Attending Staff Recaps the Great Lakes Regional Music Therapy Conference
ITA music therapists have returned from their musical adventure at the Great Lakes Regional (GLR) Music Therapy Conference! This past April, Jeffrey Wolfe, MM, MT-BC, Amanda Ziemba, MM, MT-BC, and Bradley Drozdowski, MT-BC, were excited to travel to Ypsilanti, Michigan, near Eastern Michigan University (EMU), where Drozdowski studied Music Therapy. A meeting place for the music therapy community, the conference is attended by professionals and newcomers from all over the Midwest to learn, network, and recharge.
Wolfe and Drozdowski presented “Innovation Through Integration: Improving the social skills of an individual with Williams syndrome through creative arts therapy and stop animation.” Through their presentation, attendees learned about creative arts therapy techniques for working with individuals with Williams syndrome, foundational research for the use of memory and music through composition and social script theory, and some basic steps to creating a stop animation video for use in a clinical practice. Participants also were given the opportunity to create their own short, multi-modal stop animation movie. After being divided into groups, the audience was provided a variety of materials to use: a character concept, a setting, a costume, and props. With Wolfe facilitating story creation along with the stop-filming process and Brad improvising original music to tell the story in-time, the group told the story of Harvey the Cat, who fell into a pond while looking for fish, and lost his top hat too!
Ziemba represented ITA at the GLR Internship Fair. This fair is an opportunity for students to meet with internship directors and learn more about the variety of internships that are available in the Great Lakes Region. Ziemba met with a variety of undergraduate students and had the chance to spread the word about ITA’s music therapy internship program.
Wolfe stayed very busy during his time at the GLR-AMTA conference co-chairing the mentorship program and supporting the students as chair of the Student Affairs Advisory Board of AMTA. As a delegate on the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) Assembly of Delegates for the 2018-2019 term, Wolfe was also in attendance for the organization’s townhall meeting. He and the other delegates addressed questions about music therapy and took recommendations for the field’s master’s level entry committee.
This year’s Music Therapy Conference proved to be both educational and enjoyable, full of great presentations and positive networking opportunities! ITA’s music therapists are always thrilled partake in the annual event alongside their colleagues in the field and bring home sharpened skills of their own.