Guest post by MTSP Intern, Kaylin Berner.
Share the holiday spirit with friends and family! Enjoy classical piano, popular guitar, pop/rock violin, and Christmas vocal performances by the MTSP team and several of our awesome adaptive music lesson students. Join the fun by singing a few carols with the whole audience! We're also excited to share stories from music therapy practice, and information on how MTSP is helping children with special needs, older adults in memory care facilities, and more.
The team at Music Therapy St. Pete, LLC is proud to present our first annual performance and advocacy event, the MTSP Showcase on Thursday, December 12th, 2019 at 6:00pm, held at the Universalist Unitarian Church of St. Petersburg, at 100 Mirror Lake Dr N, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. This showcase will feature a few MTSP clients as well as information on what music therapy is, what education music therapists need, MTSP’s internship program, and personal testimonies of how MTSP is supporting our shared community.
Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program. As a music therapist, part of our job is to advocate for music therapy services. Advocacy is the public support for, or recommendation of, a particular cause or policy. It occurs across all professions and organizations in order to help the community better understand who they are and what they’re doing. In the profession of music therapy, advocacy takes many forms, from informational lectures, to in-service meetings, elevator speeches, client testimonials, and public advocacy and performance events.
Although music therapy uses music as a tool to accomplish such non-musical objectives such as behavioral, social, emotional, physical, educational, and cognitive goals, some clients seek adaptive music lessons, whereby music education becomes the primary goal and our therapeutic training allows us to best teach individuals with various physical or cognitive abilities. Many clients have learned to play piano, ukulele, guitar, or singing. They are both excited to share their music, as well as share how music therapy has helped them work to achieve their goals, which can range from confidence building, increasing attention span, increasing quality of life, and even fine and gross motor skills.
We hope this event will shed light on not only what music therapists do, but how music therapy can impact those in need and their families. Donations can be made at this link, mtsp.com/showcase, to support MTSP’s mission and growing music therapy internship program. Donations also accepted at the door, and we hope you'll discover a few great silent auctions items, too!
Join us from 6:00 to 7:30pm on December 12th for the first annual MTSP Showcase! More information can be found at mtsp.com/showcase. Please see our Facebook page and spread the word!