Music Therapy is a form of therapy that is not always talked about or that is well known. Allison and Jaycie from Harmony Music Therapy are here to help us understand what Music Therapy is, debunk common misconceptions, and help us understand how music and the brain are connected. Music is a part of our daily life and this is an amazing episode to understand how we can use music to help us and our children.
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Jen: Welcome to the Parents Place podcast with Hilary and Jen.
Hilary: Welcome to the Parents Place podcast. Today we have not one, but two special guests with us today whom I am excited to learn and listen to through our conversation. So I have Allison and I have Jaycie here with us and they are from Harmony Music Therapy. And this is a topic that we have yet to discuss on our podcast. And so I'm really excited. Because this is not my area of expertise and so I feel like I am here to learn just as much as everyone else is here to learn. So, I'll turn it over to you two ladies and if you guys want to introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about who you are, but then also talk to us a little bit about Harmony Music Therapy as well too.
Jaycie: Yeah. So my name is Jaycie Voorhees. I am a board certified music therapist. I've been practicing in Utah for 16 years, and I love this field so much. I started Harmony Music therapy 15 years ago and. Just because I wanted to be able to serve more kids in the way that they needed instead of kind of being dictated by the school system or something, what we could do so. Yeah, I love this work so much. And then yeah, we got on Allison several years ago and she's been amazing.
Allison: Yeah. So I'm Allison Stratman and I am a board certified music therapist as well. I've been practicing for the last six years. I got my training in Colorado, Colorado State University and then moved around to a couple different States and then settled in Utah about two years ago. And that's when I started with Harmony Music therapy. And so it's been quite the adventure. Music therapy is quite the career and I love everything we do so. It's very fun. I'm really glad that we were able to share with every listener today on the podcast, so.
Hilary: Oh, yes. Oh, you ladies, this is so exciting. And I'm glad you guys have found each other so that you guys can collaborate and share all the fantastic ideas that I'm sure you have. OK, so let's start with this. Introduce what Harmony Music Therapy is, what your organization and your business does for our audience.
Jaycie: Yeah. So music therapy is a really amazing way to help kiddos in their development, so whether that's needing help with speech and language and communication development or with emotional regulation, especially as they grow when they're starting to have big emotions or into tween and teenage years with like anxiety and these big things that start to change. Music is already typically a big part of kids lives and teens lives, and so with music therapy, what we do is we tap into that really natural interest in music and this this desire to connect with music and we use it as in an intentional process. So we always start with an assessment in music therapy looking and seeing what areas are presenting a challenge for this kiddo. Whether that's impacting their ability to function at home or at school in the community, or even just their ability to find to find joy in their life. Like what's maybe holding them back and. And so based on that assessment, we might identify areas, social needs or communication. Or motor development or emotional regulation. And then because music lights up the whole brain, every area of the brain is impacted by music. And as music therapists, we're trained in like, how to tap into those areas for, for example, language development. We have specific techniques we can use musically to help kids be able to get the words out and to be able to speak. And communicate or to be able to walk if they have a motor delay or to be able to process emotions and express emotions in different ways. So this therapy does it does so much more than you would ever imagine because of how much your body needs. It's like your body craves music. And we can really tap into that in a in a clinical, in a therapeutic setting to be able to help kids do things that are otherwise really difficult.
Hilary: I'm just thinking about this, and I think oftentimes when we think about therapy, we think of the traditional therapy setting where you have one individual on one couch and another individual on the other couch and you're having this conversation, which I think for many adults, works well. But for a child, that's not how they learn. You know they aren't accustomed to sitting on a couch and having a deep conversation about their feelings and their thoughts. And so I love that you. We almost essentially come to them, come to their strength and their knowledge base and that's play, that's movement. That's having fun. And then you can develop those skills through what is natural for kids to do. I think yeah, that is so. Cool. And I had no idea. I mean. I knew that there were benefits to music, but I had no idea as you were listing all of these things, communication and social, emotional development and. And, you know, regulation, I had no idea that we could use music as a skill to help with that. This is so exciting.
