeutic goals.

        -Dana LaValley, Music Therapy Intern

Music therapy and neuroplasticity: Rewiring the brain through therapeutic songwriting. (March 25,

         2017). Collective Music Therapy. Retrieved from: 

         https://m.soundcloud.com/collectivemusictherapy/cmt-podcast-ep15

The Dangers of Unreliable Sources

When I typed in “Music Therapy” to Google, one of the first articles that came up talked about the “dangers of overestimating music therapy.” This immediately caught my attention and I was curious to see what context this article had been written under. The article discusses the “Alive Inside” documentary from the “Music and Memory” program. This raised some red flags for me for a couple of different reasons.

The biggest thing is that “Alive Inside” is not clinical music therapy. It is pre-recorded playlists administered by a nursing home employee through headphones and an iPod. There is a lot of confusion about this because music therapists and renowned supporters of music therapy appear in the documentary. The American Music Therapy Association created a fact sheet outlining the differences between the music and memory program and clinical music therapy. They spell out the differences in how music is experienced, what training is required, how outcomes are reached and advantages to both programs. They conclude that, “Music and Memory and Music Therapy are complimentary. Both Music Therapy and Music and Memory serve to maximize the amazing power of music to reach deeply into the lives, minds and hearts of those who often cannot be reached in any other way.” So, while music and memory is not music therapy, they don’t completely oppose it. The key is knowing the difference and being able to advocate for clinical music therapy when others are using the term inappropriately.

It also was surprising to me because the author of this article must have not done a lot of research before writing this article. If he would have gone on the AMTA website, he could have quickly learned that clinical music therapy is done by board certified professionals. He calls it music therapy, which is deceiving to people reading the article that also aren’t aware of the music therapy profession and board certification required to practice. As music therapists, we must advocate for our profession and have to educate others that have received incorrect information. This article, like many others, unfortunately pushes our advocacy efforts back and makes our uphill climb even harder.

Lastly, it makes me worried that this is one of the first exposures to “music therapy” someone may have when looking to learn more by going to the Internet. Many people will never have a first hand experience with music therapy and are forced to rely on online sources. While there are a lot of reliable sources out there, there are also always going to be unreliable sources as well. All we can do is educate others and advocate every chance we get for the amazing profession of music therapy.

All of this to say, be careful about your sources of information and never stop advocating for the field of music therapy!

-Lauren Booke, Music Therapy Intern

Article: “The Dangers of Overestimating Music Therapy” Steve Swayne

 theatlantic.com

How can we adapt for Cortical Visual Impairments?

What is CVI?

    Cortical visual impairment (CVI) is caused by a lack of oxygen which disrupts the posterior visual pathways and/or the occipital lobes to the brain. Lack of oxygen also causes neuromotor disorders such as Cerebral Palsy (CP). This explains the correlation between CP and CVI. However, CVI is the most common form of visual impairment and can affect other patients diagnosed with seizure disorders, autism, neurodegenerative conditions, and brain injury.

Posterior Visual Pathways include:

• Lateral geniculate nucleus
• Optic radiation
• Primary visual cortex
• Occipital Lobes:

Image from: https://www.reviewofoptometry.com/ce/understanding-cerebral-vision-loss

Image from:https://www.health.qld.gov.au/abios/asp/boccipital

          The visual system is divided into two sections: the ventral stream and the dorsal stream.  The ventral stream allows for recognition and the dorsal stream subconsciously analyzed the scene at the moment and guides movement. CVI has shown to have effects on both of these pathways. Damage to the ventral stream can lead to the inability to recognize faces and objects. Any damage to the dorsal stream can lead to difficulty in spatial processing.  

Image from: https://visionhelp.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/the-three-as-autism-aspergers-and-automobiles-part-5-visual-spatial/ventral-dorsal-stream/

Common Characteristics

    The vision of a client with CVI changes day by day; some days may be better than others. The peripheral vision is not impacted by CVI therefore most clientren with CVI use peripheral vision to see.; the color portion of vision is also not affected by CVI. The best way to understand what CVI appears as is to describe that it is like looking through a piece of Swiss Cheese. As stated before the dorsal stream may be impacted causing issues with depth perception. Vision may also appear better when the client is moving.

Adaptations

    There are special ways to adapt daily living and therapeutic sessions that will result in a better quality of life for clients with CVI.

• Give break times throughout the session. There is a great amount of energy needed to focus on visual task and breaks are needed to refocus.

• If seeing is the main task at hand the client needs to be comfortable to allow for full focus.

• Provide head support as needed so the visual field is not being shifted.

• If the task requires fine motor coordination and visual coordination, focus on one task at a time. Once both are mastered then combine the task.

• Keep the items used in the session simple and the environment uncluttered.

• When it comes to choosing items for a session familiar and real objects will provide the best results.

• Repetition is key.

• Find items, songs, or interventions that motivate the client.

• Vision is stimulated when paired with other sensory systems.

• Use bright colors such as: red, yellow, pink, and orange. Mylar tissue evokes a visual response and partners with the auditory response of the paper.

• Locate the light source in various locations to find the ideal location for the client.

• Try different visual fields to find the ideal one for the client.

• Allow for a good bit of time for the client to respond to what is being seen.

References

Cortical visual impairment pediatric visual diagnosis fact sheet. (1998). See Hear, 3(4). Retrieved  

      from: http://www.tsbvi.edu/seehear/fall98/cortical.htm

Macintyre-Beon et al. (2012). My voice heard: the journey of a young man with a cerebral visual

        impairment. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness 106(3) 166-176.

Philip, S. (2017). Setting up of a cerebral visual impairment clinic for children: challenges and

      future developments. Journal of Ophthalmology. Doi: 10.4103/0301-4738.202303

-Dana LaValley, Music Therapy Intern