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Music Therapy

Music therapists at Monroe Carell work with children and their families, using music in unique ways with each child to help with chronic pain, physical rehabilitation, psychiatric symptoms, end of life, procedural support and coping with hospitalization and disease.

If your child has special medical, developmental or social needs, our board-certified music therapists can create a non-threatening, non-invasive program to help better cope with a hospital stay.

Music therapy may provide opportunities for:

  • Emotional support
  • Procedural support
  • Fine and gross motor development
  • Pain/anxiety management
  • Normalization of environment
  • Socialization
  • Legacy creation/memory building
  • Developmental support
  • Sensory stimulation
  • Caregiver support
  • Coping
  • Self-expression and awareness
  • Meaningful and positive family moments

Music therapists work as part of the medical team to support the whole patient. They design music therapies specially for each patient’s medical diagnoses, course of treatment and discharge timeline.

Our board-certified music therapists have completed both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in music therapy, over 1,200 clinical hours, and passed a national exam administered by the certification board for music therapists (CBMT).

Anyone on your child's healthcare team can refer to music therapy.

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Meet Our Music Therapists

Dana Kim

Dana KimMA, MT-BC, NICU MT

    Board Certified Music Therapist, Patient and Family-Centered Care
Jess Knoble

Jess KnobleMT-BC, NMT, NICU MT

    Board Certified Music Therapist, Patient and Family-Centered Care
Ashley Norwood

Ashley NorwoodMM, MT-BC, NICU MT

    Board Certified Music Therapist, Patient and Family-Centered Care
Emily Owens

Emily OwensMT-BC, NMT

    Board-Certified Music Therapist, Patient and Family Centered Care

Julian T. Fouce Fund

The Music Therapy Program at Monroe Carell was made possible in 2005 by Tom and Maria Fouce in memory of their son, Julian, through the Julian T. Fouce Fund. He was a great lover of music who passed away that year.

Music Therapy Internship

We are revising our internship program and are not currently accepting applicants. We do not have a date set to relaunch the program. Please continue to check here for updates.

Music Therapy Practicum

Music Therapy Practicum is pre-internship training with our credentialed music therapists who provide direct supervision for clinical observation and co-leading opportunities to pre-internship students. Students must be enrolled in a music therapy program at a college or university at the time of proposed practicum. We encourage applicants with a minimum of two prior practicum experiences to apply.

Community Partnerships

Our music therapists partner with UMG Nashville artists to provide music groups for patients focused on normalization, socialization and creative self-expression. Catie Offerman recently visited our hospital to share her time and talents with patients and families.

Many great Nashville-based artists lent their talents to the Everybody Has a Story project. Patients wrote their own songs during music therapy sessions with Monroe Carell's former music therapist Jenny Plume, MA, MT-BC.