I was honored to speak on panel at our February 21st, 2018 Hill Day advocating for music therapy licensure. It was a fantastic day for music therapy in Ohio!

Here is a post-day video I made of my speech; or you may read the script following as well.

Want to support/advocate with me? As our bill progresses, we will need letters of support, testimonies, and/or calls to the legislators. Contact me to get on board! 

Hello, I am Brittany Scheer, music therapist and owner/director of Living Music LLC, a private practice located in West Central Ohio, serving Auglaize and Mercer counties. I work mainly with seniors in long term, memory, and hospice care; as well as people of all ages with mental illness.

I have the great luxury of seeing how music therapy can help people live fuller, more meaningful lives when they are often times in their most vulnerable states. I have lead experiences where simple songs such as “You are My Sunshine”, “What a Wonderful World”, and “Wish you Were Here” have brought people to tears—tears of sorrow, joy, meaning, love, attachment, and final goodbyes. It’s in these moments where I’m thankful to have the training as a music therapist. I provide the atmosphere for people to be human in their experience of music. They can be open, honest, emotional, and trusting.

As a business owner, I have experienced countless occasions where the title “Music Therapy” is mis-represented in these ways:

• Someone calls himself a music therapist and runs a CD player for nursing home residents to listen to for an hour
• Prospective customers report that they have music therapy because their chaplain or social worker sings to their patients
• Customers confuse listening programs such as Music & Memory with having music therapy
• Entertainers report that they are doing music therapy

While entertainment and listening programs are beneficial and much needed for many of my current and prospective clients, music therapy is deeper, individualized, personal, and transcends this passive experience of music. My customers and clients deserve to have a qualified professional provide music therapy services when they need it and when they believe they are receiving it. Music therapy licensure would provide the title protection we need to ensure this is happening. This would provide me some leverage as a business owner to gain customers to continue to grow into a thriving business helping the economy, job market, and of course, many more clients.

I have also experienced loss of business as a result of not having a state license; specifically healthcare professionals/institutions not wanting to hire me for contractual work because of concern for the lack of license, despite knowing that I carry national board certification.

I know my examples run true for other private practice owners in Ohio, and in other states as well.

I am proud to offer music therapy services and continue to advocate and educate my current and prospective customers. My customers have experienced and have seen the benefit of music therapy, and most have expanded their programs with my business. They feel offering music therapy gives them a unique and higher quality care level to offer their residents, and in turn assists in their marketing. My customers deserve to be able to say, “we have music therapy” and really mean it. They are investing in the health of their clients, going above and beyond what Medicare requires because they believe in the power of music therapy.

All people deserve to have access to the services they need; including music therapy. I’ll end with a quote from a music therapist, that to me, depicts the layers music therapy unfolds and supports:

“Music therapy can make the difference between withdrawal and awareness; between isolation and interaction; between chronic pain and comfort; between demoralization and dignity.”