Dr.Summer was Director of GIM Training at the Bonny Foundation for Music-Centered Therapies from 1988-1997 and has been Professor/Director of Music Therapy at Anna Maria College since 1995. In her part-time music psychotherapy practice in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands she uses classical music imagery with adults with anxiety, mood, and addiction disorders. Her primary interest is the use of classical music in psychodynamic and spiritual transformation; her emphasis in training is promoting music-centered practices through the examination of the personal transference relationship with music. She lectures in the U.S. and abroad; and the books, chapters and articles that chronicle her clinical work are utilized as texts internationally. She is married to an opera composer, and has a 21 year old daughter in college.

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Kenneth Bruscia, PhD, MT-BC, FAMI founded the bachelor's, master's, and PhD degrees in music therapy at Temple University where he currently serves as Program Coordinator of the PhD Program. He has served as President of the American Association for Music Therapy, Chair of the National Coalition of Arts Therapies, as an editor for four major journals (Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives, Arts in Psychotherapy, Journal of Music Therapy), and founded the International Newsletter of Music Therapy. For his exceptional service to the profession he has received numerous awards including the American Music Therapy Association’s Research and Publication Awards. As a clinician his experience is diverse, including work with individuals with intellectual disability, psychiatric disorders, cancer, AIDS, psychoneuroses, PTSD, and the elderly. He maintains a special interest in Guided Imagery and Music, especially the development of theory and research paradigms for GIM. In addition to his many pioneering interests Ken has found additional time to further the practice of GIM through his programmed classical music CD series, Music for the Imagination, as well as contribute the most comprehensive definition of music therapy in the literature (300 pages) and perhaps the heaviest music therapy textbook in publication (590 pages).

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Elaine Abbott, PhD, MT-BC, FAMI is Director of Music Therapy at Duquesne University. She has over 10 years of clinical experience as a music therapist in diverse areas including skilled nursing/rehabilitation, psychiatric hospitals, and special education.    She has a practice in GIM and music and imagery techniques with well adult clients, with a specialty in issues of loss and grief.

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Brian Abrams, Ph.D., MT-BC, LPC, FAMI is Music Therapy Undergraduate Program Coordinator at Montclair State University. He has worked with various clinical populations, and has published and presented internationally on a wide range of topics such as music therapy in cancer care, music psychotherapy, and music therapy research. He currently serves as President-Elect and as an Assembly Delegate of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the American Music Therapy Association, as well as a member of the Continuing Education Committee of the Certification Board for Music Therapists. Specific interests within GIM have included clinical work in cancer care and research into transpersonal dimensions of the method.

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Nicki Cohen, PhD, MT-BC, FAMI is Professor of Music Therapy and Voice at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas. She is the President of the Association for Music and Imagery and is on the Board of Directors of the American Music Therapy Association. Nicki’s clinical approach in her practice, Guided Imagery and Music Services of North Texas, includes music and imagery techniques to fit both the clinical needs of her clients and the regulatory climate in the state of Texas. Nicki has articles published in the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives, the Journal of the Association for Music and Imagery; chapters in several music therapy and Bonny Method texts; and is currently writing an introductory music therapy textbook for Prentice Hall Publishers. Nicki loves to teach, to drink tea, to sing, and to see her students laugh.

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Frances Smith Goldberg, MA, MT-BC, MFT, FAMI has been a GIM trainer since 1988 when she began teaching at the Bonny Foundation where she was Director of GIM Training from 1997 to 2000. As director of the Therapeutic Arts Institute, she has conducted BMGIM and Music Imagery training in Europe since 1991 and the US since 2001. Fran recently retired from her almost 50 years of clinical practice in adult psychiatry and private practiceas a music psychotherapist and licensed psychotherapist in 2005 and as a faculty member of the University of California and the California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco. Fran's main interests are the interface of psychotherapy and spirituality, especially as they manifest with clients in the Bonny Method, feminist psychotherapy and group therapy. She has presented widely at national and international conferences, has published numerous journal articles and book chapters and served on several editorial boards of professional journals. Fran haunts opera houses in search of the ultimate performance and loves playing with her grandchildren.

