Taking Care of Yourself to Better Help Others: An Interview With Kimberly Sena Moore

In her teaching, Dr. Kimberly Sena Moore stresses the importance of “taking care of yourself to better help others.” For her students, self-care has reached a heightened importance similar to identifying stress behaviors in early childhood clients. In this podcast, Kimberly acknowledges the complexity of infant and early childhood mental health and points out that children’s social and emotional development is impacted by various systems. During practicum experiences in early childhood settings, she encourages her students to focus more on pro-social and emotional skills as well as cognitive skills. Her suggestions for parents are to be aware of their own stress level while helping their children feel safe and loved. If there is one thing to hope for, she wishes that children going through the COVID-19 pandemic will develop into resilient young people. 

Resources

  • Sena Moore, K. (2013, August 2). 43 easy ways to engage young kids in music. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-musical-self/201308/43-easy-ways-engage-young-kids-in-music
  • Sena Moore, K. (2014). Understanding emotion regulation development. imagine, 5(1), 76-79.
  • Sena Moore, K. (2015, October 22). 3 musical ways to influence a child’s emotions. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-musical-self/201510/3-musical-ways-influence-childs-emotions
  • Sena Moore, K. (2018). Music therapy and childhood mental health. In A. J. Knight, A. B. LaGasse, & A. A. Clair (Eds.), Music therapy: An introduction to the profession (pp. 341–356). American Music Therapy Association, Inc.
  • UNICEF. (n.d.) What’s on your mind? How parents can start the mental health conversation with their kids #OnMyMind. https://www.unicef.org/parenting/mental-health

About the Interviewee

Kimberly Sena Moore, PhD, MT-BC, is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of the music therapy program at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida. She is known to imagine readers as an expert on emotion regulation development in preschoolers who are neurodevelopmentally at-risk. Her book chapter on music therapy and childhood mental health is standard literature for music therapy students. Contact: ksenamoore@fgcu.edu

Suggested Citation

Kern, P. (2022, September 1). Taking care of yourself to better help others: An interview with Kimberly Sena Moore [Audio podcast]. imagine. www.imagine.musictherapy.biz