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What Makes Musical Bridges Different?
All clients and partners of Musical Bridges are cherished by the staff. We celebrate our clients’ accomplishments and work hard to provide as much support as we can to see them grow and flourish. When you become a client at Musical Bridges, you become a part of our Musical Bridges family. We love to see everyone’s achievements both in and out of sessions, and we do our very best to contribute to those accomplishments and celebrate when they occur.
If you would like to be a part of our Musical Bridges Family, we would love to serve you!
Can I Benefit From Music Therapy if I Don’t Have a Diagnosis?
Yes! You absolutely can benefit from Music Therapy without a diagnosis! We have shared in length how we support individuals with a wide array of diagnoses; this, however, does not mean you need a diagnosis to participate in music therapy. Getting a diagnosis can be time consuming, costly, and daunting. Many individuals go their entire lives without officially being diagnosed in anyway. When we say music therapy is inclusive, that includes everyone!
Neurologic Music Therapy Techniques and Benefits for Autism
At Musical Bridges one of the primary populations we work with are individuals with Autism. Individuals can benefit greatly from the use of different Neurologic Music Therapy techniques. Autism has neurological elements that can have an effect on individuals, and NMT targets the neurologic intricacies of diagnoses.
Neurologic Music Therapy: What is it?
Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) is the therapeutic application of music to cognitive, sensory, and motor dysfunctions due to neurologic disease of the human nervous system (Thaut, 1999). This evidenced-based clinical treatment system is driven by advances (research) in neuroscience and an understanding that music can influence and change non-musical brain and behavior function. NMT employs 20 unique, trademarked techniques therapists use to target speech, sensorimotor, and cognitive skills.
Neurologic Music Therapy Breakdown: MEFT
MEFT is the use of improvisation and composition exercises in a group or individually to practice executive function skills such as organization, problem solving, decision making, reasoning, and comprehension, within a social; context that provides important therapeutic elements such as performance products in real time, temporal structure, creative process, affective content, sensory structure, and social interaction patterns (Dolan 2002).
Neurologic Music Therapy Breakdown: DSLM
What is DSLM?
DSLM is the specific use of developmentally appropriate musical materials and experiences to enhance speech and language development through singing, chanting, playing musical instruments, and combining music, speech, and movement (Thaut 2005).
Put simply DSLM is the use of music/music experiences to increase speech and language skills.
Neurologic Music Therapy Definitions
As Neurologic Music Therapists, we employ a variety of techniques in our work. We thought it would be useful to have them all in one place as a simple point of reference. For parents and caregivers, refer to these definitions to learn the acronyms when reading our monthly documentation. For others, we hope these definitions give you an overview of Neurologic Music Therapy. Please reach out to us to learn more.