About

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

I need to acknowledge and thank my family and circle of friends who have always supported my therapy  practice and my work creating the Therapy Smartz concept. They were the ones consistently there throughout the process providing ongoing interest, encouragement, enthusiasm, helpful feedback, and most of all, the foundation which is love.  I also want to thank all my fellow colleagues in the therapeutic community.  Your willingness to share, ask questions, make suggestions, and your loyal friendship, have meant so much. Your clinical input has been invaluable. I’m hoping that the content within Therapy Smartz will also help you in your dedicated, committed work with your clients. And of course, I need to give a resounding thank-you to my wonderful clients who continually inspire me in my work. You truly make me a better therapist. Please know how much I appreciate you, your truth and openness, your stories, your struggles, your willingness to embrace change, and your undaunted efforts to improve your life. I am honored by your trust in me and it is really my joy and privilege to work with you, accompanying you during your very personal therapeutic journey.

Author BIOGRAPHY

I am a New York State licensed mental health therapist (LMHC) with a private practice since 2013, located outside Buffalo, Western New York, specifically in the town of Hamburg. I have been practicing within the field of mental health and counseling in the WNY area for the last 30 years and it has been essentially not only my mission and purpose, but also my overall privilege and passion to do so. My practice focuses primarily on individuals, families, and couples, and since the pandemic started in 2020, I have been providing online teletherapy to my clients. I am always looking for new, creative, and effective methods to connect with them and meet their needs. I am also a consummate music lover, with involvement and appreciation of it being a consistent, fundamental part of my personal life. Combining a love for connecting and helping others through my therapy practice, along with a passion for music, is truly an undertaking of happiness for me as a professional psychotherapist, as well as a person.

THE STORY OF SONG THERAPEUTICS :

On an individual basis, I utilize a variety of music and song playlists to process my own personal thoughts and feelings on a regular basis. It has always made a substantial, positive difference in the quality of my life.  In what I considered an enlightening moment working with a struggling client several years ago, I realized that music and song lyrics that carry truly meaningful messages. It is such a perfect way to connect with people’s emotions and reach them effectively, in an enjoyable, comfortable way. I then started to utilize specific songs with mindful lyrics within individual therapy sessions on a regular basis. I chose songs that I felt reflected my client’s needs and struggles, songs they could relate to, and that would help them process their thoughts and feelings, helping them to put them into words. When they were verbally unable to identify and express what they felt, the songs made it easier to specify their particular issues and pain. And for necessary follow-through, my clients could remember those songs and use them consistently via personal playlists when needed outside of their sessions. Basically, everything in this process fit in so well with what I was looking for. On a therapeutic basis, I found the results to be quite a remarkable tool to utilize, reach, and assist my clients with their individual problem areas. As a result, I consistently began offering it to those clients who I deemed appropriate and could benefit from the concept, were interested, and enjoyed using music within their therapy sessions. I subsequently received substantial ongoing positive feedback from them about the process and playlists and how much they felt this made a marked difference in the quality of their lives.

As time went on, based on evaluating these successful outcomes within my practice, I seriously started thinking about all the benefits of recommending songs and playlists with meaningful lyrical messages with accompanying life skill themes to everyone, even if they were not specifically receiving my counseling therapy. Couldn’t everyone basically benefit from this helpful, enlightening information and self-discovery? Hence, as the name implies, the Song Therapeutics concept was born, and this has been the foundation for this book. It has become a major focus for me since then, both professionally and personally. Today, we all need ongoing positive, proactive, comforting messages and life lessons, whether we are involved in a counseling therapy journey or not. Especially now, with the reality of adjusting to major lifestyle changes brought on by the Covid pandemic which has truly enveloped our world. We all continue to need unwavering faith and hope. We need encouragement to keep going, to believe better things are ahead. We need to stay in tune with our emotions. We need to stay strong and never give up. The multiple benefits of the musical experience cannot be denied. Who doesn’t want to attempt to understand or make things better in their life and their emotional journey? What have we got to lose? One extremely efficient, yet easy, and enjoyable vehicle available to provide it is undoubtedly music and meaningful song lyrics. I believe you will find the content in this book enlightening and empowering. I think it will really speak to you. Be open-minded, reflect, listen, process, heal, learn… and as we do it, let’s all acknowledge the many benefits from this musical ride and definitely enjoy it!!!

