Peak Music & Wellness

10/09/2025

Virginia is in the final stage of implementing licensure for music therapists! This has been a very long process. You can review the most recent changes and comment in support for music therapy licensure here.

Virginia Regulatory Town Hall View Stage

09/23/2025

Dr. Lesiuk was my professor in my undergraduate program at UM. Her research relating to music-based mindfulness really opened the door in my mind for a lot of my professiona interestsl!

Meet Dr. Teresa Lesiuk, the chair of the Music Therapy Department! Dr. Lesiuk is an active researcher in the field, a Board Certified Music Therapist, as well as a professor in the music therapy program.

What is the focus of your current research?

"I'm working on two different projects right now. One study examines how mindfulness-based music therapy helps with psychological distress and immune function in adults with stem cell transplant. We are now on the second phase of a NIH R61/R33 grant and running a full randomized control trial. The team is very large and is headed by Dr. Frank Penedo and me. We have published our intervention in Music Therapy Perspectives (2025) and the full study details are also found in Contemporary Clinical Trials (2024)."

What do you think makes the Frost Music Therapy department special?

"The talent of the faculty and students is astounding. Music, science of music, composition, production, and clinical work are all presented at a high level of performance at Frost. You can grow musically, professionally, and personally by being in that environment."

What are you most looking forward to this academic year?

"I am really looking forward to working with all my students having just come off a one-term sabbatical. I love the ideas my students bring to my graduate music therapy seminar, thesis meetings, simulations, - I enjoy hearing students’ musicality in piano class and in undergraduate music therapy forum. Research is exciting and intellectually stimulating, but the students have my heart!"

Interested in joining the Music Therapy Department and learning from our esteemed faculty like Dr. Lesiuk? Applications are open NOW! See details at https://musictherapy.frost.miami.edu/

Contact Dr. Lesiuk for more information at tlesiuk@miami.edu

08/04/2025

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08/02/2025

Being music therapist is just a fancy excuse to learn new instruments. Client loves banjo? Cool, let’s do it! Cheap mandolin for sale? Why not learn that too! Research supports using client-preferred music in music therapy sessions. Bluegrass is popular in Appalachia, so it’s about time I learn a bit

07/31/2025

As a board certified music therapist and lifelong musician, my musicality often seeps into my yoga classes. When I’m wearing my yoga teacher hat, I can’t help but be influenced by my knowledge as a clinician. Yoga classes are not music therapy, but you can always expect live music supporting pranayama and savasana & intentional music selections to support our asanas!

07/30/2025

The beauty of being a music therapist is every day looks different! Toss yoga teacher in to the mix & you have the recipe for beautiful, wildly different days. Today consisted of an adaptive yoga class, a music therapy group to address PTSD symptoms, & a few individual clients where we did music-assisted relaxation & adaptive lessons. Today, I played harp, guitar, banjo, singing bowls, and the gong. I love that each day looks so different & that I’m constantly challenged to grow as a musician and therapist by my clients! Interested in learning more about how music therapy can support your goals? I’m taking new clients! Feel free to send me a message to learn more.

07/05/2025

I’ve spent the day working on a research project and just came across such a beautiful part of my personal process, totally unrelated to my project. Guided Imagery and Music can feel like a very abstract process to those who haven’t experienced it. It is hard to imagine the experience or how it might help, so I offer this tidbit from my personal healing journey as an example. In 2022, my therapist passed away. She was a flutist who loved to play music in the woods. Even though I never heard her play, I felt a connection to her because of that (and the work we did, of course). Her passing was a surprise to me & coincided with another loss, so I was in a rough place. I found a new GIM therapist & during a session, I imagined my first therapist playing flute along to Vaughn Williams Fantasia on Greensleeves. We were in a familiar space in my imagination, in the woods behind a friend’s family home where they honor family members who passed. I wasn’t prompted to imagine this, but this is where my imagination took me in the music. This experience helped me process her passing & I later visited that space and left a flute playing angel ornament hanging from a tree to honor our work together. The GIM experience and my later ritual helped me get the closure I needed. This is one of the many experiences that helped me heal, helped me fall in love with this modality, and convinced me that this is a service I want to offer the world. GIM is such a beautiful process!

06/27/2025

06/13/2025

Music therapy is an individualized process that uses music to support your healthcare goals. Each session looks different based on a person’s goals. Music is both our tool and our co-therapist. Music is what drives our sessions.

06/11/2025

I had a lovely time teaching yoga tonight! I always enjoy bringing live music in to Savasana and tonight I used my drone flute by .creations