Allison: Yeah, I think it's I think it's fun because you can mask the work behind what you're doing with your client with the motivation of the music. So I work with a lot of clients who are non verbal. And so that's not their means of communication. So I work through instrument play. And so through that the kid is able to, you know, communicate what they're wanting, what they're needing, just not verbally, because some children are not at that point yet because the baseline of speech is the joint attention and maintaining attention, interaction. And so, through music we can work on a lot of skills taking away that typical of that therapy of like you need to speak right now. So, music is very, very effective when it comes to working with kids with speech issues and social emotional regulation and social skills. So, it's very effective for sure.
Jaycie: It's very active. I mean, a music therapy session. We're not sticking headphones on this kid and being like, listen to this music. It'll make you. It'll make your brain work, right? Like, that's not music therapy. And it's not having them lay on the couch and listen like the receptive experience of, like, just listening to music. That's like, very, very rarely an aspect of what's happening in music therapy. Most of the time, we're moving to music, we're we have tons of instruments. And we are creating music on these instruments and we're singing. We're activating this musical part of ourselves and allowing these kids a space to create sound, which, again, for someone who is not speaking, is so powerful for them to be heard when they don’t have words, they can always, always have music
Hilary: And I'm just imagining a session. These kids probably love this. I mean, it's probably so much fun for them to be involved in this session where I think sometimes your traditional therapy may not may not be the case. It may not be as enjoyable. But here they are. I bet they're having a ball. They probably don't want to leave.
Allison: Yeah, Sometimes, yeah. A lot of the times, too, teenagers, it's a hard population work with teenagers. They, you know, they have their boundaries up and they don't want to express their emotions. And so through music, we can do songwriting, lyric analysis, a lot of different interventions that target that skill of working on emotional expression, but through a different means. And a lot of teens are very connected to their music, that's oftentimes the doorway that we can use to establish that rapport is through music and learning their favorite singers, learning their favorite band, even if it's like a deep dive through YouTube of one person who made one EP. And so they're obsessed with them. A lot of the time. That's the way you need to connect with your teens so as parents are out there listening to this. A lot of the times just taking that time and learning a little bit about their favorite artist, learning a little bit about their favorite band, sparking that conversation with them that can show your teen that you actually care about what they're interested in. Because music is a whole different doorway when it comes to connecting with teens especially. and it opens up the world of like, oh, I see that they like this artist. I wonder why they like this type of genre. And so it can spark a lot of conversations when you're engaging with your team. So it's just a really fun way to establish a good relationship with that age range particularly.
Hilary: You know, you mentioned that I have a 14, almost 15 year old who wasn't really into music until about a year ago. And now that love has developed and it is a genre that I don't necessarily gravitate towards very much enjoys rap music. And but it is what speaks to him and it there's nothing that makes him happier. Then when we are driving in the car and I willingly say, hey, let's turn on so and so's music because normally it's my music. Normally it's I control the radio as we are driving and so for me to encourage him to turn on that music, he loves it and so I can totally see that music is a way. To increase that connection and bond, even if it's not necessarily what we would pick as our genre of choice like you said. But I can, I can. I definitely see that in him.
Allison: Yeah, yeah. Now, yeah, and that goes along with the theory behind music therapy. Is every music we use is client preferred. And so evidence has shown that if a client is listening to their preferred music, it's much more effective than if we force them to listen to, you know, Led Zeppelin, that they have never heard of before. Client preferred interventions and music is kind of the driving force behind music therapy and that's why it works how it. Yes. So, yeah, anything you can use that your client or your, your kiddo or your teenager loves, I think is going to reach them much more than if you're trying to force them to listen to something that you might like so.
Jaycie: We have Allison's working with the client right now who, she doesn't have a lot of verbal language, except to say song title. And so, you know, she'll be walking around in a session and she tends to just wander the room during the session and then she'll say Pretty Crabby. And then Allison will sing Pretty Crabby. And you just see her just light up. It's like as soon as their song is playing. They are just like with you and then that develops relationship in this foundation to be able to help them develop some new skills based on that music.
