Back to School

I love the start of the new school year! Its a time for new opportunities, a fresh beginning, and it means that the holidays are right around the corner.

For many parents getting kids back to a structured routine is a welcome change. Kids also enjoy getting back to a structured schedule with school and after-school activities, which offer social experiences and learning opportunities.

There are numerous after-school activities to choose from. There are team sports, swimming, gymnastics, karate, art clubs, chess clubs, piano lessons, band, orchestra, choir, drama club, and so much more. The possibilities are endless! All of these activities offer great benefits for kids, but be careful not to overload your child's schedule. He/she also needs time for homework, family time, and rest.

The fall is a great time to get started with music lessons or restart after a summer break. For many students, the summer offered a much needed break from structure and hard work. However, the fall brings with it the motivation to tackle new projects and try new things.

As research has shown again and agin, learning a musical instrument or engaging in regular music activity offers many wonderful benefits for kids. For one, music engages multiple areas in the brain and makes learning other skills easier. Learning to play an instrument like piano works on hand-eye coordination, reading skills, motor movement, multi-tasking, and much more. Children who study music have improved attention and memory skills which help them do better in school, do better in math and reading, and score higher on SATs.

Music also offers an improved quality of life. Learning an instrument for a child can be lots of fun. Although no one considers "practice" to be fun, the enjoyment one gets from making music is fun! Music lessons offer a safe space for creativity and improvisation as well as an outlet for emotional expression. The improved quality of life that comes with engaging in music is a life long benefit.

As you help your child consider what activities he/she will add to their schedule, take a moment to consider including music lessons or music groups.

Rhythms For Living, LLC offers music lessons such as piano, voice, guitar, and percussion to typical kids as well as to children with special needs. As board certified music therapists we are highly trained musicians who offer quality music instruction, and we are therapists who are highly trained in working with people with disabilities. This combination means we will work with your child to offer him individualized lessons to give him the best opportunity for success. We love music and strive to teach others to love it too!

Contact us at rhythmsforliving.com or kristencrouch@me.com for more information

Music Therapy with Premature Infants: Nightly News Special

The NBC Nightly News featured the use of Music Therapy in the NICU:

Music Therapists at Beth Israel Hospital use voice, guitar, ocean drum, and drum. They sing traditional lullabies as well as parent preferred music sung in a lullaby style.


Doctors prescribe music therapy for their patients which is then administered by board certified music therapists.

Some of the Benefits of Music Therapy for Premature Infants:

• Lowered heart rate
• Increased feeding behavior
• Improved sleep patterns
• Relaxation helps babies grow and mature and go home sooner
• Less stress for parents

Watch this short video to see it in action!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/506445

Music Therapy: Does it Have a Role in the Treatment of Substance Abuse?

Addiction. A word that many people in society rarely want to mention. A word that is often tucked under the rug; an issue rarely addressed because fear so eagerly got in the way. 

Addicts are often looked upon as outcasts or "losers" of our society because of their lack of self-control, their selfishness, and their probability of harming themselves or others when 'under the influence.' The sad truth is, in this lifetime, many humans struggle with an addiction, usually disguised and unnoticed. Addictions come in all forms, and each obsession or addiction hails it's own reason for consuming us. Some struggle with addiction to power, for some it is money, some control, some body image/food, and for too many, alcohol and drugs...the list goes on. Is it all just to fill some void or numb ridiculous pain?

For many people it is a list or series of life's events or their struggle with an illness or depression. For some it began with peer pressure, insecurity, or boredom. The sad truth is that a large number of people are now addicted to prescription drugs that were given to them to help them "get better" or feel better mentally or physically. Whatever the case may be, the abuse began with a choice. The first, second, and third choice was made. And so begins the process of the powerful human brain clinging to these new, foreign synapses. The brain soon rewires to adapt, and survive. For whatever initial reason the choice was made, the users continued choices turn to desire, desire turns to need, and need to addiction.