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Barbara Hesser, CMT, FAMI is Director of the Music Therapy program at New York University. In this capacity she coordinates the masters and doctoral degree program, is the project director of the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy and the program liason for the Guided Imagery and Music training. She is a Fellow and Primary Trainer of the Association of Music and Imagery (AMI) and maintains a private music psychotherapy practice.

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Cathy McKinney, Ph.D., MT-BC, FAMI is Professor of Music and Director of the Music Therapy Program at Appalachian State University and serves as a supervisor, mentor, and primary trainer for GIM trainees. She holds the doctoral degree in interdepartmental studies (music therapy and behavioral medicine) from the University of Miami. Her clinical interests are the use of music improvisation and GIM as vehicles for personal awareness, growth, and transformation. Her research has focused on the effects of GIM on mood and physiology in healthy adults as well as women with breast cancer, and the effects of music on imagery. She lives in Boone, North Carolina with her trombonist-husband, Harold, and their two children, Christopher and Moriah.

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Tony Meadows Ph.D,  MT-BC,  FAMI, LPC is Director of Music Therapy at Immaculata University and maintains a private practice in BMGIM in Philadelphia.  Beginning in 1999, Tony has maintained an active GIM practice, specializing in helping clients overcome trauma, mood disorders, and adjustment disorders. He has a particular interest in working with men. In 2002 he expanded this practice to include both GIM and music and imagery work with cancer patients. Tony has written about GIM and gender, and GIM is it relates to other imagery-based methods of therapy. He has also edited Qualitative Inquiries in Music Therapy volume 2, contributed chapters to Music Therapy Research, 2nd edition, and is currently preparing Client Assessment in Music Therapy with Dr Kenneth Bruscia. Tony serves on the editorial boards of The Journal for the Association for Music and Imagery and the Australian Journal of Music Therapy.

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Sumi Paik-Maier, MA, MT-BC, FAMI  is a PhD candidate at Tavistock (University of East London)  and maintains a music therapy private practice in London  and Seoul, Korea. She teaches and supervises with Lisa Summer at the Music and Imagery Training at Ewha Womans University Center for Arts Therapy and Education in Seoul.  Over the past few years she has been working with autistic  and physically handicapped children and normal (healthy  neurotic) adult population. She worked with adults with  acquired brain damage and other severe neurological disabilities at Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in  London, UK (locum post, 2004-2005) and with the adult  psychiatric population at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, NYC, USA (1990-1995). She was an Assistant Professor of  Music Therapy at Anna Maria College (1998-2000). In clinical work and teaching she applies Jungian and psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theories to the understanding of human nature. From her recent experiences with neuro-disabled patients and autistic children, she has gained fresh perspectives regarding the healing power of  music and is very interested in music-centered music therapy practice. She is married to a mathematician and amateur but talented musician and lives in London.
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Therese West, Ph.D., MT-BC, FAMI has over 20 years of clinical experience across a wide range of settings and populations, including mental health, rehabilitation, medicine, and hospice. She teaches undergraduate and Master’s level students at the University of the Pacific, where she serves as director of the music therapy program. As a music therapist in oncology and medical settings, Therese became interested in both the possible indications and contra-indications for BMGIM and music-evoked imagery with patients experiencing acute stress related to hospitalization, disease, or treatment, and she has conducted research on processes and potential benefits of the Bonny Method for breast cancer survivors. Therese continues to explore issues of ethics and diversity in research, clinical practice, supervision, and teaching. She has served on the staff of the Therapeutic Arts Institute since 2002, and enjoys being involved in the dynamic growth of new BMGIM therapists. As President-elect of the Association for Music and Imagery (AMI), she has been involved in efforts to support international communication among BMGIM practitioners. Part Native American, Therese finds renewal in the land she shares with deer, coyotes, kit fox, wild turkeys, and all our relations in the oak-wooded foothills of the California Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Sample Publications