Hilary: Which I think is so great for individuals to understand, because for me. That is maybe a a myth that you guys are helping me to debunk is that when I think about, you know, music therapy, I think about Bach and Mozart and, you know. Some of these right. I mean you think about the classics and I would make the assumption that a lot of parents would assume that that's what musical therapy is. We're sitting our child down and we're having them listen to classical music. And so, you know, the fact that you say there are benefits from bringing in whatever their interest is. I don't think we tend to think of that when we think of this realm.
Allison: Yeah. And a lot of the time, like I've had a client before who they're calming music was Pantera, which is very intense, like screamo almost, rock. And that is what they fell asleep to. And so you would never assume that's that would be a calming song. And this is why they do client prefer it is because if you if you played Mozart for someone who their favorite band is Pantera, it's probably going to make them want to rip their hair out. So it's like you have to. You have to build your treatment plan based on the individual. It's highly individualistic. So it's very client centered. It's a humanistic approach. So yeah, music therapy is much more than just listening, listening to music. I think there's a benefit to that, absolutely. But as clinically trained board certified music therapist, we are specifically trained on how to use the benefits of music to those nonmusical goals. So it's yeah, it's very fun.
Jaycie: A lot of what we do is also improvisatory. So it's not always based on songs but like if we're working with the kiddo on like I work with the client who loves to drum. And he's he has autism. He's 12 years old and doesn't he can't communicate very well verbally, but he's got incredible rhythm and we can just sit there for 10 minutes going back and forth, like doing these intense, like really intricate beats and like call and response. And then we'll create one. And I play the same thing back. And it's not just about like having a song. It's like these interactions that you have musical. That are so grounding for these kids like, I mean, he loves being there in music because, I mean, his mom says he finally feels like he matters here and like he's somebody important because in music he gets to shine like he has these incredible skills. Where in every other part of his life he's, you know, quote behind when in my opinion there is no such thing as behind. We are all just human and you know, on our own trajectory. But yeah, he gets to have this beautiful strength and not every person has to be really musical and have all of these skills to have that same experience in music therapy. It might be as simple as we're on the piano, and we're going back and forth between The Black Keys and just making sounds and funny and just. Being letting music be a form of play because we play music, right? It's it is play.
Hilary: So how does one, I mean, I can imagine that we have a number of parents that are listening right now and thinking this is what I have been looking for. This sounds perfect for my child. That may be struggling with XY and Z. Where would you suggest that? And you mentioned you being in Salt Lake, but where would you suggest they start to find to access this?
Jaycie: Help, I would say just Google music therapy and then whatever city they're in would probably be the quickest way to see if there's somebody. I mean, there's not music therapists all over, you know, like depends on where they are. But there are, you know, there's thousands of us throughout the country. So I would just start there and then. Every state, most every state in the US has a state association with music therapists, and if not, there's a regional association. So if they can't find anybody, they could Google “Utah Association of Music Therapists” or whatever state they're in and kind of start that way. But just make sure it's. If you're on the search that it's a board certified music therapist is going to have the this training. It's a four year degree plus a six month clinical internship, plus a national exam. There's other people that might say they're doing music therapy, but they just really are maybe really good at guitar or something, but the music therapist the MTBC credential is someone that's been trained and specifically how to music to help bring about certain outcomes.
Hilary: And you mentioned earlier that sometimes we have this connection, this musical therapy with the school district, but that may not always be the case. Are you are we? When we're looking for this resource, most of the time is it a community resource?
Jaycie: Typically, it depends on what state you're in. There's some states that do have music therapy like they will reimburse it on as part of the child's IEP. Which is amazing. That's the case in a lot of states, in Utah that's schools have not done that. However, they're under the same federal law as everybody else. So technically they should. But what it's gonna take to make that happen is parents advocating for it. So, if a parent wants to advocate. For that then, I'm absolutely they can reach out to us. I have lots of resources that can help with that. The parents that have the biggest voice in that or any that have kiddos who have not been progressing on their existing goals for a few. Then you know they have a lot of legal headway there to advocate for something like this. Something like this.
