New Lifestyles

New Lifestyles Music Therapy utilizes music to address the physical, emotional, cognitive, spiritual, and social needs of individuals. Classes are provided by a board certified music therapist who has completed college course work in psychology, anatomy & physiology, music theory, instrument proficiency, music therapy techniques, and major theories and models of therapy and wellness. By combining this knowledge, the music therapist is able to create strategies involving music that address the person as a whole and promote health on many levels.

At New Lifestyles, music therapy is used in group and individual settings. Music therapy is available to all students and is designed to meet clinical goals such as increasing self-esteem and self-expression; exploration and processing of therapeutic issues; and enhancing social skills and communication. The music therapy groups include improvisational music-making, song-writing exercises, song lyric analysis, singing, and music listening activities. In addition there is a routine community drumming group that addresses goals such as: increasing unity among the students and staff, enhancing self-esteem, promoting stress relief, developing creativity, and expressing unresolved emotions. 

Although New Lifestyles provides equipment for making and recording music, those students with a musical background who prefer, in most cases can bring their own instruments. New Lifestyles enables students to create something tangible to take with them as a reminder of the process they completed during their time at New Lifestyles.