Blog
To Aspiring Music Therapists: Your Journey Begins Now
Oct 02, 2018
Author: Zachary Brown, High School Student
If you are an aspiring music therapist, then your journey begins now.
If you are an aspiring music therapist, then your journey begins now.
The road to becoming a music therapist has to start before you graduate, get accepted, and even before you apply to your program. For me, my journey began this summer before I entered grade twelve when I discovered music therapy. I have played, and loved music all my life,starting with violin at the age of 3 and expanding to self-taught piano as well as other instruments. Music has continued to grow as one of my biggest passions. When I discovered that I could use my passion for music to help people, I was all in. Being able to positively influence the trajectory of someone’s life is a huge honour and another passion of mine. Being able to combine these two passions got me extremely interested in music therapy.
As soon as I became interested in music therapy, I switched my mind set from...
OMTA Talks Music Therapy & Wellness on 900 CHML
May 22, 2018
On May 20th, 2018, the OMTA’s Founder & Director of Education, Rachael Finnerty, was interviewed on 900 CHML's “The Health and Wellness Show”. In this interview a variety of music therapy's benefits are discussed. Emphasis is placed on how to maintain and improve health & wellness across the lifespan. The conversation also includes what training is required to become a music therapist, and how professionals can work collaboratively to reach healthcare goals using music. Music is promoted as an accessible medium that offers POSITIVE experiences, detached from the stigma that often surrounds seeking or receiving mental health help.
Listen to the interview here!
An Enriching Start to 2018!
Feb 05, 2018
On Saturday January 13th, 2018 the Ontario Music Therapy Academy held a workshop entitled, 'Music and Neuroscience: New Approaches in Neurorehabilitation'.
There is much interest in this topic in the music therapy field and healthcare as a whole, which was evident in the variance and amount of attendees at the workshop. Professionals including music therapists, recreation therapists, speech-language pathologists, and more, came to learn from Brian Harris, CEO of MedRhythms and Neurologic Music Therapist. Brian began the workshop by discussing some basic neuroscience principles, such as: global activation, neuroplasticity, and entrainment. He then explained how music works with these principles and how it literally changes how the brain functions. Brian proceeded to break music down into 4 objective cues: melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and force. We spoke further about rhythm and how it needs to be present and strong when utilizing NMT techniques as it elicits the...
Jan 08, 2018
2017 has been an exciting year, as we launched the first workshops through the Ontario Music Therapy Academy. Our last workshop of 2017 was facilitated by Registered Psychotherapist, Credentialed Music Therapist, Kristen Anderson. The workshop focused on participants exploring the 'voice in practice'. The workshop began with warming up our vocal cords by sighing, yawning, and humming. We utilized humming as a way to find our tonal centre and to stimulate the vagus nerve in order to increase vagal tone - concepts we enjoyed touching upon throughout the workshop.
Later in the workshop, Kristen lead us through the various expressions of our voice and how they can represent as defence mechanisms and how to identify these defences in our clients in a therapeutic setting.
The workshop concluded with experiential learning where participants engaged in an example of Dr. Diane's Vocal Psychotherapy techniques. The example showed how through the Vocal Psychotherapy training, one...
OMTA's First Workshop
Sep 19, 2017
With much anticipation, the OMTA held our first professional development workshop last weekend. 'The Psychotherapy of Music Therapy' workshop facilitated by Sherry Campbell and Rachael Finnerty took place at the YWCA in downtown Toronto. The heritage doors at the YWCA entrance were a beautiful contrast to the modern facility indoors.
Nancy's Auditorium was a wonderful space to hold our first workshop. More-so, it was an optimal weekend to be in Toronto, immersed in the summery weather as the Toronto International Film Festival was concluding with it's last films and events of the year. We hope our registrants who came from farther away were able to enjoy the city after the conclusion of the workshop at 12:00pm.
The workshop began with some coffee, tea, bagels, muffins, and fruit. Beverages and snacks continued to be enjoyed throughout and especially during our brief break to stretch and refocus.
As Sherry Campbell and...
Music Therapy and Psychotherapy Connection: Resources for Professionals
Aug 21, 2017
Hi everyone, and welcome to the first OMTA blog post!
We are so excited here at the OMTA to have launched this professional development initiative in hopes of bringing excellent quality workshops to music therapists and allied health-care professionals on an on-going basis.
Our first workshop is coming up in September, and will take place in both Toronto on September 16th and in Hamilton on September 23rd. This workshop, The Psychotherapy of Music Therapy, will be facilitated by Sherry Campbell, Registered Social Worker and Rachael Finnerty, Registered Psychotherapist - Credentialed Music Therapist.
This workshop is particularly relevant now in Ontario, as many music therapists are registering with the College of Registered Psychotherapists. Our first workshop will help music therapists and other health care professionals to become more informed about the act of psychotherapy, and how to implement...