JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — If you have TikTok, chances are you’ve come across @theonewith.music.therapy. The duo is educating nearly 800,000 viewers on music therapy.
Here’s the Buzz:
A.J. Denne and her roommate Erica Fernandez are board certified music therapists.
Back in February, Denne was planning for her next session, when Fernandez recorded and posted the video on TikTok.
“It blew up and went viral, and we were like okay, maybe we can do something with this,” Denne said.
More than six months later, and the account has more than 100,000 followers and 7.5 million likes.
“We advocate for music therapy, and we show some of the activities or interventions that we’re already using in real life. The world gets to see a small snippet of what it’s like to be a music therapist,” Denne said.
Denne said the hardest part is explaining to viewers what exactly a music therapist does.
“Music therapy is one of those professions that people don’t really know what we do. Are you a music teacher? Are you in the therapy world?” Denne said. “We kind of dip our feet into both worlds, which is what makes music therapy very unique. And through our TikTok, we try very hard to draw those lines and say a music educator teaches you music, but a music therapist uses that music to help you in a different way that is more functional to your life.”
Fernandez said they use popular music to make beats that correlate with things like words.
“It may seem that we’re just tapping sticks and hitting to a beat, but it’s actually when you see a cup change that has to be a reaction,” said Fernandez. “In the videos, it says 'Goals,' so those are the things we’re working on with our clients. It could be sustained attention, memory, visual tracking.”
Fernandez said the best part about it is sharing their passion with the world.
“Bringing more awareness to why we do what we do. This is the reason we do what we do because we just want to continue to advocate educate people on music therapy,” Fernandez said.
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