An interview with Bree Gordon Lukosavich, MT-BC, Music Therapy through the Creative Arts Therapies of the Palm Beaches on June 16, 2023 by George Ackerman, Ph.D, J.D.
Biography
With a degree and board certification in Music Therapy and 14 years’ experience working in medical and community settings, Bree is highly respected for her clinical work as well as her success in creating jobs in the field of creative arts therapies. Bree has served as the co-owner and Executive Director of Creative Arts Therapies of the Palm Beaches since 2012, staffing and developing clinical music, art and drama therapy programs for over 150 organizations throughout South Florida. Bree has been involved in various research studies focused on the benefits of music therapy with patients in hospice care, individuals with neurodegenerative disorders and gun violence survivors. Bree is also an experienced speaker on trauma and connection. She has worked with dozens of universities, non-profit organizations, and for-profit businesses from around the United States including the University of Miami, the Alzheimer’s Association and the Stoneman Douglas community in Parkland, Florida. Bree has been featured in multiple national media platforms including NPR, BroadwayWorld and VeryWell.
Please tell me a little about your background and what got you involved with awareness.
My background is that my mom worked as a CNA at a nursing home. As a child I went to work with her even at age 3 years doing my Broadway revues and music has been with my family for generations. Most of my life I was always working with my mother in the healthcare field but with individuals that had a neurodegenerative disorder.
Part of my training was to do a case study and that individual happened to have Parkinson’s disease. I researched how music can affect individuals at the end of life. I looked to see the number of areas his family had to do after he passed. Music was a big part of his life, so we also helped plan the music for his service and he was very proud of being a part of the ceremonies.
It is important to see how music can allow individuals to make choices in their lives and allows them freedom to be a part of decisions.
Background
I grew up in a very small town in Upstate New York as an only child of a working single mom. My grandma was also a huge presence and source of support in my life. I went to school for music therapy, combining my lifelong passions for music and helping others. I moved to South Florida after finishing my college coursework in 2008 to complete a 6-month music therapy internship in hospice care. Since completing my internship and passing my board certification in 2009, I have worked as a clinical music therapist in various medical and community-based settings throughout South Florida.
In 2012, I joined a private music therapy practice and in 2014 I was named Managing Partner. Since that time Creative Arts Therapies of the Palm Beaches (CATPB) has grown into one of the largest creative arts therapy practices in the country, staffing and developing music and art therapy programs in medical, educational, and community-based settings from the Treasure Coast to Miami.
In addition to my clinical work and role as Executive Director of CATPB, I have expanded my presence in the trauma support world as a trauma-informed public speaker. I have also hosted radio and internet talks shows as well as produced my own podcast The Mindful Mentor, on the topic of connection and overcoming adversity.
Can you tell me more about the Creative Arts Therapies of the Palm Beaches?
Creative Arts Therapies of the Palm Beaches (CATPB) is a privately held Music and Art Therapy practice specializing in developing and implementing music and art therapy programs for educational, medical and community settings. Trained and certified CATPB music therapists utilize music to address the physical, psychological, social, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual needs of our clients.
We are fully in the community. We go to community partners like hospice, schools, mental health settings, addiction recovery. Anywhere someone gets services we go. We use music and art to address needs. For example, with Parkinson’s patients we use music to facilitate movement. Our goals will be communication, movement but using music to achieve them.
CATPB exists to cultivate health and wellness through creative arts therapies, provide a network for creative arts therapists and our supporters, and share relevant resources worldwide.
The goals of CATPB are to increase the quality of life of our patients by:
- Promoting Overall Wellness through Music
- Providing Success-Oriented Experiences
- Facilitating Growth and Development
CATPB is comprised of a team of nearly 20 credentialed therapists and interns. Through the years, my clinical work became more focused on working with trauma survivors, adults with neurodegenerative diseases, and patients undergoing oncology treatment.
What is your passion and how did you get involved in Parkinson’s awareness and hope for a cure?
