Front Lines

Introduction: Advocacy –> Recognition –> Access Since 2005, the American Music Therapy Association and the Certification Board for Music Therapists have collaborated on a State Recognition Operational Plan. The primary purpose of this plan is to get music therapy and our MT-BC credential recognized by individual states so that citizens can more easily access our services. The AMTA Government Relations staff and CBMT Regulatory Affairs staff provide guidance and technical support to state task forces throughout the country as they work towards state recognition. To date, their work has resulted…

Affect in Music Therapy In preface to this post, I want to define the word “affect” as it is used here. In psychiatric or psychological terms, affect basically refers the emotions expressed non-verbally by a patient or client. For example, you might hear or see terms such as flat affect (showing no emotion at all), blunted affect (showing little emotion), labile (shifting between intense emotions) or full range (appropriate display of emotions). PC: Craig Toron   In the music therapy world, you hear many of the previously mentioned affective descriptions,…

After several more months of serving hospice clients, I have more to add to my original post, The Top 6 Hospice Songs I Use.  I have a bit more experience under my belt now, and I’ve had several more requests from patients and family members.  After doing a bit of quick math, I came to the rough conclusion that I sing between 600 and 800 songs a month, just during hospice visits!  Holy smokes!  I know some of you out there are singing just as many if not more!  Of…

After a little more than five months of working in this field, I have the following reflections: 1.)  Working in hospice care is an honor. For our clients, we are some of the last people they meet in their lifetime.  The entire hospice team (docs, nurses, social workers, aids, etc.)  has a tremendous impact on the quality of a person’s final months, days, and hours.  Receiving the trust of patients and their families during this intimate and reflective time is an incredible honor. 2.)  Music is especially powerful in the…

Updated May 2023: This post about hospice music therapy is almost 14 years old and, surprising to me, it still gets a lot of traffic. I don’t work in hospice any longer, and now I work primarily with kids in a pediatric hospital. I suspect the song preferences have changed quite a bit since I wrote this, as these songs are even older now. I also reflect on the fact that these were “hits” where I was working at the time – rural Iowa – and song preferences might look…