Part of the fun of using music, sound, and songwriting for healing is improvising. In my workshops, I like to ask people to take out their instruments and begin playing. You can probably imagine I get a lot of blank stares and odd looks. But I assure everyone they do have instruments with them.

There’s a misconception that creative interventions focus solely on artistic ideas, such as art or music. But if you practice under that assumption, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities to be creative with your clients. Creativity is really about finding different perspectives of expression. Not everyone expresses themselves in the same way. And [...]

Sound is very powerful. It can bring up memories, thoughts, and feelings. Have you ever heard a song and immediately had an image of what you were doing when you first heard it? Or heard a song from your childhood that brought up some strong feelings (good or bad)? If you have ever been in [...]

In counseling, dissonance has to do with contradicting thoughts or beliefs. It is often tied into our clients’ presenting problems with the ultimate goal of bringing relief or resolution. Through whatever interventions we use, we help our clients see contradictions and help them resolve the tension, anxiety, etc. that they feel as a result.

I’ve been singing so long about so many things, I don’t even realize it anymore. I can sing about the everyday mundane tasks like brushing my teeth, going grocery shopping, being stuck in traffic, or feeding my cats, to the bigger stuff like relationships, challenges, and mental illness. Inspiration strikes anywhere and everywhere. But I [...]

In my experience, many people view songwriting as some mystical process that only few, gifted people are endowed with. It’s sometimes difficult for me to address this because songwriting has always come quite easily to me. But I liken it to other skills I don’t have that I am mystified by and try to see [...]

In Part 1 of Lessons from Lyrics, I talked about the power of thoughts, words, and lyrics. Here in Part 2, I’m going to share some examples of how I use lyrics in my songwriting therapy work. Here is an example: Changing the words One activity I use involves taking an existing song and just [...]

Words are powerful, whether they are spoken aloud or in the form of thoughts. What someone says can give us a glimpse into how they are feeling – about themselves, their environment, and their circumstances. And how we assess and provide treatment to clients is affected greatly by what they tell us.