FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

I specialize in helping creatives, performers, and healers recover from trauma, reconnect with creativity, and feel more grounded, authentic, and fully themselves.

Many of my clients are: artists, musicians, writers, dancers, theatre performers, actors, therapists, psychologists, nurses, and creative adults who love music & art.

I work regularly with members of the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities. All identities are welcome in my practice.

I offer therapy in person in Waterbury, Vermont, and online across Maryland and Vermont.

Somatic music therapy is a body-centered approach to therapy that uses music, imagery, and awareness of physical sensation to help you process emotions and trauma, instead of relying on talking alone.

It's the name I give to the way I work: a blend of somatic processing, trauma-responsive care, and Resource-Oriented Guided Imagery & Music, a method rooted in music therapy. You choose a song from your own playlist, and we let it guide you inward… noticing the sensations, images, and memories that surface. Your relationship with music becomes a mirror, reflecting back what's ready to be heard.

No musical experience needed. Just curiosity, a relationship with music, and a willingness to listen.

Talk therapy works mainly through conversation: understanding your past, reframing beliefs, and building coping strategies. Somatic therapy works through the body, helping you notice and move through what you feel in real time.

Both have value. But if you've spent years in talk therapy and understand your patterns perfectly well… and still feel stuck in them, that's often a sign the work needs to move from your head into your body. Trauma and anxiety live in the nervous system, not just in our thoughts. Somatic work meets them there.

Yes. Music therapy can be an effective part of trauma treatment because music engages the nervous system, emotions, and memory directly, often reaching places words can't.

For many of my clients, music has been a safe space for as long as they can remember. In our work, we use that relationship on purpose. Music can help regulate your nervous system, bring up imagery and memories at a pace that feels manageable, and help you connect with inner resources like calm, confidence, and self-compassion. Healing looks different for everyone, and we'll always move at the pace your body can handle.

Resource-Oriented Guided Imagery & Music is a music therapy method in which you listen to music in a relaxed state and explore the imagery, sensations, and feelings it brings up, with a focus on building inner resources rather than diving straight into painful memories.

It grows out of the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music, developed in the 1970s. The "resource-oriented" approach is gentle by design: we strengthen your sense of safety, steadiness, and self-trust first. Many clients describe the imagery that emerges as a kind of message from within… something they knew, but couldn't put into words until the music helped it surface.

I am licensed to meet with clients located throughout Maryland, Vermont, and Pennsylvania.

I offer in-person appointments on Tuesdays at an office space in Waterbury, Vermont. Outside of these hours, services are completely virtual.

Sessions are held via a HIPAA compliant version of Zoom. As long as you are located in Vermont, Maryland, or Pennsylvania at the time of your appointment, I am able to meet with you.

$245 for the initial session (60 minutes)

$235 for all ongoing sessions (55 minutes)

I accept all major credit cards (including HSA/FSA), and provide Good Faith Estimates to help you receive reimbursements through your Out Of Network (OON) benefits with insurance.

An active credit card number is required to be on file. This information is kept in a HIPAA secure platform called Simple Practice.

It depends on your insurance, and whether or not you have out-of-network (OON) benefits.

Your Tempo Healing is not in-network with any insurance company, which means:

• you are required to pay all fees at the time of service

• I can send you a monthly statement, called a Superbill, that you submit to your insurance (as some plans may reimburse you for costs related to attending therapy)

Your Tempo Healing partners with a service called Mentaya, which helps streamline the process of submitting claims to insurance. I am happy to share more about this option if you are interested.

Trauma therapy addresses the mental, emotional, and physical impacts of painful experiences in the past & present.

Trauma isn’t always a big event (though it can be). Sometimes, trauma shows up as a series of invalidating, overwhelming, or distressing experiences across time.

Trauma can present as maladaptive coping mechanisms - like people-pleasing, overthinking, and perfectionism. It can feel like losing trust in yourself; or a deep sense of loneliness or unease.

