Word of the Week: DIVERSITY
Music therapy is very diverse in its clinical applications. During my internship at the Music Therapy Center of California I have worked in individual and group settings. The individuals and groups also have a variety of diagnoses such as Autism, Down syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Apraxia, Dysarthria, Alzheimer’s/Dementia, Stroke, and Traumatic Brain Injury. The diverse client load lends itself to diverse approaches of using music to meet non-musical goals.
During internship I have focused on learning and applying neurologic music therapy. Neurologic music therapy is evidence-based and focuses on using techniques that can be generalized into life situations. Instead of seeing music therapy as black and
white, neurologic music therapy allows for an addition of various “colors” or techniques to accomplish goals such as attention. Within the goal for attention there are five different NMT techniques that breakdown what type of attention is being worked on: focused, selective, divided, alternating, and sustained.
– Hilary White
