Music therapist · Developer · Newcastle, Australia
I'm Carlin, a Registered Music Therapist. Most of my week is spent in sessions, and a lot of the rest goes into building the tools I wish I'd had in them: apps, web tools and platforms for therapists and the people they work with.
Individual and group sessions through Play Anything Music Therapy, the practice I started in 2017.
Apps and web tools for communication, music-making and regulation, shaped by what actually happens in sessions.
Research, writing and platforms like Supervisory that help allied health clinicians support each other.
Most of what I build starts as a problem I ran into in a session.
A growing collection of free digital tools for music therapists, including visual schedules, choice boards, soundboards, Beat Garden and Finger Gym. They're web apps that open in seconds on whatever device is in the room, and your work saves to your account.
A place for allied health professionals to find the right clinical supervisor. Natalie Jack and I started it because supervisees kept telling us how hard that was. It's multidisciplinary, and it's free for supervisees.
Mobile apps
Song titles, chord progressions and lyric prompts for songwriting.
Music-making with no wrong notes, on big colourful pads.
A gentle, switch-accessible story of music and high-contrast art.
A lyric library for group sing-alongs.
A simple, accessible metronome, built with music therapist Joe Thompson.
ChoiceBoard+, Visual Schedule Pro, SoundKit, Quiety, Easy Play Piano and others.
My practice
I started Play Anything in 2017 to offer music therapy in the Hunter region. Sessions can include playing instruments, moving to music, singing, songwriting and reflection, shaped around each person and what they want to work on.
A lot of my clinical work is with children and adults with disability, and it's where most of my ideas for tools come from.
Music technology can make therapy more accessible and more motivating, but clinicians have had little guidance on when it actually helps. This article proposes a simple framework for deciding when, how and why to bring technology into a session.
Australian Journal of Music Therapy, Vol. 32(1), Special Edition
I like working with people who care about access, whether they're clinicians, researchers, educators, developers or organisations. If you have an idea that sits somewhere between therapy and technology, I'd love to hear it.
Whether it's a project, a question or an idea for a tool, send me a message.