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Music is a playground. With all the colors and sounds, it’s a perfect place to play, find self-expression, and even healing. I grew up on this playground of sounds in a rich Jamaican culture full of folk music, reggae, and Christian songs. I also lived in Mexico with my family for 8 years where I was surrounded with mariachi bands, Spanish love ballads, and Ranchero music.

However, even in the middle of a colorful playground, life can get hard sometimes. As a result of my own history of mental health struggles and the struggles of those around me, I pursued a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Social Work at the University of Texas at Arlington.  I worked with children, teens, and adults for 17 years in psychiatric hospitals and in private practice. My clients included individuals on the spectrum, those with depression, anxiety, bipolar, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, substance abuse, schizophrenia, psychosis, and more.  I saw how using music made the counseling sessions much more effective. This compelled me to earn a Master of Business Administration and Music Therapy degree from Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas.

I am so excited to be joining the North Star Therapy team as a music therapy intern and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. I look forward to playing together on this North Star Therapy musical playground.  Whether you come to use music to express what you feel inside, to process trauma from the past, or just for a fun creative experience in Spanish or English, you are welcome to come. Afterall, Dr. Donald Woods Winnicott a wise psychiatrist and psychoanalyst of the 20th century, believed that only in playing do people feel free to be their true selves.