Trauma is felt in the body. You don’t have to remember or know exactly what happened, in order to be impacted by it.

Trauma can stem from personal, historical, and intergenerational experiences.

Somatic music therapy blends bodily awareness and deep listening of music. This is not about thinking or talking our way through problems - it is about experiencing, embodying, and allowing processing to happen naturally, beyond words.

During a therapy session, you will be invited to listen to music (of your choosing), and to allow the music to guide you into the depths of your emotional world. You will notice the imagery that arises, and this imagery becomes a source of deeper information. We might integrate movement and drawing, depending on your comfort level and what we are working on that day.

The session concludes with some time to re-orient back into the present, as well as bring the awareness you gained into cognitive understanding.

Somatic music therapy is for anyone who’s experienced the limitations of talk therapy, and wants to go deeper to heal mind and body.

Brainspotting is a brain-body therapy that uses where you look to help access and process emotions and trauma held deep in the brain and nervous system.

Developed by Dr. David Grand in 2003, it's based on the idea that a specific eye position, a "brainspot," can connect to an experience stored in the body. While you hold your gaze on that spot and notice what you feel, your system has the chance to process what's been stuck, often without needing to find the perfect words. Learn more about Brainspotting →

Brainspotting grew out of EMDR, but where EMDR moves your eyes back and forth along a structured protocol, Brainspotting holds your gaze on a single point and follows your body's own process with less structure.

Many people find it feels more spacious and less scripted. Instead of working through set steps, we stay with what your body brings up, moment to moment. Brainspotting can also be paired with music, which makes it a natural fit for the way I work.

Yes. Therapy can help with performance anxiety and imposter syndrome, especially when it addresses the body's stress response and the old beliefs about worthiness underneath them, not just the symptoms.

As a classical flutist who trained in music performance, I know this one from the inside: the racing heart before a solo, the voice saying you don't belong in the room, the endless comparison. Somatic work helps your nervous system feel safer under pressure. And together, we look at where the belief that you have to earn your place first took root… so you can show up as yourself, not as who you think you should be. Therapy for Performing Artists →

Yes. Therapists, psychologists, nurses, and other healers make up a meaningful part of my practice.

When you spend your days holding space for others, it can be hard to find a space where you get to exhale and be held yourself. You might know every coping skill in the book… and still feel depleted, numb, or disconnected from the reason you chose this work. In our sessions, you don't have to be the expert. You get to simply be a person.

Due to the nature of music-centered and creative expression oriented sessions, you are expected to join virtually from a comfortable, quiet, location free of distractions. For example, it isn’t appropriate to meet from your car.

You will be expected to have paper and writing supplies available, as well as access to a music listening platform. It may also be important to use earbuds or a headset. Art supplies may be suggested as we work together.

Yes! Although there are some limitations and adjustments we make to accommodate sharing music in the virtual space, there are still many ways to share and participate in music and other creative formats.

I have been offering music psychotherapy virtually since 2019, and offer multiple workarounds to make the music space as enjoyable and rewarding as an in-person appointment.

Nope! Music therapy is all about the process and not at all about the product (although sometimes, the product can be very meaningful too). There is no previous experience required, and no expectation that you bring your own instruments or have competence in any areas of music. Just come with an open heart and desire to get curious about your internal world.

It takes at least 3 sessions to find a rhythm. I encourage new clients to schedule weekly to begin. Across time, we may adjust the plan and decrease frequency as appropriate.

I meet with clients Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 10am–2pm, and Wednesdays from 1pm–5pm.

In your first session, I'll introduce myself, explain how I work, and ask you questions about what's bringing you to therapy, so we can build a care plan around your top priorities.

There's no pressure to share everything at once, and you won't be asked to listen to music or try anything new before you feel ready. Think of it as a chance to get to know each other and see if this work feels right for you. Most people leave with a clearer sense of what we'll focus on and how the process unfolds from here.

If you’re interested in working together, the next step is to book a time on my calendar. I look forward to meeting you.