Substance abuse is among the most deadly forms of addiction, and statistically becoming one of the quickest to kill. Substance abuse affects all of us directly or indirectly on a daily basis. There are a rising number of treatment centers, but surrounding the few in each town or city are countless bars, liquor stores, and drug dealers to compete with the rising count of vulnerable souls. Substance abuse treatment and recovery centers are increasing their numbers of effective therapies, utilizing multiple sources to enhance their programs to give ensure a full recovery and give hope to the hopeless. Music therapy (MT) is being utilized as an effective treatment for substance abuse to increase the positive outcome for patients and families. Music therapy can be effective for inpatient and outpatient clients, implementing individual and group therapy sessions. 

In this setting, a music therapist will utilize the isoprinciple, meeting each client where they are at physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually on their individual journey to recovery. Counseling is a skill that a music therapist must excel at for this venue; as cognitive processing plays a big role in each patient's recovery. Rhythms for Living, LLC facilitates music therapy in these facilities from a neurologic approach, or Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT). In each session the music therapist uses patient preferred live and/or recorded music as a medium and tool to aid in the brains change in functioning level and new processing methods over time. 

Clients are encouraged to participate in scientifically evidence based MT interventions, which allow them to express thoughts and emotions through therapeutic discussion to process music content or through music lead activities. These MT interventions include but are not limited to: Music Listening, Lyric Analysis, Music and Relaxation, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Guided Imagery, Song Writing, Group and Individual Instrumental Performance, Vocal Performance, Music and Other Activities (Letter writing, Thought processing, Group interaction, Music games), Music and Other Arts (Painting, drawing, body movement). 

Music therapists also give recovering addicts the tools they need to replace negative music "triggers" related to their substance abuse with positive reinforcement using patients' preferred music. In MT sessions, the clients are taught to utilize music in their everyday lives to enhance and speed up the effectiveness of their ongoing recovery process.

How does it work?

The short answer:

When music is played, multiple areas of the brain are accessed, making music one of the most powerful tools to aid the client in accessing their cognitive pathways. As the client is learning to change the way they think and act in recovery, they begin to learn ( in MT),  how their brains function and how they individually react to presented situations. Awareness of their cognitive processing and the change in the direction of firing synapses while sober in the program can enhance the use of their frontal lobe, leading to higher brain functioning in the executive cortex overtime. Music can speed up this process, not only in a treatment facility; but also in the client's continued journey of recovery.

If you or someone you know is in need of recovery, please do not hesitate to contact us for a list of local treatment centers and how you can receive help through Music Therapy with Rhythms for Living, LLC.

- Joy Hinson, BM, MT-BC

Music Groups at the Bubble Tree

New Times and Days:

We are excited to announce that we will be offering a later time on Wednesdays at the Bubble Tree!

Beginning in May we will offer two music therapy groups.

Parent-Child Music Therapy Groups

Wednesdays at 3:00 PM and 4:30 PM

At The Bubble Tree

Current Promotion: Refer a friend who signs up and get a FREE class

Bonding With Baby: Music Therapy Time!

We are excited to start offering music therapy classes for infants and young children and their parents! These music therapy classes offer a clinically researched approach to the use of music in the hospital setting. Parents will learn the natural benefits of music to assist in daily self-care, communication, creative expression, and the social, emotional, and physical aspects of development for themselves and their child.

The music therapist will work with parents on ways to appropriately interact with their infants through therapeutic music interventions. Music therapist will use live voice and other instruments, as well as recorded music, to facilitate interaction and promote growth and development of their child. 

Babies who were born prematurely are welcome to attend. Preemies often need to get caught up on their developmental skills and these classes will help! Parents will learn how to appropriately work with their baby without overstimulating. 

Benefits of classes:

• Promote parent-infant bond
• Cue soothing and self-calming behaviors
• Offer language input necessary for development
• Offer visual, auditory, and tactile touch necessary for development
• Social and emotional interaction and expression
• Motor movement - walking, crawling, dancing, fine and gross
• Communication - verbally and non-verbally
• Appropriate for preemies and children with special needs

Class times:

• 1pm Babies ages 0-6 months 
• 2pm Babies ages 6 - 12 months
• 3pm Children ages 1-2 years

Click here to view the flyer for more information or to share with a friend!

