Interview with Karen Joly

In my interview with Karen Joly, Music director at hand in hand, we discussed the what music therapy really is and how it helps children with disabilities. She explained what a typical music session is like and the techniques that are used. In my interview with Mrs. Joly, she expressed "Music therapy is not just singing to children, it is my goal when I provide music therapy, to be therapeutic first and foremost." She also explained to me what kind of issues can be addressed through music therapy. Through music therapy you can tell if a child is in pain, stressed, what their emotions are like and if they are having in physical changes in the body.I asked her how music therapy works. She told me that they work for the same goal as a physical therapist would, but they use musical instruments to get results. They try to increase communication and direction following by using music. When they try to increase communication skills they use puppets along with the music. She said that puppets are prop that the children love! She uses a song that goes along with the character of the puppet and has the child practice introducing themselves and pretend to feed the puppet a snack. "Silly i know, but once they say their name and give it a snack, they are immediately reinforced. I give the kids a kiss on the head from the puppet." I also asked her if there was evidence that music therapy was efficant. She said " We are still a growing feild, but we do believe in research." She told me that she actually assisted her college professor in conducting a research study. It was called "Effects of Music Therapy on Physiological Measuremnts of Older Adults with Alzhemier's Disease and Other Related Dementia: A Pilot Study." They studied how music therapy affected the cortisol level, which is stress hormone in saliva, of older adults with memory disorder. They are still getting data but in another year it will show up in Journal of Music Therapy.
My interview with Mrs. Joly was a lot of fun! She was very passionate about her job and gave me so much information that helped me understand music therapy a little bit more! She was very nice and very easy to talk with. I enjoyed my interview and it was very benifital. I am hoping to go to an actual music session with her at hand in hand!

Karen Joly, MT-I
Hand in Hand, Birmingham Alabama
256-665-5483