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On Oct 21, 2019, our Director of Education Rachael Finnerty was a Guest Speaker in Gabriella Ocadiz's Music and Special Education class at McMaster University. One of the students, Sergio Raez Villanueva, shared his reflection on Rachael's presentation with us. Read Sergio's thoughts below:

Guest Speaker Thoughts

I found our guest speaker, Rachael, to be extremely amiable and welcoming as she explained and shared her experiences with the class. I do not know much about music therapy and her insight was extremely valuable to me as I do have a small background and a big interest in...

Contributor: Stephanie An

With times being very uncertain right now, many of us has found it hard to stay motivated to do our work or even have a sense of what we are feeling right now. The world is on lockdown, and we are being asked to stay indoors to help prevent the spread of this virus. Students have shifted to online learning, and many people have lost their jobs. Sudden changes like this are not easy to adjust to. All that is on the news lately has been sensitive content for many and as we see the number of lives affected by this virus, it has been heartbreaking.

While we all...

Prevalence

 Mental health issues are incredibly prevalent in the post-secondary student population and are only expected to continue rising. In Ontario alone, mental health disabilities in post-secondary students has increased by over 50% since 2013 (1). In fact, youth aged 15-24 are the most at-risk group for mental illness and substance abuse disorders (2). Student mental health is a diverse issue which not only affects the institutions that students are situated at, but society as a whole (1). Mental health disorders can impact an individual’s ability to work and contribute to...

What is Anxiety? 

We often hear words like “anxiety” being thrown around in daily conversations that we engage in or even in discussions we overhear. It is important to properly understand what anxiety is before exploring the role of music therapy for anxiety. Anxiety can be an emotional response to certain stressful situations which may cause worry.¹ Commonly, individuals may experience some anxiety when they are about to take an important test, for example.¹ This can be classified as state anxiety, because the anxiety is brought on by a specific situation and normally...

Loewy J, Stewart K, Dassler A-M, Telsey A, Homel P, Louis Armstrong T. The Effects of Music Therapy on Vital Signs, Feeding, and Sleep in Premature Infants. 2013 [cited 2019 Sep 3]; Available from: www.pediatrics.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2012-1367

Music is a universal phenomenon, having powerful effects on the human body, mind and spirit from before we are born until the end of our lives. Some modern research suggests that music therapy can play a vital role in the health and well-being of infants, specifically for those in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). In a study performed by...

As a student of health sciences specializing in child health, as well as an avid disciple of classical music performance, I found myself gravitating toward the field of music therapy during my undergraduate years. It was a perfect intersection between healthcare and music, and led me to do my senior year thesis project on it. The topic of the project, What is the effectiveness of music therapy on pediatric postoperative distress?, encompassed all of my passions; music, healthcare, and child health. Part of my project was conducting a systematic literature review on this topic.

The...

My name is Zachary Brown, and I am a grade 12 student at Sir John A. MacDonald
secondary school as well as an aspiring music therapist. Recently I was able to experience two whole new sides of music therapy that I hadn't been exposed to before.

During one of my visits to a long term care facility that I've been volunteering at, I got to sit in on a one on one session between Laura, the facility's music therapist and one of their residents. I got to see Laura work alongside the physiotherapist that works there as well, while they worked with another resident. Both of these experiences...

To the person who feels stuck in limbo,

This past year I’ve gained an important skill, and that is patience. I would imagine that if you ask anyone what skills a music therapist needs, many would include patience as one of them, as something that is “already a given”, which is something I thought as well. But now the skill of patience has a new meaning. Not only should a person have patience and compassion when working with vulnerable persons but they also need to have that for themselves.

To be patient with yourself is to know that even if you don’t succeed the...