Music Therapy at Valparaiso University

08/26/2026

Look! It’s SMTA President Michael Hernandez! Happy first day of school Beacons!

08/15/2026

The community is welcome to join us for the Lullaby Project Northwest Indiana Concert featuring original lullabies performed by mothers with support from student and professional musicians!
Friday, August 28th at 2:00PM with reception to follow!

08/10/2026

Check out this sorry about VU alumni, Breanna Webb, and her role in the Lullaby Project!

06/25/2026

Tomorrow is the registration deadline! Will we see you there?

06/12/2026

Congratulations to Breanna Webb on finishing her internship!! Next stop, the CBMT exam!

05/27/2026

Are you interested in learning more about a career in music therapy? Are you a current student looking for more support? Join us for some or all of these dates for a deep dive into these topics!

Week 1: Foundations of Music Therapy Practice

Week 2: Writing Strong Clinical Goals and Objectives

Week 3: Clinical Musicianship and Functional Guitar Skills

Week 4: Therapeutic Experience Design and Clinical Application

05/25/2026

Music therapy methods in action! Sign up for MUTH 120 in the fall to learn more! 🎶

We often talk about HOW and WHY music therapy helps, but what do we actually DO to address the health and wellness goals we are targeting in sessions?

1️⃣ Recreative music making: Singing or playing instruments to a pre-existing song. Maybe we are singing Over the Rainbow to strengthen the vocal mechanism with the octave jumps in the song or playing instruments in a non-traditional way to strengthen upper extremity movement.

2️⃣ Receptive music: Listening, guided relaxation, or lyric analysis/discussion. Maybe we are listening to Elvis sing Can’t Help Falling In Love With You to prompt a discussion about the first wedding dance with the client’s late spouse because their anniversary is coming up or providing training on how to use music to “reset” in the middle of the day.

3️⃣ Improvisation: Spontaneous music making. Maybe we are prompting a musical conversation on a drum, going back and forth with a client who is unable to speak anymore but will communicate via music or giving a patient the opportunity to express themselves on a pentatonic xylophone (there are no wrong notes!)

4️⃣ Composition: Songwriting or creating new music. Maybe we are asking a memory care group about what they like to do in the water during summer time and rewriting My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean at the same time or writing a song with a client who just got diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease about their grief and unknown future to help process their emotions.

As you can tell, music therapy is vast in how we can uniquely collaborate with our clients to provide support.

Check out our website for more resources and to get in touch! www.greaterchicagomusictherapy.com

04/10/2026

Thankful this week and every week!

Happy World Music Therapy Week to all of the incredible professionals in our field who work tirelessly to advocate, empower, and support!

Who is a music therapist you look up to? Tag them in the comments!! 🎵

03/21/2026

Let us help save the music therapy program at Ohio University! Please sign this petition to support the program!

Ohio University needs your help!!

As you may have heard, the state of Ohio recently passed a bill that requires all undergraduate programs who have seen an average of fewer than 5 graduates over the last 3 years to be “sunset”… which means they teach out the remaining students but cannot accept new students and Ohio University’s Music Therapy program has fallen under this category. This program is in their 75th year, as we just celebrated at Conference! It’s hard to find someone in the GLR community and beyond that doesn’t have a tie to Ohio University, whether it be a student, intern, family member, therapist, or colleague! 🐾💚

Despite the faculty submitting a waiver to be exempt from this due to the complexities of the graduation and internship timeline, the state has denied the waiver without any explanation. There is an advocacy group formed involving alumni, faculty & friends of the program and they have created this petition as a first step toward fighting back against the state. If you would like to read more about the issue and support their program and advocacy efforts, please read more in this petition and add your name to the list to encourage the state to reconsider the denial.

https://www.change.org/p/to-reconsider-denial-of-sb1-waiver-bachelor-of-music-in-music-therapy-ohio-university?recruiter=1019230878&recruited_by_id=3234d2c0-082b-11ea-b2db-2f928876fd2f&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard&utm_medium=copylink&share_id=DXLpR9x2SG

03/20/2026

MT major Justine Olson is packed full of talent!