Hilary: I think that's a great suggestion because I think. With an IEP and we've had individuals come on our podcast before talking about this IEP process, but I think. And gets as a parent. You have the right to speak up on behalf of your child, and if you feel like this is something that would be beneficial for them, then yes, let's advocate for this and you know, legally the school system, you know, needs to help us find a way. So it may be, you know, we may have to jump through hoops, and there may be some resistance, but. I think that. This particular resource could be so powerful for so many kids, so I love that idea. So, for those listeners out there for our audience, for those that regularly listen to our podcast, you know, at the Family Place, we talk a lot about trauma. And so I'm thinking in the realms of trauma as well, too, that individuals that have experienced trauma in the past, but this might be a helpful piece to their healing process. So can you speak on that? Do you notice that a lot with your clientele?
Jaycie: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, geographically in the brain, the verbal center is as far as you can possibly get from where trauma is stored in the brain. And so to ask a kiddo to do talk therapy with trauma just it doesn't make sense. And so doing something that is more whole brains, which like music is going to be more effective. Allison actually is doing a lot of this work right now. Yeah, I'd love to hear. Some of your thoughts on that, Allison?
Allison: Right now I'm working with the school, the preschool at the Children's Center of Utah, and that's specifically kiddos with pretty severe trauma. They've either been expelled or kicked out of other daycare programs or preschools because of their pretty intense behaviors and so through music, these kids, because it's so. It's so motivating for them to get to play the big drum or to get to find that new instrument that they like to express on so you can use that motivation to work on those, the skills of waiting, the skills of impulse control, verbal expression of needs versus physical aggression. And so it's just a really effective way to work on those fundamental skills. And also I mean, if they're angry, handing them a big drum and then saying just, like, get it out has been very effective and fun for them. So if they're in the mood where they just, they need to hit something and there's nothing else, you know, it's not really appropriate to go hit a friend. So, you can't hit a friend. So let's hit this drum right here and get it all out. It's amazing how these drums can withstand some of these kids' strength because they get very into it. But yeah, so I've had a lot of experience when it comes to just seeing the effectiveness of music when it comes to reaching that trauma center in the brain. And I also have a client who recently lost his brother to cancer and he's dealing with the grief behind that. And so through music, he's very motivated to sing. And so throughout the session we choose songs that are specifically focused on that. Topic of loss or a topic of, you know, losing something in your life that you never thought you would, and even just like Jaycie was saying earlier the verbal part in the brain is very far from the trauma center. So we do a lot of improv. And so it kind of reaches that area more effectively than if we just kind of verbally processed it. And then we also do its studies have shown that bilateral stimulation so crossing midline with both arms has been seen to be really effective when it comes to regulating your body to a back to a state of calm. So I've seen that I try that with my clients every time we do some sort of intervention where we cross midline, whether that be playing rhythm sticks or playing a drum set, playing paddle drums, keeping that rhythm and then stimulating both areas of the brain can be really, really effective when it comes to that. So even if you just want to sit down with. Your kid do some Patty cake. Or have them like tap their shoulders with their opposite arms, like anything you can do to stimulate that, even though it seems minimal, it really is making a big impact within their brain. So it's really fun to see just the research behind that. But.
Hilary: Ohh that is I. That is so interesting and as you talk about the brain. I mean I love your conversations that you're offering in regards to the brain, because I think this is just hearing about how it ignites different areas and how Oh my goodness. Yes, I wish I was an expert on all things brain, but I am not. But it sounds like you ladies. So, so much in regards to that process and igniting those areas that we need to ignite. When you do, there's a musical therapy appointment consists of just you and that individual. Or do you ever do like whole family units? How does that work?
Jaycie: We do it all. We do a lot of group settings. We'll go into preschool classes or we work with the schools for the deaf and Blind and group homes. We go in and do all kinds of groups. And then we see a lot of individuals who come to us and then, yeah, we have definitely done work with whole families as well. We did with one family. We did a rock band. So we go in each week and bring all the instruments for the kids or if they have some of their own and it was it was a family that had a lot of difficulties with interpersonal interactions and these kids had nothing in common. They were fighting all the time, so at first it was a rough initial few sessions, but over time as they we found some songs that they all really enjoyed and they started to really blend and mesh, making music together as a family, and that was a really effective way to help them with those family dynamics.
