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Today I want to introduce you to the newest member of the WFMT Council: Marcela Lichtensztejn, who was appointed as the WFMT Regional Liaison (RL) for Latin America in June 2016. At present, Marcela is the founding director of Vanguardia en Artes Aplicadas, Ciencia y Salud, (APEM); an interdisciplinary creative arts and traditional therapies program for neurorehabilitation. Marcela is passionate about music therapy and eager to further develop and grow the profession. When asked about why she wanted to serve the WFMT she expressed:“It is my great honor to be part of the WFMT. I’m highly committed to serve as a bridge between Latin America and the other regions of the WFMT. I want to strengthen and deepen our communication and information sharing channels, as well as gain an understanding of local and international developments and needs.”Regarding the challenges she perceives for music therapists in her WFMT region of Latin America she said:“There are a wide range of challenges across the region depending on the country. For example, when students graduate, from established music therapy programs it is not easy for them to go back to their hometowns as there are no job opportunities as a music therapist. Therefore, many of them stay in the cities where they studied. When a family needs music therapy in smaller cities, they cannot access services because there is no music therapist. Others face the work to establish legal regulations of the music therapy profession. Until now, only Argentina (a pioneering country in developing music therapy in the 60’s) has gained national regulation in 2015 for the music therapy profession. Yet, other countries in the region are working towards establishing music therapy as a profession and in creating training programs to provide formal education to those who desire to pursue a degree in music therapy.” On behalf of the WFMT Council, I want to thank Renato Sampaio for his work as the WFMT Regional Liaison for Latin America from July 2014-June 2016. As of June 2016, Renato stepped down from his position.Please join me at this time to welcome Marcela; look for a blog post from her WFMT region later this month.Warm Regards from Canada,Amy Clements-Cortes, PhD, RP, MT-BC, MTAFellow of the Association for Music and ImageryPresident, WFMTSaveSaveSaveSaveSave