*For more detailed information on my private practice, please feel free to go to my therapy webpage, wnyomnicounseling.com 

INTRODUCTION: 

How These Songs Will Benefit You -

The songs recommended in this book have all spoken to me on an individual basis through my personal playlists. I have also shared their significant messages with my clients, and now, I want to recommend to you, as readers, music listeners, and music fans. These songs are all unique musical gifts to us from a host of talented, brilliant recording artists and musical composers. Overall, they can inform and educate us with our self-awareness, emotional clarity, understanding, and strengthening of relationships, as well as enhance our self-esteem as we navigate the many life struggles we encounter every day.  These songs may provide you with a different perspective, a new way of looking at challenges you may face, and provide you ongoing encouragement for making change you may need to consider. The choice is yours, so be open to the process and learn from these songs. And overall, every day, we all want to improve our lives any way we possibly can. This can be accomplished with songs available for listening to empower us, and help us work through any struggles we may encounter going forward. The fact is, listening to a song in itself is certainly not a therapy session. But, without any doubt, the mindful messages provided to listeners within song lyrics, along with the wide range of subsequent psychological benefits, can definitely be pro-active, therapeutic, positive, and healing. It may make a remarkable difference in the process of actually making things better. 

In my therapy practice I have consistently seen this happen with my clients as they connect and understand the message, and it’s making a positive difference for them. Let my book help you, as individuals who may or may not be involved in therapy, discover the amazing power that song lyrics can provide you as you attempt to understand life situations, questions, or dilemmas you may encounter in your path.

EMPOWERING PLAYLISTS AND LIFE SKILL THEMES-

What to Expect with This Book -

It should be noted that I do not quote song lyrics in this self help book.  But you will have immediate access to my detailed content where, as a psychotherapist, in 18 of the chapters, I will be specifically addressing various life skill themes that may significantly impact the quality of your daily life, such as anxiety, fear, anger, relationship issues, self-esteem, communication, and a host of many important others.  Each of these chapters and themes will feature the title and artist of 10 individual songs that I recommend for your playlist that correlate to those varied life skill themes.  If you are not familiar with these songs, please take some time to really listen to their meaningful lyrics. I believe these various songs will assist you in understanding how those themes impact your life and how they can in fact, personally empower you with resilience and self-understanding. In my professional practice, I utilize many of those songs within my therapy sessions to connect with my clients in need. I also recommend these songs to clients to use outside of their therapy sessions, to purchase for streaming, listening, and reflecting as part of their personal playlists. Let those songs and their inherent messages become your “go to” helper when in need. With my therapeutic analysis of the life skill themes, I will provide you my input as to why I consider it helpful and needed. I will encourage you to address that theme in your life and thus hopefully make it better. You will also be provided a concise but powerful “take away” thought to remember, which summarizes the general content of the chapter. A series of mindful reflective questions concerning that particular theme will then be provided for you to ask yourself candidly after reading. Here you will have the opportunity to think and journal your thoughts, reactions, and feelings about your life situation as it relates to that specific theme. In addition, at the conclusion of each chapter, you will be given a helpful reading resource about the tremendous depth of music and meaningful song lyrics to add to your library of information and understanding. All in all, providing learning, healing, balance, and relaxation as you discover how music can help you effectively manage your emotional journey.

Yes, we have all heard this phrase before: music is indeed, life! We all need this knowledge and self-discovery and self-awareness, so let this book begin the important process for you. Let the tremendous power of music and song set your mind and heart free to find what you are searching for in life! Let’s start with the significant life skill theme of self-esteem.