Music as Therapy course offered this Summer at Hutchinson Center
Belfast. Looking for a fun and novel college course to take this summer? The University of Maine Hutchinson Center in Belfast has many new and unique courses being offered. This summer there are three “music as therapy” courses that might be just what you are looking for in either your personal or professional life. No music background or experience is required.
Music therapy is an interactive experience - interpersonal skills - expansion of expressive affect - catharsis - self-exploration and discovery. Music therapy and the cognitive process have numerous benefits - music therapy and short and long term memory, attention span, sequencing and on task behavior. Music therapy also has philosophical and conceptual considerations - qualitative vs. quantitative therapeutic orientations, structure, freedom and spontaneity in therapeutic process - quality of life issues. download flyer

Music as Therapy For Children with Special Needs.
MUS298 /510 Special Topics
June 28 - July 2, 2010 (No Prior Music Training is Necessary)

Course Description
MUS 298 (cross listed as MUS 510) Music as Therapy – Special Needs Children & Youth will be taught in a one week 3 credit intensive format, June 29 through July 3 from 8:30 to 4:00 pm. Anyone working with children with special needs can benefit from this week of learning and developing the tools and strategies to use music as therapy in their work and personal lives.
Music is powerful yet subtle. It can stimulate, motivate and integrate children with special needs, enhance their cognitive, communicative, behavioral, social –emotional skills and support their global development. This introductory level course in music therapy in support of Pre School and special and elementary education goals and objectives will explore and offer music therapy workshop activities, print and web based resources, video illustrations and special topic (such as autism spectrum disorders) research opportunities.

MUS 298 / MUS 510
Instructor: Alan Wittenberg
Readings: Selected journal articles, web based materials and research.
Course Description:
(No prior musical training is necessary to enroll in this course)
Can music help a child with special needs learn social concepts, on task behaviors, impulse control and help them to facilitate transitions? Can music therapy decrease anxiety and depression for an elderly person with the onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s? Can music therapy impact quality of life issues for an individual who has been involved in a traumatic injury and is receiving occupational or physical therapy sessions as part of their rehabilitation program. Can music therapy make a difference to an individual who is in counseling for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or AIDS? Can music therapy be a resource that might be unique and meaningful to someone you will work with or care about on a personal level in the future? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions this course will be an especially meaningful to you.

This course will engage and inform students about the clinical, developmental and rehabilitative field of music therapy. Music therapy will be illustrated as an integrative approach that targets goals and objectives central to health professions such as occupational and physical therapy, nursing, counseling and psychology as well as elementary and special education, and infant mental health. Conceptual and practical models of music therapy will be discussed and demonstrated. Music therapy as a creative, active treatment modality that has the potential to stimulate and motivate a wide range of disabilities and learning delays will be highlighted by readings, discussion, experiential activities, video illustrations and web based research.
Music therapy will also be explored in collaboration with the fields of counseling, psychology and nursing as music reflects our personal and interpersonal styles of communication and is another way to express our creativity and spontaneity and heighten our self-awareness. Concepts such as critical thinking and active listening, so important to future employment, career satisfaction and success will be emphasized.

Functional mobility, motor skills, posture, muscle tone, extension, range of motion, eye hand coordination, respiration, sensory integrative skills as well as the enhancement, retrieval, or acquisition of cognitive, communicative and interpersonal skills are some of the clinical and rehabilitative goal areas that will be emphasized and illustrated as shared / trans - disciplinary areas pertinent to health professions such as occupational and physical therapy, nursing, as well as counseling, education and music therapy .

This course will make extensive use of video illustrations and in class experiential activities as well as onsite observations, analysis of live music therapy sessions and web based research.

Expected Student Outcomes:

1. Students will learn and experience music therapy from the inside out by participating in experiential activities, viewing case study video illustrations, reading assignments, web based research and reactionary papers. Music therapy will be emphasized and illustrated as “complimentary care”, an educational / developmental modality and a form of psychotherapy that integrates and supports the goals of allied health, clinical and educational fields.
2. Students will gain a broad background and overview of the clinical, rehabilitative, developmental and academic field of music therapy.
3. Students will read about, analyze and discuss different clinical approaches within the field of music therapy and demonstrate an understanding of how these approaches integrate with and support allied health profession, counseling and educational goals and objectives.
4. Students will learn about and demonstrate a familiarity with the historic origins and modern day music therapy resources and treatment trends. Students will demonstrate a basic yet broad base of knowledge and understanding of the modern day profession and academic field of music therapy.
5. Students will learn and understand how music therapy as an interdisciplinary and trans - disciplinary approach can be creatively adapted and employed with various populations and pathologies as complimentary care, a primary or adjunctive form of counseling and a meaningful resource in elementary and special education.
6. Students will compile a list of music therapy resources that they may utilize to achieve objectives within their future study and work in the fields of occupational and physical therapy, counseling, nursing, education and special education.

Assignments and Grading:
Reading assignments and class participation; 30%
Reaction papers 40%
Final paper 30%
This course is being taught by Alan Wittenberg. If you have questions please contact the instructor, Alan Wittenberg, M.A., CMT and member of the American Music Therapy Association. Alan can be reached at the Surry Music Therapy Center, 8 Cross Road Surry, Maine 04684. His phone number is 207-667-1308 and his email is alan@surrymusictherapy.com You can also check out his website www.surrymusictherapy.com course descriptions and future seminar offerings.

The University of Maine Hutchinson Center is currently accepting registrations for the Summer 2010 summer semester, some courses start in May. Call the Center for a free summer catalog as well as advising, career planning and course selection. You can also benefit from financial assistance, tutoring, mentoring as well as scholarships. The state of Maine legislature has partnered with the University of Maine system to offer senior citizens, who are residents of Maine and 65 years of age or older, a tuition waiver for any and all of the University of Maine courses. This waiver applies to tuition and fees and is on a space available basis.

You’ll find small class size, modern facility and technological resources, friendly staff, and financial and personal benefits of staying local (no need for room and board, save on gas and other transportation expenses, as well as both daytime and evening classes, and more).

Please contact the Hutchinson Center for a full course catalog or for an appointment at 338-8000, toll free 800-753-9044 or visit our website: www.hutchinsoncenter.umaine.edu


email address: nancyb@maine.edu
Assistant Director - UMaine Hutchinson Center - 80 Belmont Avenue, Belfast, ME 04915
(207) 338-8002 Web: www.hutchinsoncenter.umaine.edu FAX (207) 338-8013