Hilary: And just logistically, I mean you guys have talked quite a bit about how it sounds like you can hit any age group. I mean, we've got teens, we've got the, the toddlers, we've got school age children and then how. I'm making the assumption it looks like, uh, kind of your format would be like a once a week type format over how long, how long do you usually see clients for is? I'm sure it's dependent, but that's kind of an estimate of how long you tend to have somebody in in your organization.
Jaycie: I typically recommend weekly for a minimum of three months. After that most people keep going because their child loves it so much and it becomes their thing, you know? So, we have clients that we've seen for years and years. But yeah, on average, a minimum of three months. And then ideally if they're if they're coming for a really specific purpose like whether that's to process trauma and get to a more regulated state, or to develop some language, whatever that is. If once they accomplish that, then they may be like, OK, cool. Like we've kind of gotten to this point and then they can move on. Ideally someone wouldn't need to be coming to therapy after a while, once they develop this, you know we come back for different needs throughout our lives. But yeah, I three months is a good chunk of time to be able to make some notable progress in that way.
Hilary: OK. And is this something that most insurances can help us cover? Is this outside of the insurance realm? How does the cost of things work?
Jaycie: So it is outside of insurance. We just do private pay. We can we do give super bills to parents. Some parents have been successful in being able to submit a Super bill and have that count towards their out of pocket max. And stuff like that. But we do stick to private pay because music therapy is only reimbursed as an out of network service anyway and then that's not as helpful. And then also if it's reimbursed by insurance that's limiting what we can even do in this session. So we prefer to stick with this format. Because that allows us the flexibility to really target exactly what we need to in each session. It might be different in each session for certain kiddo, so we love that flexibility and the yeah, the clinical flexibility of there being able to adapt as needed.
Hilary: OK. That makes sense. And I'm sure that you know for our individuals that are listening, they could contact these individual sites that they're finding and they can talk through that process and what that looks like and what that cost may be. And so yeah, it would probably depend on individual site by site as to what that looks like.
Jaycie: Yeah, there's a few practices around the country that do bill insurance, not a ton, but because it's, you know, since it's out of network, it's not all that beneficial for the parent, but. But yeah, there's a few out there. So definitely ask.
Allison: Yeah, and I've worked in a couple different States and I know there's, like in Wisconsin, I worked for about two years there and they have a children's long term support waiver that covered music therapy. The parents didn't pay anything. So it kind of depends on the state as well because sometimes they're support waivers that cover music therapy. It's just on their bracket of offered services. Utah is not one of those, unfortunately, I wish that was a thing. But yeah, so state by state, it will change and the rates will all change and there could be different services out there. So it's just a matter of looking into. OK, OK. Yeah, perfect.
Jaycie: There's 21. There's 21 states right now that do have some kind of Medicaid reimbursement. So we're working on it in Utah. So if there's any parents listening that are like, yeah, I would support this like as we need to pass legislation for it to be included on a Medicaid waiver. Yeah, reached out because our government relations task force is working towards that because we believe in it so much and we see the difference and we want more people to be able to access it and we're doing everything that we possibly to do that
Hilary: And that's usually how it happens is we have, we have the community that realizes the benefit and we just need to do a little bit of convincing on the higher end that this is something that truly needs to occur.
Jaycie: Yeah, yeah. And the convincing can't just come from the music therapist. We’re like, we're great, you know, it's got to come from the parents. Being like we need this like.
Hilary: And. I can see some parents being a little apprehensive getting involved, getting their child involved in music, musical therapy, if maybe they feel they have no background in music that maybe they have no they've never had musical instruments in their home. What would you say to the parent. That's like, we don't do music at our house. Is this gonna work for my family?
Jaycie: I say all the more reason to add music to your life. We are musical beings and so many of us walk around not even tapping into it because maybe we weren't raised around music or we think that there's musicians and non musicians and I happen to be in the non musician category. So I'm not allowed to try that. But I am a firm believer that music is an essential part of all of our lives, and that if we are missing that and not utilizing it, then we're missing this whole piece of ourselves. So you do not have to be skilled on an instrument to benefit from music therapy and music therapy isn't there to help you become skilled on an instrument like we could, but the intent is to access music and everybody can play. We walk into these groups, we do at a behavioral hospital where maybe nobody there has ever touched a guitar and we have these devices that we can put on the guitar and color coding on the keyboard that we then have a group of inpatient hospitalized individuals that are playing like Imagine Dragons within 5 minutes. And they're able to do it like we all have these skills. We just need the tools and maybe a guide to be able to access it and express it and. Then we find. This huge freedom like playing music, creating music, does so much like it releases so many endorphins, dopamine and all these incredible things happen when you create music. So I would never ever, ever let it stop you thinking that you're not musical.
