Week 8: Interview with Alec Betterley

Hi everyone, this week has been a fantastic week regarding my progression with my senior project. From the survey that I sent out to music therapists in the New York area I was able to get a couple of interviews with music therapists to really understand what goes on in the environment. Alec Betterley sent me his email and scheduled a zoom meeting to discuss his experience as a music therapist. The meeting was around forty minutes long. Of course, I asked for his permission to record the zoom meeting so I could rewatch the video and take notes and share it onto my website. Here are the questions that I asked him during the interview.

1. What sparked your passion to work within the ASD community?
2. What specifically led you to the practice of music therapy?
3. How has tele-therapy benefitted or challenged you when helping students?
4. What advice would you give to families that had their child just diagnosed with ASD when it comes to music therapy?
5. What are the criteria for setting up a good music therapy session?
6. Can you maybe talk about your session that you just had before this interview? A brief summary of certain activities you did. 
7. Now I’m researching the effectiveness of music therapy and wanted to see if I can gain a perspective from you. Was there any moment as a music therapist where you felt like it was due to music therapy that benefitted this child immensely?
8. What are frequently asked questions that are asked by families when they first come to your clinic? (if you had to name two or three)

Alec Betterley gave me amazing answers to these questions during the interview. I felt that I learned way more from Alec Betterley than I learned from just videos and articles . He gave me a more personal perspective into the environment of music therapy.