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A few moments with Dr. Kimberly Sena Moore

Kimberly Sena Moore, Ph.D., MT-BC is music therapy faculty in the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. She earned her B.M. in music therapy from the University of Iowa, an M.M. in music therapy from Colorado State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas-Missouri. Kimberly’s research focuses on emotion regulation development, particularly in preschoolers who are neurodevelopmentally at-risk, as well as clinical music intervention development. Outside academia, her professional work involves advocacy, policy, and social media communications. Kimberly has presented extensively at regional, national, and international conferences, her research has been published the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives, and Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, and her work has been featured in media outlets such as Psychology Today, Redbook, and CURE.

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How did you get your start in music therapy?

I started my college career as a flute performance major, knowing that though I loved music, performance wasn’t an exact fit for me. The summer after my freshman year of college I was working part-time as a lifeguard, and one of my fellow lifeguards was a music therapy major (about to head to internship, actually). It was through our conversations that I got interested in this field of music therapy. In fact, I have this vivid, pivotal memory of sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of a tall bookshelf in her apartment, thumbing through one of her music therapy textbooks, thinking “This is exactly what I want to do.”

The next day I called my mom to tell her about this new direction I wanted to pursue. The college I was currently attending did not have a music therapy degree, but fortunately two of the colleges where I had been accepted the


year prior did! So in the middle of the summer I up and transferred to the University of Iowa and began my music therapy studies with Drs. Kate Gfeller and Mary Adamek.


You’ve been involved in a lot of research that directly impacts the music therapy community. Can you tell me more about your current projects?

My primary research line centers on the development of a music intervention called Musical Contour Regulation Facilitation, or MCRF. The purpose of this intervention is to promote emotion regulation (ER) development in preschoolers who are neurodevelopmentally at-risk. I define this term “at-risk” broadly, as it includes various reasons a child may be at-risk to develop maladaptive ER skills. These may be due to environmental circumstance (e.g. complex trauma), medical reason


s (e.g. long-term hospitalization in the NICU), or developmental reasons (e.g. a neurodevelopmental disorder).

So the MCRF intervention is a multi-session intervention that utilizes the contour of a music therapy session to help preschoolers practice shifting between music-elicited high and low arousal states and managing the sensations of those sensory states. This theoretically mirrors how ER is learned and practiced in infancy.

As the MCRF is a novel intervention, my collaborator (Dr. Deanna Hanson-Abromeit from the University of Kansas) and I are taking a systematic, intentional appropriate to its development. Our first study was a mixed methods feasibility study published in the Journal of Music Therapy in 2018. Here, we found  the MCRF intervention was deemed acceptable and helpful by participants, and there was an impact on some measures related to preschooler ER skills. We are currently wrapping up data analyses on our second study. This study (and here I have to give a shoutout to the


AMTA who funded this project) is a clinical pilot study. We are examining intervention dosage (in other words, is there a difference in effectiveness if children participate in the interve


ntion three times a week or once a week) and piloting the training of an interventionist (with the idea that in the future we can train others in this intervention).

You can find a full listing of my publications here, many of which relate to the development of the MCRF intervention: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8665-1493

What advice do you have for those going into the field? And for those just graduating?

My biggest piece of advice is to always keep learning. Keep learning about music, keep learning about neuroscience, keep learning clinical skills, keep learning about yourself. Commit to being a lifelong learner, and you will lead a rich life.


What keeps you motivated in our profession which is known to have burn out and compassion fatigue?

To things, really. First is the human connection. More specifically, it’s the moments of connection, learning, and growth that keep me motivated. This first came from my clients, and now comes from my students. Being a witness to change and understanding is a beautiful and humbling thing.

Second is curiosity. This thing we harness—music—is fascinating. There’s a science to it, an art to it, and there’s the innate depth of our responses to it. I find it all endlessly thrilling.

What’s the last book you’ve read for fun? 

I generally have two books going at a time, one print book (generally during summer and winter breaks only) and one Audible book (always ready). Print-wise, I am currently reading Christopher Small’s 1998 text Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening. Even though it relates to my professional work, as any reading I do these days is my choice, I consider it “fun!” On Audible I just finished Glennon Doyle’s 2020 memoir Untamed, and have Abi Daré’s 2020 novel The girl with the louding voice up next.

What’s a recipe that means a lot to you, and why?

I am the cook in my family and enjoy cooking quite a bit. (In fact, as I write this we just had a major holiday, where I spent 4 hours cooking our family dinner. It was lovely.) So I don’t know that I have a particular recipe to share, but I do loooove one-pot meals. Always have. I think it has to do with the mixing and mashing of flavors and textures, and perhaps too with the efficiency of getting all your nutrients at once.


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