Hilary: Yeah, I appreciate that. I appreciate that comment so much Jaycie, because I do. I think I can see parents that. Are like, we're not. A musical family. We have no musical ability. So how is this going to help us? And I love that you say that. I mean, go ahead, you don't need to be musically inclined. Because it's not necessarily about skill level or you know if that is something that that you were immersed in as a child, like there are benefits for all to be involved in this so.
Jaycie: Yeah. One of the things I'm working to create this, I have this vision of five years from now. We're going to have this. It's about more than just like individual music therapy with kiddos and group music therapy, but also for like adults to come in that are like, I don't think I'm creative, but OK, we're gonna do like this ten week like. Just like unleash your creativity program, where there's like art and music and all of it is accessible. I mean, you think of these paint nights that have started popping up where you can go and you paint, you know, someone shows you how to paint this picture and you walk away with this canvas and you're like I did that. That's amazing. You know, we did the exact same thing with music. Like, come in. Let's do a music night. You and your friends will come in and you will learn how to play this song and you're going to record it and be proficient at it. You know, like I just, that's a big push that I want to have is to help our Community access music, like find that that it is already part of them. And there's so much healing that happens there. And I. Yeah, that's my big vision for the future.
Hilary: Well, and I love the field of art because I think art allows us to do that. I was having a conversation with a group of participants. I was teaching a few days ago and we were talking about when you enter an art gallery, you can see so many different forms of. And there's no right or wrong. And that's the beauty of art. You get to interpret what it looks like, and I feel like music with music, the same thing applies is that there's no right or wrong when it comes to music. And I think there are so many other fields where it is very much black and white that this is the way that you do it. And you don't steer away from that, but I love the fact that with music we can be so creative and we can take whatever path. We go on and benefit from that. So I think that's so amazing.
Jaycie: Well, that's, that's part of the reason why it's so beneficial for kids that we see, because typically they're coming from a school system where there is a very clear right or wrong, like you didn't pass this test. So you must not be smart or you might, you know, like you're falling behind again, that behind word or maybe if they're in traditional music lessons and they're like, well, you didn't learn that song. And you're not playing it the right way or whatever, which of course, you know, there's always things to learn how to do things a certain way, because that's gonna give you the capability to do more with that. But. In music therapy, we can let all of that go and just see who this. Fill this and we can have space to get to know them, and we're not there trying to fix them. We're trying to see and discover them. Our whole mission, we've phrased it, we're there to value, honor, and celebrate human life through music, with people exactly as they are.
Hilary: Yeah, I love that. And I know for confidentiality reasons, you probably can't necessarily go into great detail, but the you know. Do you have any, maybe a success stories that stand out to you of individuals that you've worked with that you're like, yes, this is exactly what we did and we were able to see the benefit of it?
Allison: Yeah, like many, many, many specifically, now I work with the kiddo who is blind, and he I think he's about five or six years old and so through music therapy, I saw him in school originally. And he is really sensitive to auditory input. And so within the classroom setting, it was really difficult to help him blossom through music because it's a lot of sensory there was like 8 other kids in the room. And so now he does one-on-one with us in the clinic. And it's amazing to see the progress that he has made. Like he's walking across the room, which about 3 months ago he wasn't able to walk independently because he was just, you know, nervous about the environment. And so through music. And I'm a neurologic music therapist, which means I specialize in the brain and what exactly to do to target those areas. And so through neurologic music therapy, he's learned how to walk independently, follow a sound that he hears in his environment, and follow it. He's speaking now. He it's just, it's amazing to see the progress that he's made in the short amount of time just through his motivation with music. So he's yeah, he's absolutely amazing.
