Professor, graduate student present at international conference
This summer, graduate student Anthony Kaseoru and Associate Professor Trish Winter traveled to Japan to present at the World Music Therapy Conference and at the Nagoya College of Music and Mukogawa Women's University.
The McGlothlin Travel Faculty Grant, the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the Music Department supported Winter’s travel. The College of Graduate Studies and Research and McConnell Library supported Kaseoru.
The World Music Therapy Conference is the largest music therapy conference in the world and occurs every three years. At the conference, Winter and Kaseoru presented their work with the Waldron Speech and Hearing Clinic at Radford University.
During the presentation – given to the nearly 2,800 World Congress attendees – Winter and Kaseoru explained how they work with children, planned goals for the children and how music therapists collaborate with speech language pathologists to craft a cohesive treatment plan.
“We’re successful in helping kids when they learn how to talk and learn how to interact with each other,” Winter said. “A lot of people just wanted to talk about kids, how do you deal with kids and how do you find someone to partner with. It’s not always as easy as it is in Radford – you can’t just call up your local speech language pathologist.”
Winter (front-center) and Kaseoru (rear-center) during their trip to Japan.
At Mukogawa Women's University, Winter and Kaseoru changed their tune and spoke about how music therapy affects the other end of the age spectrum – older adults.
“We do things to help stimulate that population, help them reminisce, help them stay connected or provide spiritual support or pain reduction,” Winter said. “Our goals can also be reductive. We don’t want someone to be in pain, agitated or restless. We want to reduce those. With older adults, we say that this is a person that had a life and contributed to society and has lost a lot. There’s grief and there’s loss. We have to deal with end-of-life issues.”
Speaking abroad at the World Music Therapy Congress provided Kaseoru with valuable academic experiences.
"[The conference] encouraged me to approach the presentation in a more flexible way since the audience will be listening to the information with their own cultural filters," he said. "It helped me gain context for the information I’ve learned and how to better communicate that information with a diverse audience."
Kaseoru called the experience at the World Music Therapy Congress "eye-opening."
"I was able to meet, talk with and learn from professionals and students around the world," he said. "I will be using the connections and information from this trip in the immediate and long-term future as I will use the information I’ve learned to hone the direction of my graduate work, and network with the colleagues I’ve met for future research and professional opportunities."
During the conference, Winter said that she had a “cheesy music therapy moment.”
“I was in the vendor area of the World Congress hearing a bunch of languages from all over the world. I looked down at a music book and thought that’s a language we all speak. We all read those notes and we all know what they mean. That’s huge,” Winter said. “That’s why I do what I do.”
Winter (left-center) and Kaseoru (right-center) at Mukogawa Women's University.