ABCs of IEPs

Bessie Barth, MT-BC received her Bachelor’s of Music in Music Therapy from Willamette University in 1996. During her schooling she worked with a variety of clientele including children with hearing impairments, high school special day classes, skilled nursing, psychiatric facilities, and children’s units in hospitals. She completed her internship at Welborn Hospital, Mulberry Center in Evansville, IN, a short-term psychiatric unit for children and adolescents. After completing her internship, Bessie spent two and a half years as a Music Therapist at Southside Arts Center in Sacramento, CA, an adult day program for adults with developmental disabilities. She then spent time working at the Veterans Home in Yountville, CA in the shortterm acute hospital and skilled nursing units. In May of 2000, Bessie began her private practice by becoming a vendor through ALTA California Regional Center. As her work continued, she was able to develop contracts with school districts in the Sacramento area. She spent two years working independently before expanding her practice to develop Music To Grow On and increase the number of therapists servicing children with special needs. As the business has expanded, the diversity of populations grew to cover all ages and capacities.

In April 2006, Bessie was approved to hold a National Roster Internship site at Music To Grow on through AMTA. She is the Internship Director and supervises two interns. She also provides in-services to various groups including Speech Therapists, preschool teachers, and parent support groups about the benefits of Music Therapy. In 2007, she completed advanced training in NMT through the Robert F. Unkefer Academy for Neurologic Music Therapy, earning the title of  Neurologic Music Therapist. Bessie is also an adjunct faculty member at University of the Pacific and supervises Music Therapy fieldwork students and guest lectures in the Music Therapy in Special Education course.

Kaitlyn McEowen, MT-BC is a December 2017 graduate from the University of Iowa in Music Therapy with an emphasis in Voice. She completed her music therapy internship with Music To Grow On in September 2018 and has remained with the team as a board certified music therapist ever since! Having had the chance to explore a diverse range of populations and settings, she has found great passion working with students in schools of a variety of backgrounds and needs. During internship, she found a new love for advocating music therapy in the school setting and has since presented to two school districts on the music therapy assessment process, implementing services and ideas for using music therapy for academic success. In Fall 2020, Kaitlyn took over the position of Assessment Music Therapist and has been able to develop new skills in understanding both how to best implement a music therapy assessment process in the school setting, but how to best express to other professionals the values of music therapy for academics!