You know the feeling — you’ve had a tough day, you’re a little stressed out. You get in the car, roll the windows down, and pop on your favorite song and crank up the volume.
Voila! Just like that, you breathe a little easier, you relax, you feel better.
At Longmont’s SoundWell Music Therapy, founder Faith Halverson-Ramos is expanding on the concept that music can help foster improved mental health.
The trained vocalist, musician, Naropa University graduate and board-certified music therapist and transpersonal psychotherapist founded SoundWell in 2015 and works with children, adults and the elderly.
She recently opened a new office on Francis Street to house her growing practice
We chatted with Halverson-Ramos to learn more about music therapy.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: How did you get involved with music therapy?
After college in Wisconsin, I had been living in South Korea and teaching English for a year. I was at kind of a crossroads where it wasn’t exactly clear what I should do next. I knew I should probably be doing something different. That’s when I decided I would go back to school and study these music therapy concepts.
I had the idea for the business during my last semester when I was getting my master’s degree at Naropa in 2004. But it didn’t really come to fruition until 2015. By that point, I had worked for a few years with the Boulder Valley School District as a special education paraeducator in early childhood settings. Then I spent a few years working as a music therapist with a hospice company.
I really came to appreciate the power that music can have on people throughout the whole scope of human development.
Q: How does a music therapy session work?
The sessions can look very different depending on who the client is and what they feel comfortable doing.
I should note that you don’t need to be a musician to benefit from music therapy. But if a person isn’t a musician, sometimes it can take them a little while to feel comfortable. So we may start with work that just plays around with sounds.
For example, we would talk and I’ll be listening to their tone of voice and find themes that could be explored through music. If I notice that someone is really caught up in their head and feeling disconnected, I might suggest we do some vocal toning work together as a way to reconnect, take a deep breath, and just create a sound. That helps people slow down and get to the heart of emotions they might have trouble expressing.
With teenagers and kids who have difficulty communicating, it is often helpful to do some really simple improvisations with musical instruments as a way to replace verbal communication. We are able to communicate and have conversations using music. For kids who are struggling with social skills, this helps them start to learn how to listen to another person and respond back. This back-and-forth turn-taking is critical for communication and hopefully helps inspire speech.
Sometimes people want to write a song, so we will do songwriting as a way to help them express what they are feeling.
Sometimes we will just listen to a song — sharing a piece of music can be a really safe way to share who they are without feeling overly exposed.
Q: Why is it important for people to have access to a different mental health service options such as music therapy?
We are a very diverse culture and community. Everybody at some point — whether you are on the autism spectrum, whether you have dementia, or if you are a typically developing person — has a mental health issue.
For those people who are wired differently, I think it is important that there are the types of mental health services that can treat them most effectively. Taking a one-size-fits-all approach isn’t the way to look at this kind of treatment.
We are creative beings. So creating things of beauty and connecting with music is a part of who we are. Because of that, music can also be a part of mental health treatment options.
Q: Is there a piece of music that you turn to when you need a pick-me-up?
Whenever I’m feeling despondent about the state of the world, Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” album is just so beautiful. The album is one of the most beautiful things ever. It motivates me to continue doing what it is that I do and growing my business the way that I want to grow it.
Q: What are your goals for the future of SoundWell?
At the heart of where I want my business to be is to be a community mental health and music therapy hub. There needs to be connectivity with these kinds of services in the school system, in the health care system. I’m working with the community to increase access to this really powerful form of mental health treatment that can benefit anybody.
Lucas High: 303-684-5310, lhigh@times-call.com, twitter.com/lucashigh
