The power of music can help people heal.
For Guelph’s Kathleen Skinner, music has the ability to evoke strong emotional responses that can benefit mental care and well-being.
“Music can help to express and share your experiences,” Skinner said.
“Some people have a really hard time connecting with and feeling their emotions. Music is emotional and it can help them.”
Since 2020, Skinner, an accredited music therapist and registered psychotherapist, has owned and operated KS Therapy Services, a local group practice that offers music therapy along with psychotherapy.
“We are all trained psychotherapists in addition to being certified music therapists. We work flexibly between music and counselling, depending on what a person needs,” Skinner said.
“When people come to us, we try to get a sense of what they want to accomplish. Goals for therapy are based on what’s going on in their lives and what they want to see changed. So, through the talking or counselling piece, we actually bring in music in pretty much any form.”
Music therapy can help to support people through a variety of issues including ADHD, trauma, emotion regulation issues, grief, substance use, stress, body image and disordered eating, mood disorders and relationship issues.
“People come for a lot of the same reasons they would for traditional therapy. I work with folks who deal with anxiety and a lot of relationship or childhood trauma. I work with folks who deal with complex family dynamics and depression. It’s pretty wide ranging,” Skinner said.
“I think that people who can really connect with music therapy are those who already have a connection to music. And there are those who, finding the words for what they are going through, can be harder. So, having music makes it easier to talk about it.”
Skinner says most often, music therapy is thought of as being used more so in dementia care or in disability services.
“That’s kind of what it’s known for,” Skinner said.
“But it can benefit everyone. We try to get a sense of how people already use music in their life in a healthy way, or in a therapeutic way, and we build on that.”
Skinner received a Master’s degree in Music therapy from Wilfrid Laurier University.
“I trained in music therapy, specifically with a psychotherapy program. After getting into placements and gaining experience, I realized the power of bringing music and music therapy into mental health care,” Skinner said.
“I did a placement at Homewood and another at Grand River hospital in mental health. I really got to see the cross section of how you can bring music meaningfully into psychotherapy sessions.”
Skinner says she opened her private practice because there really wasn’t anyone else providing this specific type of mental health care focus that included music therapy services.
“What I really love about it is that it’s so wide ranging. For some people, we really dig into how they can use music listening more intentionally in their life. So, we might look at really targeted therapeutic playlists or look at how we can build coping strategies for anxiety that are music centred,” Skinner said.
“We might take traditional breathing exercises and augment them with music. Sometimes it will go a little more into active music making.”
One of her favourite tools, Skinner said, is using songwriting as therapy.
“It’s particularly helpful if you are trying to work through or process something. You really get the sense of having that emotional release by putting your feelings into the song,” she said.
“You also get to process what’s happened and you feel more in control of the narrative.”
Some therapists at KS Therapy Services work with children and others work more so with teens and adults. Skinner says everyone has their own niche.
“For me, music has always been about feeling connected. I also think that it brings a sense of creativity being able to work really flexibly with people,” Skinner said.
“I’m an ‘out of the box’ thinker, so being this type of therapist is not really textbook at all. You meet the person where they are at. And that’s pretty meaningful for me.”
Skinner said often there is a misconception that people must be musical or be good at music.
“That’s not true at all. Everybody can benefit,” she said.
“I love making music. And I love being able to connect with people, to help them in meaningful ways and in turn help them to help themselves in meaningful ways.”
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