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Listening to your intuition: What is it telling you? A music therapist’s journey between two homes.
Written by Bernice Chu, MA, MTA, NMT-F 
A warm hello to YOU, a member of the Music Therapy Academy Community! Wherever you are reading this, I hope our paths cross in real life one day and that we can connect and advocate together for the use of creative arts in healthcare. Before I begin, I must-must-must say thank you and express immense gratitude for Annilee Baron who has done such a remarkable job as Director of Communications. I am so excited for her future endeavours and look forward to reading about her successes. I am inspired to share my story with you with the main aim of sparking conversation - so reach out, let’s chat!
This is my story.
I’ve been thinking a lot about transitions recently. How do we decide where we live? Who we love and live with? What will our occupation be? What hobbies bring out the best in us as individuals? What causes will we spend our lives passionately advocating for? Is there a particular experience or...
Bringing to Light Research of the Efficacy of Music Therapy on Patients with an Acquired Brain Injury
My interest in learning more about the effectiveness of music therapy in the treatment of patients with an acquired brain injury comes from my passion of helping others who lived a “normal” lifestyle like myself and all of a sudden, due to an unfortunate event in their life- now live without the ability to care for themselves, reliving the trauma of the event that has changed their world forever. As a Psychology graduate from McMaster University, with a background in classical piano and voice, I was challenged with the question- there is occupational therapy for individuals who have suffered physical injuries such as broken arms/legs due to accidents, but what is out there for individuals who endure trembling, repetition and frequent outbursts who relive the painful memories of traumatic events that has resulted in an acquired brain injury? After just taking an intro course to music therapy taught by Professor Rachael Finnerty at...
Women in Music Therapy
As we come together to celebrate International women's day as well as Music therapy awareness month, let us take a moment to acknowledge the pioneers of the practice. Dating back to as early as the 1800s to early 1900s (Byers, 2016), the use of music has been a healing tool for many. However, we often forget to acknowledge that this practice has been built on a foundation of women. Much like the ancient Greeks, pioneers Eva Vescelius, Isa Maud Ilsen, and Harriet Ayer Seymour (2016) believed that music was there to be a tool to facilitate health (2016).