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I attended the meeting for music therapy students and young professionals on the weekend of the 26th and 27th of February in Heidelberg, Germany, which was organised by two wonderful student delegates of the German Music Therapy Association, Monika Hoog Antink and Serey Mao.The weekend started with a warm welcome of all students who came not only from Germany but also from cities like Enschede and Vienna in neighbour countries. Almost 100 participants filled the lecture rooms of the SRH faculty of music therapy!Afterwards it started straight away with some very interesting lectures about music therapy with seniors and those with a migrant background, the effects of music therapy on a patient’s pain sensibility with rheumatic illness, and music therapy with neglect syndrome. I found it very interesting how they used active and receptive interventions from Corene Thaut to improve the motor ability of the body with this type of disease.Before we had an amazing vegan dinner, we divided into smaller groups and discussed one specific topic. My group discussed the topic of how to network with music therapy students from all around the world, and we all came to the solution that there needs to be created some kind of website/blog or chatroom for music therapy students to get easily in contact with each other. It would be amazing to share experiences and help each other to find an internship placement in a foreign country. There already exists a Facebook group and the World Federation of Music Therapy also provides features in finding music therapy students in different places, still there does not exist an easy way of communication so far. Who knows, maybe someone is having fun in creating some kind of communication tool?The next morning, a huge drum circle energized each one of us, which was a lot of fun. The program that day offered many different workshops, like how to lead a singing group with refugees, how to use our hands to repair a Djembe, and how to create a band with YouTube.We also had a very famous music therapist visitor who did a huge work for the German music therapy world. Prof. Dr. Hans-Helmut Decker-Voigt gave answers to many interesting questions from the students.The two full days of program ended in a beautiful evening in the jazz house in the middle of the romantic old city of Heidelberg. Of course, there also was a lot of music performed on the open stage!I am very happy I had the chance to visit this fantastic meeting with so many interesting new contributions to my work as a music therapist and that I got the chance to meet so many beautiful people. Thank you Monika and Serey!Tamara Ziegler, GermanyWFMT Student Delegate for Europe
