TTTV059: Integrating Music Therapy and Art Therapy with Karen Nisenson

When you’re teaching students with special needs, sometimes you need to stray off the beaten path a little. We need to learn how to teach each child, the way they need to learn. We need skills that will help us to reach students before we can teach them.

[spp-tweet tweet=”We need to learn how to teach each child, the way they need to learn. We need skills that will help us to reach students before we can teach them.“]

Karen Nisenson is a music and art therapist, and a piano teacher. When working with piano students with special needs, she borrows some aspects of music therapy to connect to each child. She uses music, art and other unique approaches to give every child the opportunity to have a creative outlet.

Karen has lots of great takeaways that you can use in your teaching straight away. If you have a student you’re struggling to connect with, this is the podcast for you.

Transcript

Please find a full transcript of this episode at the bottom of this page. Alternatively, click below to download a PDF. If you are an Inner Circle Member, you can find the full video and transcript in the Member Resources Area. Not a member? See below for how you can get $50 off your membership today.

In this episode, you’ll learn

The goal of the Simply Music Gateway program
Why Karen started the Arts for Healing organisation
How feelings can be expressed similarly in visual art and music
What music therapy is and how it differs from music lessons
How teaching students with special needs can give you a new perspective
How unconventional techniques can transition to more traditional lessons
The role of improvisation in Karen’s teaching

Links Mentioned

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Thank you for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, and I’m grateful that you’ve chosen mine.

Being a full-time teacher myself, I know how busy teachers are and how much time, effort and passion we put into our students. Sometimes, the last thing we want to do in our time off is listen to more piano teaching stuff! So, well done for using this time for self-improvement.

Whether you’re at the gym, on the bike or in the car, I know that you and your students will get lots out of what you learn in the long run. Just make sure you try out some of the ideas before they get lost in the business of your next lessons.

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