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Keyword: music therapy
Education, Performance, and Healing: How CMU Shaped a Multifaceted Musician
Monday, September 8, 2025 @ 12:00 AM
Heitha Forsyth decided to go back to school almost a decade after graduating with her undergraduate degree. She had a partner, a mortgage, an established career, and school felt distant. "I had to basically pivot life as I knew it," she says. But CMU staff helped her with the adjustment. "When it came to any questions I had about my student loan or anything like that where I wasn't sure what to do and I was feeling vulnerable, there were people to catch me and keep me moving forward. I really appreciated that."
Read More#myCMUlife | “Well… it depends…”: Four insights into studying music therapy at CMU
Thursday, June 5, 2025 @ 9:00 AM
Four years ago, I had never heard of music therapy. Now, I can't imagine doing anything else.
In the fall of 2017, I was heading into the last year of my Bachelor of Music in piano at King's University in Edmonton, trying to figure out what to do afterwards. As I skimmed through a promotional brochure about what to do with a music degree, the words "music therapy" caught my eye. I was instantly intrigued. I remember phoning a music therapist to get more information. When I asked what a typical music therapy workday might look like, she replied with, "Well... it depends...." While I thought this answer was profoundly unhelpful in the moment, I've seen how true it is after studying music therapy at CMU.
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Read More#myCMUlife | Finding purpose through music
Tuesday, February 4, 2025 @ 1:36 PM
If you would have asked me back in 2020 where I saw myself in five years, your guess would've been as good as mine. I've always been indecisive, but with the world in disarray, nobody knew what the future had in store. However, I do know my response would have involved doing something I'm passionate about, helping others, and making a difference. Still, I wouldn't have believed it if you'd told me I would be back at school, studying music no less, and just ten minutes down the road from me. Yet here I am, a CMU student looking to become a music therapist.
I have always had a passion for music and art. My mom is an artist, so she raised us surrounded by all kinds of music and art. My favourite childhood show was The Wiggles—need I say more? One of the only after-school activities I was ever in was elementary school choir, and I sang in school talent shows even though my anxiety made it extremely scary. Looking back now, I realize I should have taken band in middle school. I was a bit scared of the commitment to something so foreign, since reading music wasn't something I felt confident doing. Plus it felt like I didn't have the time for the early mornings and late after-school practices. So, I just continued to sing literally everywhere I went, if I could, and I began collecting instruments in hopes of learning how to play on my own (unsuccessfully, I might add). Because when I sing or play, I feel something deep inside connecting me to the music.
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Read MoreMeet Music Therapist Lacey Friesen: She doesn’t sing ALL day
Thursday, May 30, 2024 @ 9:17 AM
I guess you could say that music runs in Lacey Friesen's blood. Her role as a Music Therapist at HSC Children's Hospital could not be better suited to her interests, personality, or way of life.
"I grew up in a very musical family, with a mother who taught private music lessons, a father who plays drums and sings, and two musical sisters. We grew up singing in church together," said Lacey. "There was just so much music around me."
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Read MoreAlumni in Their Own Words - Nicole Richard Williams
Wednesday, April 17, 2024 @ 9:45 AM
Nicole Richard graduated from CMU in 2013 with a Bachelor of Music Therapy.
Where has your life taken you since you left CMU?
After finishing my Bachelor of Music Therapy at CMU, I worked as a music therapist in Winnipeg for about three years. During this time, I started working with many clients on the autism spectrum and noticed that doing rhythmic and drumming interventions with these folks really seemed to help them reach some of their therapeutic goals. I wanted to deepen my understanding of how exactly music therapy could help autistic children. Going to grad school had always been a dream of mine, and so I decided to take some time off working to do a Master's in Music and Health Science at the University of Toronto. During that degree, I decided I wanted to continue on and do a PhD and was accepted again at the Music and Health Science Research Collaboratory (the lab out of which the master's and PhD are based) at the University of Toronto.
Read MoreMusic Therapy degree opens worlds of opportunity for graduate
Monday, April 1, 2019 @ 11:18 AM
Rebekah Miller sees the effects of music's transformative power in countless different ways every week. No two days on the job are ever alike for the music therapist and educator.
"One day I'm working with two-year olds and then the next I'm working with 102-year olds," says Miller, who graduated from CMU with a Bachelor of Music Therapy in 2018. "What I love the most about my work right now is the diversity. I love working with different age groups and having different goals."
Read MoreFaculty: In Their Own Words – Michelle Yaciuk
Tuesday, January 15, 2019 @ 12:00 PM
Michelle Yaciuk, Assistant Professor of Music Therapy, has taught at CMU since January 2016. She is also the owner of Prelude Music, which provides music therapy and music education services for children and youth.
Read MoreFaculty: In Their Own Words – Lee-Anne Dowsett
Thursday, November 1, 2018 @ 12:00 PM
Lee-Anne Dowsett, Assistant Professor of Music Therapy, has taught at CMU since January 2016.
What do you love about your work here?
I absolutely love our students. We have amazing, incredible, talented, and passionate students. I love working with my colleagues in the School of Music. I also really like getting to know faculty across the university in different disciplines that I haven't interacted with before.
Music Therapy graduate making a difference
Thursday, December 14, 2017 @ 7:52 AM
Jesse Dollimont has always known about music's therapeutic effect, but it became especially real to her while working as an intern at the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary, AB.
Dollimont, who graduated from CMU with a Bachelor of Music Therapy in 2016, recalls times during her internship when she would go to the hospital's intensive care unit and play music for a child in distress.
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