Project Team to San Diego

The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) recently gathered for their annual conference in San Diego, California. And our project's team was there, shooting in High Definition and learning a lot about music therapy and specifically its use in treating those with varying degrees of autism.

The event was held from November 10th through the 15th at the Town & Country Resort in the city's Mission Valley area. This project's team members who traveled to the conference were Bill Bodine, Greg Frederick and Mark DuMond.

More than a dozen music therapy industry professionals were interviewed on camera. Here is a list of some of them:

• Cathy Knoll, a very busy and active therapist based in Stephanville, Texas
• Julie Guy, who operates her music therapy business in San Diego
• Ronna Kaplan of Cleveland, Ohio, who is the incoming president of the AMTA
• Dr. Petra Kern, based in Santa Barbara, California, and board certified to practice music therapy in three different countries
  
• Judy Simpson, who specializes in government relations on behalf of the AMTA
• Amy Furman, a music therapist and educator from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area
• Marcia Humpal, AMTA Vice President and Conference Program Chair
  
• Kalani, a music therapist and noted percussionist

We'd like to thank all of those who sat down with us to be interviewed. We came away from the conference very enlightened, so to say we learned a lot would be quite the understatement. The footage and knowledge gathered at the conference on the part of our team forms the basic framework on which to build this program

The next AMTA annual conference is scheduled for November 17-21, 2010 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Here are some photos from our visit to the conference:

Greg Frederick, Mark DuMond and Bill Bodine with music therapist Julie Guy

Greg Frederick, right, with music therapist and percussionist Kalani

Greg Frederick and Bill Bodine conduct an interview on display floor

Bill Bodine and Mark DuMond enjoy the San Diego weather