Grow Music

What is music therapy?

Music therapy uses music as a tool to build skills and understanding. Board certified music therapists develop musical experiences to assist with areas of need in a developmentally appropriate and enjoyable way. Music therapy can also help to support typical development and build on children’s strengths in conjunction with the efforts of parents, teachers, and other allied healthcare providers.

Common goal areas for children in music therapy

Building communication

Establish social skills (turn-taking, cooperation, social rituals, etc.)

Developing literacy skills

Building understanding of general concepts (such as shapes, colors, numbers, or money).

Following directions

Developing motor skills

Music therapy services must be provided by a board certified music therapist (MT-BC). This includes the completion of a bachelor’s degree or higher in music therapy from a program approved by the American Music Therapy Association. In addition to coursework, a music therapy student must complete 1200 hours of clinical training, including a supervised internship. After completing these requirements, the student is eligible to sit for the national board certification exam to obtain the MT-BC credential. Music therapists must also fulfill continuing education requirements in order to maintain board certification status.

What happens in a music therapy session?

Individual sessions

One-on-one music therapy sessions are provided at least once per week for 45 or 60 minutes. Through an assessment process, a child’s strengths and areas of need are identified. The music therapist develops personalized experiences for each client, using music to motivate and engage them. These experiences are used to work on the child’s non-musical goals. Based on each child’s needs and preferences, musical experiences may include singing, dancing, playing a wide variety of instruments, songwriting, improvisation, and more! Multi-sensory musical experiences may also incorporate the use of scarves, beanbags, bubbles, puppets, and other props. Music therapists can collaborate with teachers and other therapists to further build skills. This includes classroom teachers, OTs, SLPs, PTs, ABA therapists, etc.

Group Sessions

Grow Music groups are available to families, schools, and community organizations. These groups help support children’s development through collaborative musical experiences. Many groups focus on the development of social skills such as sharing, taking turns, teamwork, group problem solving, etc. Sibling sessions are also available, with an emphasis placed on positive and successful sibling interactions. Specialized groups can be developed. Contact Tina for more information.

Consultations and Professional Development

Consultations

Tina is available to consult with families, teachers, schools, and other professionals in order to develop individualized musical supports for a given situation, theme, person, or classroom. This service can include the creation of original songs and materials, such as audio recordings, visual aides, instructions for implementation, etc.

Inservices and Workshops

Tina is also available to share her expertise through speaking engagements, such as inservices or workshops. These can be about the professional as a whole or about music therapist’s work within certain settings or with certain populations. All speaking engagements will include demonstrations of relevant musical experiences that a music therapist could use to address a client’s goals.

About Tina

Tina de Leeuw, MS, MT-BC is the owner of Grow Music. Tina is a nationally board certified music therapist. She holds bachelor degrees in music therapy and music education (K-12) from Duquesne University and a masters degree in music therapy from SUNY New Paltz. Her undergraduate studies also included a psychology minor.

Tina completed a seven-month music therapy internship at Wesley Spectrum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During this time, she provided individual and group music therapy services to children and teens with autism and other developmental disabilities. As part of her graduate work, she developed and implemented a pilot music therapy program at Vassar College’s Wimpfheimer Nursery School.

Prior to establishing Grow Music, Tina worked for six years with Fogerty Music Therapy in Bloomington, Indiana. She provided individual and group music therapy services to a wide range of clients from infants through memory care units in assisted living facilities. In addition to her work with clients, she served as the company’s Assistant Director. This role included management and marketing tasks, as well as supervision of the company’s other music therapists.

Testimonials

As guardian of my sister, I honestly feel music therapy with Tina these past years has had a significant impact on her quality of life. She is able to express her true feelings now with confidence. Tina has always been there to support & encourage her through many difficult times...and me too. My sister has described herself as happy now. I had never heard that from her before. She has many friends and has even become a cheerleader for them when they have ups & downs! My sister has worked very hard and come so far, thanks in great part to Tina's skills, professionalism, caring attitude, and compassion. We both are thankful to have had you in our lives. I am certain you will have a tremendous impact on all those special future clients and families. —J., sister/guardian

We both are thankful to have had you in our lives.

We were blessed to have Tina in our lives for a couple of years! My son has Autism, developmental delays, and Anxiety. He was having a horrible time in his life when we were able to secure her for music therapy! And she made a HUGE difference in his life. He began to talk a lot more, express his feelings, and just became my happy little boy again! I will be forever grateful to her for the time and effort she put into learning what makes my son tick. She learned his weaknesses and his strength and drew him out by using those. We miss her terribly, but know she will be a huge blessing to someone else there in New York. May God bless you all. —S., parent

She has incredible intuition in working with people with disabilities.

Tina is a gift to those around her. My daughter has Down syndrome, but she included siblings and even the family pet as appropriate --therapy for all of us! Not only is she a talented musician who makes music and its benefits accessible to children of different abilities, but she is also a kind-hearted person who genuinely cares about her clients and their families. She tailors the songs and activities (both in preparation/planning and during sessions "in the moment") to whatever is best for the child. She even went above and beyond and provided a recording of one of her "calming" songs while my daughter was experiencing severe anxiety during a hospital stay. Music works like a charm with my daughter, and she was visibly calmed by hearing Tina's voice. I am deeply grateful for what Tina has done for my daughter and my family. —C., parent

My son was able to make amazing strides through music therapy with Tina. She has incredible intuition in working with people with disabilities and matches her style to where they are in each session. My son has Autism, and what works for him can change even within a session. Tina is quick to pick up on it making each session productive and fun! —A., parent

Music therapy has proved to be beneficial to many different people working through different problems and in different areas of life. As a service, it is time spent 1:1 with a goal-specific outcome. Some of the goals are learning stress reduction techniques, while others are more simply maintaining eye contact during a session. With the option to make the goals individualized, it is beneficial to many different people in many different areas of life.

Music therapy goals can also be utilized in other services. These situations help the clients learn to apply the goals to different areas in life. An example would be with music used for counting, and then counting to ten used as a stress reduction technique, or in identifying time to think before speaking.

I would always encourage music therapy as a way to help people process through different concerns that occur in life situations. —T., behavior consultant

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