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Dr. Anita Gadberry
Regional Liaison for North America
Contact: northamerica@wfmt.info[/caption]
The American Music Therapy Association held its annual conference November 16-20, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. 1,410 people from 11 countries attended the event. The opening session on Thursday evening featured celebration of several exciting happenings during 2011. The legislators (Representative Lois Delmore, ND and Senator Mo Dennis, NV) who advocated and worked for the passage of music therapy licensure in North Dakota and Nevada were present and each spoke about their belief in music therapy. AMTA recognized these individuals in addition to others who put music therapy in the public spotlight during 2011. Awards were given to Jim Kohlberg, the director of The Music Never Stopped, a film about music therapy with a person with a traumatic brain injury and to Jodi Picoult who utilized a music therapist as the main character in her novelSing You Home.
The conference featured several concurrent sessions, continuing education events, and networking opportunities. Dr. Kenneth Bruscia presented The William W. Sears Distinguished Lecture, entitled Ways of Thinking in Music Therapy. In this address, Dr. Bruscia suggested integral thinking as a way to use music as a stimulus, reinforcer, target response, change process, cultural resource, representative product, and aesthetic experience. Dr. Brusica outlined three music therapy orientations: outcome, experience, and context and stated that each orientation is valid and viable.
Music therapists of all theoretical orientations are invited to attend the next conference of the American Music Therapy Association in St. Charles, Illinois October 11-14, 2012. Visithttp://www.musictherapy.org/events/amta_2012_conference_changing_winds_innovation_in_music_therapy/ for the call for papers. Another conference that draws participants from several countries is the Online Conference for Music Therapy. It originated last year as collaboration between Canadian and American music therapists. The inaugural event was held on a weekend and attracted 60+ attendees. Keynote speakers Dr. Petra Kern and Dr. Anita Gadberry were featured at staggered times throughout the conference so participants from different time zones would have the opportunity to attend the keynote presentations.
This year, the online conference will be held on February 18th as a 24-hour event with its schedule based on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Since this will be a full-day event, music therapists from around the world will be able to speak and attend at times convenient for them. The uniqueness of an online conference allows people to receive information, accrue continuing education credits, and connect with music therapists throughout the world from the comfort of their own home. One can enjoy the benefits of a professional music therapy conference without having to travel or expend the costs associated with staying in a designated conference location. This year’s conference will feature music therapists Dr. Lucanne Magill and Kat Fulton as the keynote speakers. Be sure to attend this exciting event! You can find more information and registration athttp://onlineconferenceformusictherapy.com/.
Other upcoming conferences include opportunities in Canada and various locations throughout the United States. The seven regions of the American Music Therapy Association hold their regional conferences during the spring. See http://www.musictherapy.org/about/regions/ for a list of the different regions and their respective websites.
The Canadian Association for Music Therapy will host its annual conference in Montreal in early May. Seehttp://www.musictherapy.ca/conference.htm for more details. Immediately following this conference is The International Conference on Gender, Health, and the Creative Arts Therapies. Find more information athttp://montreal2012.concordia.ca/index_files/Page410.htm. The strategic planning of these two conferences will allow attendees to participate in two excellent events during the course of one trip!
I hope you will take advantage of some of these excellent opportunities for learning and networking. I’ll look forward to meeting you at a conference!
Dr. Anita Gadberry
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