Connections Music Therapy

09/01/2025

The CMT team is participating in this year’s Best Buddies Canada Friendship Walk on September 13 in Gibbons Park!

We’ll also have an information booth with some sweet new swag!

Please help sponsor us if you can, or better yet, join our team and come have some fun 👟🪩 After all, who doesn’t love a dance party at the finish line? 🏃🏼🏃‍♀️🏃🏾‍♂️

Money raised goes to ensuring those with intellectual and developmental disabilities have as much opportunity for equality in friendships - Best Buddies truly is a wonderful cause and Jess was proud to be a best buddy back in their high school days

Support My Journey I am participating in London's Best Buddies Friendship Walk because I have first hand seen the difference best buddies make in the lives of i

08/26/2025

Ready to walk with us at the Best Buddies Friendship Walk on Saturday September 13?

Click the link below and search "CMT Andante Friends" to join our team and help raise funds for a great cause!

Can't wait to see you there 👟😁

08/04/2025

Introducing ‘Meet the Team Mondays’

First, we’ll share a bit about Amy! 🤩

Amy Spence (she/her) has been part of the CMT team since 2024. She is a Board Certified Music Therapist who completed her Honours Bachelor of Music Therapy degree with a minor in Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2023. While at Wilfrid Laurier, Amy studied classical voice and volunteered at the Waterloo Community Music School, providing adapted music lessons. During her education, she completed a 1000-hour internship at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Veteran Services.

Amy has additional professional experience working across diverse settings, including long term care, palliative care, special education, and private practice. While her primary instrument is voice, Amy plays several other instruments, including piano, guitar, viola, and ukulele. Amy has developed music-based interventions that promote emotional well-being and cognitive engagement; support individuals coping with physical and emotional pain to enhance quality of life; and has collaborated with educators to design tailored music therapy programs to improve students’ social, cognitive, and emotional development.

In her free time, Amy enjoys rock climbing, camping, and exploring various arts and crafts. She believes that every individual is inherently musical and approaches her practice with a person-centred philosophy.

Amy loves using music to connect with others and, above all, strives to make achieving personal goals an enjoyable and meaningful experience.

07/30/2025

🚨 New Instrument Arrival 🚨

Did you know, music therapy is so much more than using your main stream instruments? 🎸🎹

At CMT, we’re all about being able to fully express ourselves! Whether that’s with loud booming sounds, high melodic notes, or the rise and fall of grounded wood tones, there’s something for everyone.

Easily adaptable, with hand grips and strikers to wear on the tips of your fingers, the newest additions to our collection are already being enjoyed by those we support.

So, which instrument are you most excited to try? Let us know in the comments below or come experience them for yourself!

Fun facts:

💡While we have a typical sized steel tongue drum as well, the one pictured here is miniature and only 3 inches in diameter!

💡 is a 🇨🇦Toronto based company that repurposes old skateboards 🛹 and turns them into functional pieces of beautiful art - Gramophones! Jess came across these back in the spring at the annual

💡Being completely hollow inside, when you place your device onto the base of the gramophone, the speaker of the device plays into the amplification hole and projects out through the gramophone horn. No electricity required.

💡Kalimbas originally emerged from West Africa, around present day Cameroon. They have been played for approximately 3000 years, with the earliest metal-tined models originating about 1300 years ago.

💡Guiros, originally rooted in South American and Caribbean culture, date back to the 16th century. They are played by scraping a stick or scraper along the carved ridges.

07/09/2025

Back in 2015, Jess was one of the first handful of Canadian Music Therapists to write the CBMT Board Exam as part of the Canadian Accreditation process and passed it on their first attempt!

The Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT) was incorporated in 1983 and the first board examination was administered in 1985. This exam has been used in the USA to certify music therapists since then, and now the CBMT tests music therapists across the globe! CBMT “successfully sets standards of excellence for safe and effective music therapy to enhance clients’ lives”.

After successful completion of the exam, registrants with the CBMT must complete a recertification process every 5 years to maintain their credentials. To do so, a registrant must complete continuing education credits in a variety of domains.

Jess has now completed this recertification twice and continues to maintain the CBMT trust mark. At CMT, we are dedicated to ensuring the highest standards of music therapy are upheld and to continuous learning for ourselves, those we work for, and the music therapy community.

07/05/2025

Congratulations Jillian, RP-Q, MT-BC!🎉

Jillian recently wrote and successfully passed her CBMT Board Certification Exam, earning her the credential of Music Therapist-Board Certified (MT-BC).

CBMT is the Certification Board for Music Therapists. To write this exam, you must have completed a degree in music therapy. The MT-BC credential “identifies music therapists who have demonstrated the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to practice at the highest level of the profession”.

One aspect of maintaining this credential, is that certificants must complete a recertification every five years through the successful completion and documentation of 100 recertification credits in the areas of: workshops, courses, conferences, and independent learning; presentations; music therapy student supervision; publications and writings; and/or professional development. The CBMT stipulates you need a specific amount of credits specifically related to ethics.

The CMT team works hard to ensure we are always moving ourselves forward in the field of music therapy so that we can best serve our clients and communities.

Way to go, Jillian! Your hard work and dedication are truly appreciated 🎉👏

06/30/2025

Thank you so everyone who came to celebrate our studio grand opening last weekend! What a whirlwind of a week it’s been. We had so much fun sharing our new space with you and can’t wait to see you back here soon!

Congratulations to our prize winners, we hope you enjoy☺️🎉

06/21/2025

Today’s the day! 🎈🎉

We’re so excited to welcome you to our new studio space 🥳

Head over to Westmount Shopping Centre - 785 Wonderland Road South - from 2pm - 4pm to say hello and check it out.

Here’s some of the sweet treats we’ll have, plus get your summer swag and enter to win some musical prizes 🍪🕶️🧢

Can’t wait to see you there 🎉

06/20/2025

Check out some of the new CMT swag we’ll be giving away on Saturday!

Make sure you come get yours and be ready for summer 😎

Located in Westmount Shopping Centre, London ON

Keep an eye on our socials for a glimpse of some prizes we’ll be giving away too 🎵

Maple and Spruce Music Academy

06/18/2025

CMT recognizes National Indigenous History Month and commits to honouring Indigenous histories, cultures, strengths, and resiliency.

By listening to Indigenous voices, we reflect on how we can learn and work collaboratively with First Nations communities to ensure cultural and traditional acknowledgment of their rich and fundamental musical histories, both in and out of our sessions.

06/18/2025

🎉STUDIO GRAND OPENING🎉

Come visit the new CMT studio this Saturday between 2pm and 4pm!

Get some cool summer swag, enjoy delicious treats, and enter to win fun prizes! It’s sure to be blast 💥

We’re located within Maple and Spruce Music Academy inside Westmount Shopping Centre, across from the elevators by Reptilia.

Westmount Shopping Centre will be celebrating Canada Day from 11am-2pm this same day, with live music and lots of activities to enjoy.

We cannot wait to see you 😁

Westmount Shopping Centre

01/09/2025

It may be called 'Mini Music', but it's sure to be BIG fun! Come join us at TVCC with Therapeutic Recreation at TVCC this February!

(Feb 4 - 25) Join TVCC's Therapeutic Recreation team and Connections Music Therapy for a brand new parent and child series for toddlers and preschoolers!