To register or for more information email: kristencrouch@me.com 

Autism and Family Connection: Increasing the Parent-Child Bond with Music Therapy

Parents are continually discovering new ways to interact effectively with their children. They go through the ups and downs of realizing that not all of the things they heard from friends or read in books works for their child. They continually have to adapt how to communicate with their kids based on age and circumstances.  The task of adapting oneself to life’s changes can be difficult, let alone helping another human being sort it all out. Parents often feel like they fall short every now and again.

Then we have parents who have an even greater task on a different level; the parents of children diagnosed with a disability (particularly on the Autism spectrum).  Each child is a gift, each one different and unique. But many parents, although they feel they are doing the best they can raising their child given their personal circumstances, are still afraid they just can’t learn or do enough. That is where therapists come in.

Parents are bombarded with all kinds of possible therapeutic possibilities for early intervention and behavior modification. Some children see many therapists, some see few. But at the end of the day, the child was in specialized programs or with therapists until evening. When everyone gets home they are all tired, and have some sort of nightly routine hashed out. The problem is, the parent-child dynamic is still lacking, and there is still often a gap between day and night. While they are learning and growing in school and therapy, they may still be unable to express and communicate these new behaviors and techniques with their family at home.

The Bubble Tree is a place where a child diagnosed with autism can come with their parent or caregiver and can learn and grow together, experiencing communication of a new and different kind. In music therapy groups, you and your child will have the chance to work effectively with each other and see others working together with their children. We will be using clinical music therapy interventions to address social, emotional, physical, and intellectual needs of your children. We will give you tools to take home to enhance your daily lives with your children, all with fun music and movement and hands-on activities.

Come join us once a week and experience it for yourself! Monthly enrollment with discounts available! See you there…oh and tell your friends!

Click here to learn more about our groups at The Bubble Tree. 

- Joy Hinson, Professional Music Therapist currently running groups at The Bubble Tree

Welcome to our new Music Therapist

I'm finally sitting down after a very busy few weeks to let you know some very exciting news!!!!

Rhythms For Living has just hired a music therapist to join our team! Read more about her below and join me in welcoming her!

Joy Hinson
A professional music therapist, now working in Palm Beach County who earned her BM in Music Therapy with a minor in Psychology from the University of Miami. Prior to this degree, Joy studied Vocal Performance at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee. Joy is a native of South Florida but has traveled internationally, performing in various venues, and recently practicing music therapy in Miami, Florida. She recently worked with Seasons Hospice for a year and a half as a music therapist for hospitals and home-care in the Northeast region of Miami.

Joy has acquired ample experience working with various populations in need of music therapy, including terminally ill patients, cancer patients, veterans, psychiatric patients, as well as children and adults with disabilities, learnings delays, and behavioral issues. Joy continues to expand her clientele, with grief counseling and other patient/family/adolescent music therapy counseling; with a particular passion for early intervention with young children and families. (Aspergers/Autism & other early delays). Joy's primary instrument is voice, but she plays multiple instruments for music therapy sessions, including guitar, piano, and drums. Joy is also a dancer and artist, and enjoys integrating these gifts into music therapy sessions when applicable to enhance the effectiveness of therapeutic music interventions.

Music Therapy Adovcacy Month

Happy New Year! I'm so excited for the fresh inspiration 2013 brings and looking forward to getting back to work this week after a wonderful time with family and friends!

January is Music Therapy Social Media Advocacy Month and I've been reading up on Music Therapy posts and tweets from Music Therapists all across the nation! People are excited about telling others about what we do and how great music therapy is.

We'd love to hear how music therapy has touched your life! Please leave a comment!

CHECK IT OUT:

Here is a really creative and fun video that was created by fellow music therapists a little north of here in Georgia.

Check it out here: http://www.thegeorgecenter.com/2013/01/14/music-therapy-advocacy/