A three day weekend is coming up and you just got a call from one of your best friends, "Let's go on a road trip filled with our favorite shopping stops, delectable food stops and conversations that make us laugh and cry until our stomachs hurts!!" Exactly what I need, you think.... No sooner than you hang up the phone, you hop in your car, put your shades on, pop in your favorite tunes, turn it up, and dance like nobody's on the road and sing like a rock star! Seeing your best friend lifts your spirits and puts you in the happiest of moods! Did you know those tunes that are in your CD player are your brain's best friend??? Who knew!?!?! It makes sense though, right? When you have to clean the house, what gets you motivated more? Dead silence or a favorite song? C'mon now, don't lie, we all know that you use your broom handle as a makeshift microphone as you jam to Michael Jackson's Billie Jean and do the moonwalk in your kitchen!! It's ok, your secret is safe with me....;) We are all motivated by music!! This motivation helps us all be productive and it calms our nerves.... It even helps me when I sit down to write blogs like this one! It helps the ideas and words flow better...so when you, as the reader, read this blog it's a really enjoyable experience for you! :) Music therapy is a fascinating field that is helping people with disabilities in remarkable ways!! Lindsey Wright, a music therapist that sat down for an interview with me some time ago said music therapy is used to work on communication, cognition, motor skills, emotional and social skills. The music therapist uses different techniques and motivators to get the clients they work with to work on new skills that they wouldn't maybe necessarily be motivated to learn if the music wasn't there!! The results are remarkable!
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When your brain and music form a bond,
Remarkable things happen!!! :) |
I'm always so happy to meet and interview people like Lindsey! She recognized as a child how happy music made her and she wanted to share it with others...especially those with disabilities. People learn and are motivated by different things....that's normal. Music therapy is just one more tool to help accomplish the goal of educating others that we are all the same. The outside may be different, but music is the universal language of everyone.....one of the motivators that we ALL can groove to!!
Listen into my interview with Lindsey to get to know more about this sweet music therapist and learn more about music therapy! www.arcind.org/upload/media/A%20View%20into%20Music%20Therapy.mp3
Michelle Fischer is the host of a View from My Window a podcast produced by The Arc of Indiana
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