My Music Therapist Origin Story

Music therapy is still a relatively unknown field. While it has been gaining popularity over the past couple of decades, there are just over 1000 of us working in Canada currently. To this day, I continue to have a lot of conversations that go a lot like this:

New friend: “So, what do you do for work?”

Me: “Oh, I’m a music therapist!”

NF: “A music therapist? I’ve never heard of that. What is that?”

And I tell them exactly what I’m about to tell you. But first, how did I get here?

This story cycles back to my grade 11 year of high school. While my high school days are many years behind me now, this truly is where it all began. Grade 11 is the year where you have to make some pretty big decisions in terms of pursuing education past high school. I am sure we can all remember the stress of picking the right courses, and then excelling at them in order to have our options wide open when choosing a school and program.

I knew I wanted to do something where I was helping others, but I couldn’t pin point exactly what that meant to me. I also knew that I was a talented musician - however, it is no secret that being a professional musician is incredibly difficult, and I wasn’t sure that was the path I wanted to pursue for myself anyway.

And then, I had a light bulb moment in my repertoire class.

My music teacher was extremely generous in the sense that he was passionate about music, and wanted to share that passion with everyone. He frequently invited students from the special education department to sit in on our class and listen to us practice and rehearse. One student in particular responded with so much enthusiasm when we played, and her face would light up with each piece we played. She used a wheelchair to get around, and was very rigid in her movements, but visibly loved to move her body to the music. My teacher noticed that her movements resembled the movements he made while conducting us, and he asked her if she would like to conduct us through one of our pieces.

She was ecstatic.

He wheeled her up to the conductor podium, placed a baton in her hand, and stood behind her to help us stay on beat if we got lost. The look on her face as we played through the piece still sticks with me to this day. She had the biggest smile on her face, was shrieking out in delight, and was working her arms so hard to conduct us. It was such a beautiful moment, that I thought to myself there has to be a job that exists where I can use music to empower others.

I went home that day and Googled “music and helping people”. I wish it was cooler than that, but I had no idea where to start! And honestly, that phrase brought me all the answers that I needed.

“Music and helping people” led me to Wilfrid Laurier University’s Music Therapy program. Having no idea what music therapy is, I read and researched everything I could find. I discovered which populations I could potentially work with, where I could work and determined if this was realistic for me. I reviewed the Bachelor of Music Therapy admission requirements so many times to make sure I was even eligible. I became obsessed with the field, and the potential that lay ahead. Once I knew that this was what I wanted to do, I worked hard at getting my musicianship where it needed to be, determined to excel at the audition.

As of 2021, I am in my fifth year of practicing music therapy. I have worked with a variety of ages and populations, anywhere from a premature infant in the NICU to an 104-year old resident in long term care. It is my biggest honour that I can bring joy and assistance to others through music.

So, what is a music therapist? To me, a music therapist is many things. We are evidence-based, goal oriented practitioners who use music to reach non-musical goals. We are performers without the ego, as the music we play is for others. We are collaborators, innovators, and health care leaders focused on emotional wellbeing to better aid the physical wellbeing. We are creative individuals who love to share our gift with our clients, and see our clients thrive in and out of sessions. We don’t just sing to people - we aim to establish therapeutic relationships and be someone our clients can trust.

We continue to be flexible and adaptive to keep up with the world and it’s ever-changing ways. And I think that is what makes us relevant and even more important to have as a resource! My favourite part about this field is it’s quick ability to make a connection to someone new.

Because no matter where you come from, there is always at least one song, one moment, one concert, one memory that you carry throughout your lifetime.