Throughout her 20-year career as a music therapist, Crystal Weaver, the director of music therapy at Maryville University, has worked with hundreds of individuals of all ages. She can recall countless experiences that speak to the restorative power of music—for instance, patients with Alzheimer’s who couldn’t recognize their close friends and family members suddenly remembering a song from their youth and singing it perfectly or still knowing how to play the piano despite being in the disease’s final stage.
“It’s miraculous,” Weaver says. “I’ve seen individuals, working in oncology, with cancer diagnoses…using music as an outlet to appropriately express to others what they are thinking and feeling and experiencing, and being able to continue with their treatment because they’re able to have that outlet of expression.”
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Music has been used as a healing tool for centuries, but music therapy as a discipline has its roots in the United States military after World War I and II, when music aided the recovery of service members in Army hospitals. Recent studies suggest that music therapy may benefit a variety of populations, including people with cognitive impairment or various types of dementia, people with mental health conditions, and even infants.
The World Federation of Music Therapy celebrates World Music Therapy Week every year from April 10–15. To mark the event, we’ve highlighted some of St. Louis’ music therapy resources, which offer services for everyone from toddlers to seniors.
Music Therapy STL and the Song Society
Jaime Kennington and Tracie Sandheinrich each had a private practice before launching Music Therapy St. Louis in 2018. The business’ team of seven therapists works with children and adults of varying abilities, offering individual and group programs. The organization also partners with several nonprofits to bring music therapy to children in foster care, survivors of sexual assault, and more.
The services offered by Music Therapy STL are united by a trauma-informed approach—a form of care that seeks to understand and respond to an individual’s particular history of trauma while avoiding procedures that may re-traumatize them.
“It’s all a client-centered, strength-based approach,” Sandheinrich says. “That’s our philosophy…matching our clients where they are and giving them a chance to make the choices.”
In April 2023, Kennington and Sandheinrich launched The Song Society, a nonprofit 501(c)3 that partners with pediatric hospitals and other nonprofits to serve children, teens, and families experiencing life-altering medical conditions. The group focuses on therapeutic songwriting, a form of music therapy in which patients are guided through writing and recording original material.
Kennington and Sandheinrich came up with the Song Society while researching the lack of creative arts therapies offered to children with chronic illnesses. They found that local hospitals usually had a scant number of creative arts therapists, and that children who visited/needed outpatient services often couldn’t participate in creative arts therapies at all. After conversing with local pediatric hospitals about the issue, they established the Song Society to help bring music therapy to inpatients and outpatients.
“When you’re diagnosed with a chronic illness, you get a lot of your choice and independence taken away from you,” Sandheinrich says. “That truly is the beauty of therapeutic songwriting…It really is giving them that independence back.”
The Angel Band Project
In July 2009, St. Louis native Teresa Butz was killed by a man who broke into her and her partner’s Seattle home and assaulted both women. Rachel Ebeling, a longtime friend of Butz’s, started the Angel Band Project to record an album that would honor her friend and help raise funds for programs that support survivors of sexual assault. Soon after, she established it as a 501(c)3 nonprofit offering music therapy resources to survivors.
The Angel Band Project provides free music therapy programming to various crisis counseling agencies and shelters throughout St. Louis, New York City, and Seattle, with a focus on small-group workshops. While individual sessions are an option, Ebeling says she’s noticed the best results come from the small-group format and the sense of community it fosters.
Community is a major aspect of the Angel Band Project’s approach. Ebeling says the therapeutic benefits of music partially stem from its universally understood and collaborative nature.
“Many times, people who have endured sexual trauma or intimate partner violence can feel very isolated and alone in their story,” she says. “When you bring music into a space with the purpose of having it be therapeutic, it can open a person up to communicate— to decrease that sense of isolation that they might have felt.”
Kids Rock Cancer
Kids Rock Cancer is a nonprofit program owned and operated by Maryville University, providing free music therapy sessions to children experiencing cancer or blood disorders and children with family members experiencing these conditions. The program focuses on therapeutic songwriting, and serves young children,adolescents, and teenagers up to age 18.
Sessions with younger children include exercises like recording the child’s heartbeat, then incorporating it into a composition to demonstrate that rhythms exist in the human body. Adolescents and teenagers, on the other hand, are more involved in the songwriting process, writing lyrics and sometimes playing the instruments.
Maryville’s music therapy program is based out of its College of Health Professions, whereas other music therapy programs throughout the country often fall under a university’s College of Arts and Sciences, according to Weaver. She says this is advantageous for Maryville students and, in turn, children involved with Kids Rock Cancer.
“Our students are learning with the speech pathology students, with the physical therapy students, with the occupational therapy students, with the nursing students…they’re really immersed in the healthcare industry,” Weaver says. “I think that makes a huge difference in the students’ learning experience, but also in what our clients receive from Kids Rock Cancer.”
Kids Rock Cancer offers individual music therapy sessions, as well as group sessions with the child’s family members. Weaver says the latter option encourages children to share their experiences with others through the creative process.
“Many of the sessions also focus on the child and another family member, like a sibling or parent, or grandparent, and them writing that song together as a family unit, which can be really powerful for the child, because it allows them to have positive, shared experiences,” she says.
Midwest Music Therapy Services
When Maria Carron started Midwest Music Therapy Services in 2000, the private practice consisted only of herself and two other therapists. Now, 28 therapists are part of the team. Carron attributes this growth to an increased awareness of music therapy and its benefits.
The organization provides music therapy services to families and agencies throughout St. Louis and its surrounding areas, working with infants through adults in individual and group sessions. Its therapists specialize in populations with developmental needs, youths in foster care, palliative and elder care, and more. One of the group’s most noteworthy programs is “STL Rockabilities,” which caters to adults and adolescents of varying musicianship levels using a rock band format. Individuals are grouped into bands of four to five members to build communication skills.
Carron says she’s seen the STL Rockabilities program benefit people who often struggle in social interactions.
“Usually the parents say, ‘They love music, but they don’t have many social skills,’” Carron says. “They come into our program, and a light comes on when they see, ‘This other person in the group also likes this song, and enjoys music and playing instruments. I can find success making friends in this social setting.’”
Maria Morris, one of the group’s therapists, says the program can help people learn how to communicate their wants and needs.
“One student would spontaneously sing, but it didn’t correspond with intentional communication,” Morris says. “After working with them, they’re using words and phrases learned through songs in a more intentional way.”
