SMWC to Celebrate 30 Years of Music Therapy with 2 CMTE Opportunities

Save the Dates!

“Humanities-Based Perspectives on Music Therapy Theory, Practice, and Research”
The SMWC Music Therapy Program will be offering a CMTE course, presented by Dr. Brian Abrams from Montclair University on Saturday, February 1, 2014 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Cecilian Auditorium on campus. Abrams is an internationally-known music therapist, educator and writer, an Analytical Music Therapist and a Fellow of the Association for Music and Imagery.
This 6-hour CMTE workshop will explore a perspective on music therapy, based upon an understanding of the primary components of music therapy (music, persons, health, etc.) as irreducibly whole, human ways of being. According to this view, music therapy as a discipline is less consistent with the sciences (as is typically posited) and more consistent with the humanities. The workshop will explore various components of a music therapy centered upon music as an aesthetic-temporal-relational phenomenon, in which music functions as both means (intervention) and end (goal), in contrast to the more conventional understanding of music therapy as the technical practice of using music to achieve non-musical goals. The presenter will provide theoretical background supporting the foregoing perspective (e.g., Aigen, 2005, 2009; Ansdell, 1995; Garred, 2006; Lee, 2003; Zuckerkandl, 1956), along with experiential exercises to demonstrate the applied value of the proposed perspective in specific areas of health and client need. Case illustrations will be provided, including examples from a recent, music-centered, relationship-based, cancer support group study. The impact of this perspective upon music therapy practice and training will be considered, as will the significance and socioeconomic implications of arts-centered standards for evidence-based practice of music therapy.
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June CMTE presented by Alan Turry, DA, LCAT, MT-BC:
“Improvisation Primer: Integrating Clinical Improvisation into your Practice”
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
9a.m. – 4p.m. EST
This workshop is designed for music therapists who want to begin incorporating, or to deepen their use of, clinical improvisation in their work.
In this workshop you will uncover your ability to incorporate improvisation at some level into your practice. You have the knowledge and ability to do this already, but perhaps you have not had the encouragement and guidance needed to begin. In this workshop, you will take part in safe experiential exercises, learn how to intentionally use the elements of music, explore the reasons for using improvisation, watch video examples of improvisation with individuals and groups of various ages and abilities, and will gain confidence in beginning to improvise clinically with the clients with whom you currently work.
Pianos/keyboards, some guitars, and percussion instruments are furnished. Feel free to bring your own guitar and/or primary instrument.
For complete information on these events and for future registration info, please go to: http://www.smwc.edu/academic/music-and-theatre/music-therapy/30-years-of-music-therapy/events/