Tag: music therapy
A journalist experiences Guided Imagery and Music
A journalist and friend, Damian Fowler, interviewed me and other music therapists, and writes about his personal experience of a music therapy session. You can read about his experience here in order to get a sense of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) and music therapy from a client’s perspective, and to read about his profound experience […]
Read MoreTreating trauma with Guided Imagery and Music.
In 2015, I co-authored an article for the journal, Music and Medicine, a link to which can be found here: Treatment of Trauma Utilizing GIM. The editors describe the article: This report is a generous synthesis of GIM and The Bonny Method, reflecting how music and imagery can impact work with trauma, PTSD, and how it […]
Read MoreI Got Life! – Being fully alive in the aesthetic experience
Nina Simone – Ain’t Got No…I’ve Got Life – YouTube. I haven’t been able to get this song out of head since watching this video over the New Year. It’s originally from the musical, “Hair”, and Nina Simone sang and recorded this song many times in her career, each time switching up the words to […]
Read MoreClive Robbins and his commitment to beauty
I’m sitting here, processing in music and art, the passing of Clive Robbins. I am more deeply affected by his passing than I might have imagined. He was my teacher for a semester at NYU. He was also a colleague – I stood in and lectured for him at Nordoff-Robbins once, in the same lecture […]
Read MoreA vacation for the ears
On our June vacation last year, to the Pacific Northwest coast of the US, and a weekend spent in Massachusetts, I was delightfully thrown into nature. On a walk through the Hoh Rainforest (part of the Olympic National Forest), I was struck both by the silence and the sounds. The coast gave me the roar […]
Read MoreHelen Bonny – Inspiration
Helen Bonny died on May 25th, 2010. She was a pioneer in the field of music therapy, leading the way in using western classical music to expand explorations of consciousness, through developing Guided Imagery and Music. She was a wonderful example to us all, whatever our calling – following her bliss, unafraid of criticism, and […]
Read MoreMusic: making whole
Last year, whilst in Edinburgh, I had the good fortune to go hear a bunch of fine musicians in the space of about 3 days. (They included Emily Scott, Teitur, Benni Hemm Hemm, Withered Hand, and Alasdair Roberts). Those few days still stand out in my mind – the music connected me to parts of […]
Read MoreThe art of the intervention
Being a therapist is humbling – I love and am challenged daily by the work of being a therapist. No matter how much one thinks one knows from books, training, and mentors, it is only in the doing that one learns. The art of timing the therapeutic intervention is incredibly nuanced. I was reminded of […]
Read MoreA few words about beauty
Yes – I’m tackling Beauty on my first Blog post. And chances are it will be a recurring theme in these posts. I am a music therapist. My work involves facilitating aesthetic experiences with and for my clients. Beautiful sounds make up a majority of the therapy sessions. Who are my music therapy influences in […]
Read More