Conference Takeaways and New Publication

In July of 2023 I was invited to present at the World Congress of Music Therapy Conference in Vancouver, Canada.  I was honored to be included to speak about the work that I do with long-term patients in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).  In addition, I spoke about the virtual music therapy groups that I facilitate to support our older infants.   

This conference was a wonderful opportunity to share the work that we do here at UCSF and to meet music therapists from all over the world.  There were some topics that I was very familiar with and others that were brand new to me.  Some topics that were discussed included ways to utilize technology to support sibling bonding with their baby brother or sister, the importance of providing safe music therapy interventions for infants born before the 26th week of pregnancy, and new and innovative ways to support legacy and memory making.   

During this conference, the book Evidence-Based Music Therapy for Premature Infants, Third Edition became available to purchase.  I was thrilled to be asked to co-write a chapter called Long-Term Care:  Supporting the Post-Term Infant in the NICU.  This is a topic I’m extremely passionate about and have a lot of experience with.  In this chapter, we discuss what we’ve learned working with post-term infants, intervention ideas, and considerations with each month of development.   

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Being included in this conference and publication was such a privilege and I can’t wait to bring what I learned back to our patients and families here at UCSF.