Hilary: Ohh my goodness that is. Ohh, that just makes me wanna cry. Just love it. Excuse me. I'll tell you ladies. And I've talked about her on our podcast before. But. I have a daughter who is hard of hearing and she so she was diagnosed at a young age around 5 and at that point we were discouraged from having her participate in most contact sports. Just for her safety. So my husband and I were kind of left with it. Well, what? What do we? Do with it you know, how do we get her involved in in extracurricular activities? And we chose to get her and dance. And I was always very worried that dance was going to be a tricky thing for her that, you know, she was always going to be one beat off due to the fact that she couldn't quite hear the music well enough and it would be obvious to her that she just wasn't with, you know, following along with her peers. And I will tell you that getting her involved in that has probably been one of the biggest blessings for us in our lives. A, she loves it. It brings her so much joy. As you said, it brings her so much joy finding that joy in her life and I am not sure. And you know, Allison, you could probably speak to this more than I could. But she is she does. She does amazingly well at staying on the beat and you know, I don't know if it's. It's less of hearing and more of feeling it and what it is, but she's incredibly successful at it. But I remember watching her first recital and you know myself and my husband sitting in that audience, both just sobbing. We're just sitting there crying because we can see her and you know it's funny because she is a child that around her, in her classroom, in our religious group, in most other social settings, she is very introverted. But you put her on that stage and she turns into a different person and she shines and I and I just sat there and I just sobbed as I watched. Her because of. That power, that power of music and how it connected her to her community. And so I can see what a powerful blessing was, is for so many people.
Jaycie: I love that! We work with the teen with autism who before he came to music therapy, his mom didn't know that he could do this, but we discovered that if I played a chord on the guitar, he could play the exact same chord on the piano, and then if I like, did like a complex chord, he could do the same thing like I was like, how do you how does he know how to do that? His mom's like, I didn't know he could do that, you know? And so it's gotten to the point now where we can just like jam together because he can hear the chord. And if I play a chord wrong, he'll play the right chord on the piano, you know. And so he's developed this confidence that, I mean, he is very quiet, but he's speaking now so much more confidently. He is he never would ever play the piano at home. But now he'll play it at home and he'll play it for other people at home. Like he has developed he's just blossomed and he's like 17. So you know this has just been in the last year and a half that this has been a big, big, big change for him. So yeah, it just it brings it brings you out of yourself a bit.
Hilary: Well, ladies, I love the message that you have shared with us today as we're nearing our time, bringing it to a close. Is there any last thoughts or tips that you could offer to our community to help us that we can take and maybe implement for our own families?
Jaycie: I would say just use music at home. Yeah, bring it into your lives.
Allison: I think anything you can do to like, as Jaycie said earlier, we are music like our. Our heart is rhythmic. Our brain transmits rhythmically. And so it makes sense that music is so ingrained in us. And so I would say, just try to incorporate wherever you can. Like you said in the car, playing your kids favorite music or at night with part of your night routine, maybe add a add a song to it that's maybe calming to help regulate your child to go down to sleep. So, there's so many, there's so many benefits to music. And so I would just challenge every parent to see where you can add it within your daily schedule and just see the effects that can bring. And then if you're seeing a massive effect with your child, try music therapy because it does, it just goes above and beyond what other therapies can really reach and it's. Yeah, I would just challenge you to just to see what music does with your family and then if it makes a huge impact, I would say maybe try music therapy and see if it would make a make an increase and all that so.
Hilary: But I love that. Thank you, ladies. And I love when we can offer very small practical tips that we can implement today. And so finding ways we can incorporate that music into our lives and into our children's lives. Thank you both for being here. And our audience as well too always we thank you for tuning in and listening. We appreciate it. We love you and we will make sure we include in our show notes the information for Harmony Music Therapy. So you can access those resources. And again thank you for being here. Be kind to one another and we will see you again next week.
Allison: Thank you.
Jaycie: Thank you.
Jen: Thank you for listening to the Parents Place Podcast, if you would like to reach us, you can at parents@thefamilyplaceutah.org or you can reach Jen on Facebook. Jen Daly - The Family Place. Please check out our show notes for any additional information. Our website is TheFamilyPlaceUtah.org if you're interested in any of our upcoming virtual classes, we'd love to see you there.
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