When will you see more than one music therapist? The staff of board certified music therapists travel in tandem for community events, to facilitate multiple music therapy appointments simultaneously (due to clients' needs) and for training purposes.

The onboarding process for staff includes observing peers through out their work week to ensure smooth delivery model and ensure in the event of planned time away from work or sickness coverage, a clinician is prepared to work with a client in their absence. 

If you have questions when you see more than one music therapist, just ask! You have a right to learn about the training and qualifications of health care providers. PMT does its best to communicate in advance for sub coverage, planning personal leaves or time off from work, and ensuring that the client's needs are the top priority.

We appreciate your support of creative & expressive arts therapy in Charlotte Metro!

Piedmont Music Therapy's private practice often receives inquiries and requests for programming in residential facilities within Mecklenburg and York Counties of the Carolinas. The following infographic is an educational way to learn the distinguishing factors with the need and purpose of music based events and services for older adults.
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As outlined with the above word map, music therapists often arrive with more specialized materials.

​The level of preparation and planning to design goal oriented experiences for older adults may be more undestandable with viewing the two photos below of a group room. They capture the many instruments, visual aides and materials that may be brought to a residential site in Charlotte Metro in order to support older adults creating and sharing music as actively as possible. 

Let us know if this educational flier and photos from prepared group spaces help to explain the specialized services that a board certified music therapist may be able to facilitate with older adults. Comment below with questions or feedback!

Written by Gabby Jones, MT-BC​

I recently had the opportunity to present “Music for Children with Special Needs” to 2 groups of local elementary school music teachers about how to work with students who have special needs in the music classroom.
     Music educators are almost guaranteed to have students with special needs in their classroom due to inclusion with regular classroom related arts classes (e.g. music, art, PE, etc.)  Additionally, sometimes music educators also work within special services classrooms where all students have been identified as having special needs.  This can be challenging in itself, but even more so when music educators have not had any or very limited training in working with such students.  This is where a music therapist can help!  Music therapists are trained in adapting and creating musical experiences to persons of all ages and abilities; this ability to “adapt” is the key to working with ALL students.
      As defined in my presentation, adaptations do not change the learning objective, but change the learning outcome.  There are multiple ways of adapting music lessons to meet the needs of a variety of students.  Some examples are as follows:

1. Input:  vary the ways information is presented to students
2. Output: vary the ways students can demonstrate their understanding of the knowledge
3. Difficulty: adapt the skill level, problem type or rules on how the student may approach the lesson
4. Level of Assistance:  the amount of assistance give to the student to achieve success

This is a brief listing of possible adaptations that can be made in your classroom to help include everyone. If you are new to the profession and are looking for general resources, here are some links to books/articles that are a good place to start. 

• Music in Special Education:  Mary Adamek & Alice Ann Darrow 3rd Edition (2018) 
• ​Educational Benefits of Music in an Inclusive Classroom 
• ​Teaching Lessons to Children with Special Needs 

Finally, the links below are classroom materials that I use in music therapy and can be easily implemented into the music classroom:

• Color Coding 
• Movement Props    
• Adapted Instruments 
• Autism/Visual Aids
• ​Color Coded Melodies divided by genres, arranged by PMT Staff

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If you have any questions, please comment below!

Here is an updated resource flier based upon feedback from client families and staff's searches online:

The Self-Care Kits that were distributed in November 2021 included post cards that contain an invalid QR Code. Here is the resource list that was intended to be shared:
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​Greeting in July!
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​Here is a July calendar from Piedmont Music Therapy (PMT) clinic. The music therapists at PMT are working hard to provide music therapy treatment to individual(s) who in need in the community. The services include traditional music lessons, adapted music lessons as well as music therapy sessions customized for individuals’ selective goals for participation. Our music therapists on staff are serving three different locations including a main clinic in Charlotte, community space in Rock Hill, and mobile locations as well (check out the calendar with paired colors). PMT Main is by appointment only and also available for community events!!! 

​The following link is the social media channels on Instagram and Facebook. They share spotlights of our work. In addition, PMT is a CBMT Approved Provider for board certified music therapists to receive credits for their continuing education & renewal certification. Those are either in-person, hybrid or asynchronous. PMT did not color-code the additional educational opportunities into the calendar, but maybe in the future calendar.
        There are many other music therapists in Charlotte, North Carolina beyond the staff at PMT. In Music Therapy Association of North Carolina (MTANC), visit finding music therapist page,which is helpful for contacting other music therapists. Potential clients are also encouraged to access The Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT) directory to ensure the music therapist currently maintains their certification. In summary, this profession is increasingly growing. Just like building a village in the community, a lot of our work is advocacy and education! 

​Last but not least, in June, there was an annual event called the Music Therapy Hill Day. It was a great time for advocating music therapy professions and networking with elected officials. What PMT learned was that the more advocates about music therapy the more chances to get recognition in our community. The goal of writing this post is to further advocate for the evidence-based use of music to support a person’s health and wellness. Finally, PMT appreciates and is grateful for this space – please share this blog with other readers or comment below about questions you may have for music therapy service.

 Cheers to summer! We are ecstatic at the return of more in-person summer camps. There are added safety precautions, larger instrument inventory and advanced planning which are worth it to ensure that group based music therapy sessions are a safe  experience in Charlotte, NC. 

Below are the 4 summer camps that we're participating in with 3 of them mobile based:

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