The origins & Mission of Music Speaks
Music Speaks, LLC was founded by Stephanie Johnson, MT-BC, in 2009 with the intent to serve and educate communities on the research-based health profession of music therapy. The company also has the purpose of making quality music therapy accessible to all individuals who could benefit from this therapy, regardless of their situation, diagnosis, prognosis, or location.
Though initially established in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to serve the populations of hospice patients and older adults in memory care, Music Speaks has continuously grown since 2009. We now serve multiple states and a wide variety of populations, but our goal remains the same:
our core purpose
Brooke Moeller, MT-BC, uses music interventions to help clients learn how to listen to and follow directions.
Music can be a powerful tool, especially in the hands of a board-certified music therapist. However, what we currently know about music is just the tip of the iceberg - there is so much more to learn and many more potential benefits music may offer that we aren’t aware of yet! This is why Music Speaks is dedicated to learning more about music and its effects, supporting and continuing research in the music therapy field, and educating the public about the power of music.
This future potential of music is also why we selected “transforming lives through music” as the company’s core purpose. We aren’t simply focused on what we can offer now, but the value we could offer our clients in the future while continuing to use music as our tool. Transforming lives is not a one time event to us, but rather a constant state of being as we continue to be in the process of learning about, educating on, and providing music therapy.
About Our name
The name ‘Music Speaks’ was chosen to capture one of the many benefits of music therapy: communication. Our board-certified music therapists can use the power and versatility of each element of music to improve communication verbally and non-verbally. As the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen once said, “Where words fail, music speaks.”
An example of how music therapists might use music as a tool to help with communication skills, we’d like to share the below video of a local news report. In this video, Stephanie Johnson, MT-BC, is shown working with a client who had lost nearly all verbal communication after a stroke. Using music therapy interventions, Stephanie is able to support this patient regain her communication skills and re-connect with her husband.
A Corridor couple finds a heartwarming reason to sing. Reported on by Marcy Jones of KGAN CBS 2, published May 7, 2014.
To learn more about music therapy and our Music Speaks team, please continue to explore our site! If you have any questions, or would like to get into contact with us, please click here.
We’re also on social media! To keep up to date with the latest music therapy research and what’s happening at our company, please like and/or follow us today! Links can be found below.