In the weeks after the national American Music Therapy Association conference in Atlanta, I’ve had the pleasure of reading several conference follow-up blogs that have allowed me to relive countless, wonderful moments of my first conference as a professional!
Check out a few of them: Natasha, Natalie, Meryl, Matt, Rachel, Kimberly, Michelle, and Ginny! And there are many more out there (if I’ve forgotten yours, I apologize…but please leave a link to your post in the comments below)!
**Also, for a brief look at the #AMTA11 tweets that were happening throughout the conference, visit my Twylah page.**
Because many of these blog post recaps have encompassed the majority of my thoughts, feelings, and experiences, I decided to take a different approach with my version of my conference wrap-up…by listing a few of my favorite quotes I heard while perusing the exhibit booths, sitting in sessions, participating in conversations with colleagues, and eating dinner with the wonderful Ben Folds (why did Ben come to the conference? Read all of the details in my newsletter).
From left to right: Ginny, Kat, Meryl, Natalie, myself, BEN, Sharon (Ben's studio manager), Jamie and her husband
My Favorite Conference Quotes
1. “Thank you kind people of #AMTA11 Doing amazing things. Me learn lots!” – Ben Folds
2. ”If you can’t think of something to say, think of something to ask!” Matt Logan @MusicTherapySrc
3. “Present yourself as you want everyone to see you (regarding personal vs. business facebook/twitter accounts).” Meryl Brown @DevelopMelodies
4. “RESEARCH!” Ginny Driscoll @CIMusicResearch
5. “Research has documented ways music can positively affect early intervention children…and creates opportunity for you [as a music therapist] to be a legit and necessary part of the team in the school.” Dr. Mary Adamek
6. “Make sure you are producing as much as you consume online.” Kat Fulton @katfulton
7. “Accept the challenge: Engage in Advocacy” Kimberly Sena Moore @KimberlySMoore
8. “What I noticed about music therapy, when I started getting twittered to death about it…it was humble, realistic, and it matched my experience, so I thought I needed to come down here [to the AMTA conference].” Ben Folds
9. ”Music therapy is about building relationships…What has moved us will move other people, as well.” Roia Rafieyan @victimorious
10.”Twitter is not replacing, but ENHANCING relationships” Matt Logan @MusicTherapySrc
If you have any favorite quotes from AMTA11, make sure to post them in the “comments” section below – I’d love to hear them!
In other news:
*Make sure you sign-up for my private practice once-a-month, free newsletter!
This month’s newsletter includes a .pdf full of songs and visuals for the holidays (available only to subscribers!)
*I’ve had the honor of writing two guest posts that were published this week.
The first post is my monthly contribution to the “Today I Ate a Rainbow” blog. The second, is on a website for private practice owners called, “The Independent Clinician“. A big “thank you” in advance for checking out both websites!
*My music therapy open house is THIS Saturday, December 3rd, at the Velocity Music Academy!
Make sure to take advantage of the FREE session and discover what music therapy is all about! For all the details, click HERE.
Rachel See Smith, MA, MT-BC
LOVE LOVE LOVE it! Thanks for sharing these, Rachel! You are so amazing =)
Thanks so much for the love, Kat!!! I am so inspired by your quotes, your practice, your online presence…YOU are amazing, friend!
Love this post! I really like the mash-up, too. I wonder what that would sound like musically…
Thanks, Matt. I’ll sell the rights to Slip Silo, if you’d like
A very cool assemblage of comments (and thank you so much for including me), indeed!
Here’s a quote or two I took down during Ken Bruscia’s speech: “We owe our clients their free will to the extent they can exercise it.” and “We’ve been giving people what *we* think they ought to have because we have it to offer, but it doesn’t have anything to do with what they need.”
BTW, there’s an insane app my friend has that seems to be called “Songify” which, well, songifies everything. Perhaps that can help with the musical mash-up?
YES! I was hoping someone had direct quotes from Bruscia! Thanks for sharing, Roia – those are both absolute GEMS.
And thanks for the heads-up on “Songify”…I’ll look into it
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Another one of my favorite quotes that I heard came from Kimberly Sena Moore (and went something like)… “When you meet someone for the first time in person, you greet them with a handshake. When you meet a twitter friend for the first time, you give them a hug.”
Thanks for the mention, Rachel!
Awesome…I love that (I think I may have heard it on the MTRT Podcast today)!!! Thanks for sharing, Michelle!