Music Therapy Association of Minnesota (MTAM) Presents:

Barbara Else has many credits to her name including being a consultant in research and policy, serving as a Special Projects Consultant and Sr. Policy and Research Advisor for the American Music Therapy Association.  She also maintains a part-time private music therapy practice, is a professional musician and part-time studio recording artist.  She is an active volunteer in the areas of disaster services and mental health.

About Psychological First Aid:
PFA is an evidence-informed approach for assisting people in the immediate aftermath of disaster and terrorism: to reduce initial distress, and to foster short and long-term adaptive functioning. It is for use by disaster responders including first responders, incident command systems, primary and emergency health care providers, school crisis response teams, faith-based organizations, disaster relief organizations, Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), Medical Reserve Corps, and the Citizens Corps in diverse settings.
PFA’s principle actions are to establish safety and security, connect to restorative resources, reduce stress-related reactions, foster adaptive short- and long-term coping, and enhance natural resilience (rather than preventing long-term pathology). This CMTE will discuss, in detail, core actions associated with these principles and will integrate, where possible, music therapy adapted techniques and interventions.

The training program used was developed by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (www.NCTSN.org) and the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (www.ncptsd.va.gov). It is endorsed for use by the U.S. Medical Reserve Corps, American Red Cross, and the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The course will be facilitated by certified trainer Barbara A. Else. Barbara has adapted the experiential, or applied and “hands on” portion of the core content of the PFA training program.