This year, students at Joseph Academy will have the opportunity to receive group music therapy once a week. Music therapy is the clinical application of musical elements and evidence-based practice to elicit change in individuals within the context of a therapeutic relationship in order to facilitate, maintain, or restore achievement of the individual’s fullest potential in cognitive, emotional, physical, and social functioning. In music therapy, musical interventions are designed to meet the individual needs of clients and accomplish nonmusical goals. Music reaches individuals on both unconscious and conscious levels by eliciting neurological, emotional, and physiological responses, such as an increase in endorphins, decrease in dopamine and serotonin levels, and entrainment of motor activity. Because music activates these responses within us, controlled music can be used to promote change within these internal processes and can be used to treat the whole person.
Music therapy services at Joseph Academy are provided by the Institute for Therapy through the Arts (ITA). Institute for Therapy through the Arts provides creative solutions to inspire change and growth and to help people achieve a life of health and happiness, offering creative arts therapies such as music therapy, art therapy, dance/movement therapy, and drama therapy. ITA’s neurologic music therapist, Virginia Leahy, will be serving Joseph Academy this school year. Virginia is trained in Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT), a clinical approach based on research in neuroscience of music perception and production. In music therapy, you may see music improvisation, songwriting, lyric analysis, and more to promote mindfulness, healthy coping skills, and other client-centered goals.