Doing my internship and case study really opened my eyes to the Parkinson’s community because it is such a slow progression with the disease. We can capitalize on so many moments that can be impacted and allow us to feel like ourselves through music and art.
What matters most to me is human connection. Connection can be affected by many things including a communication barrier, a neurodegenerative brain disorder, post-traumatic stress, or a substance abuse disorder. As music and art therapists we can help our clients connect through music, art, and creativity when verbal expression is difficult or impossible. We witness the positive impact this connection can have on individuals every day.
What type of goals do individuals with Parkinson’s have when working with you?
We work on a lot of things. We use singing a lot because it is fun. Everyone loves to enjoy sharing music in some capacity. Also, you need to be able to draw in depth breath, posture, and movement. We are more aware of our surroundings and better able to digest food, transfer positions and focus on overall health.
What type of training do you offer in music therapy and how long are the programs?
We have classes on breath work, music, art and on overall speech through communication. Like a choir, we train individuals with Parkinson’s on various techniques like clapping to the beat, moving to the song. It fires up portions of our brain and lights up the brain to allow for full engagement and use of rhythm.
What effect can it have on an individual with Parkinson’s?
Depression and isolation decrease while sense of self-worth increases. There is no greater gift you can give a person than connection, allowing them to be seen and heard and understood.
There are many reasons why music is an effective and powerful tool in therapy.
- Music has been called a “universal language,” implying its ability to facilitate communication, responses and experiences. This is not only accomplished through words, but through vibrations and sounds as well.
- Because music is so versatile, music therapy interventions can be easily and quickly adapted to meet the immediate needs of the individual. This flexibility allows those with no musical experience to participate in making music or experiencing it in the context of the music therapy session.
- Music offers a medium that is non-threatening, which allows the individual a positive, safe environment for self-expression. It also helps the music therapist build rapport with the individual.
- Music is familiar, which increases the comfort of the individual who may be in an unfamiliar setting or situation.
- Music can also be a structure for learning because of its ability to contain and organize information within the words or the actions associated with the particular song or piece. (Think about how we all learn the ABC’s!)
- Finally, music can be used as a motivation or a reward for learning, to help an individual complete or engage in a task.
What would you like to see as a future goal for your programs?
My husband and I are very involved with awareness. I hope to continue to offer community programs and help those in need through art and music.
What events do you participate in?
The American Parkinson’s Disease Association optimism walk and symposium, we try to participate in the community with incredible people.
How does this also assist the caregivers?
Music therapy helps the caregivers and individuals with Parkinson’s. The benefit of music therapy as a professional service is that the music therapist is trained to incorporate music, which has inherent therapeutic qualities, into specifically designed music therapy interventions.
Some of general benefits of music therapy across populations include its capability to:
| reduce stress | promote wellness | decrease perception of pain |
| increase communication | increase self-expression | enhance memory |
| increase social interaction | increase self-esteem | utilize fine/gross motor skills |
Some of the common interventions used in music therapy include:
| song-writing | instrumental improvisation | music and imagery |
| lyric analysis | vocal improvisation | music for reminiscence |
| music for relaxation | music and movement | rhythm interventions |
| receptive listening | music to structure learning | music performance |
I am the host of @mindfulmentorbree and Co-owner of @creativeartstherapiespb on Instagram.
https://catpb.com/ and https://www.mindfulbree.com/podcast
If you had one final statement or quote you could leave for the Parkinson’s community, what would it be?
Keep singing. It doesn’t matter what your voice sounds like, just keep singing!
More about Music Therapy
Throughout history, music has been associated with healing. In ancient Egypt (5000 BC), music was referred to “medicine for the soul.” It was believed by the ancient Greeks that music should be a part of healing for mental disorders. Writings of the great scholars Aristotle and Plato also referred to the healing power of music and its effects on emotions and on behavior. From the Renaissance to the Baroque period, and into the 18th century, physicians actually prescribed music to their patients as preventative medicine. (Music Therapy Perspectives, “A Historical Perspective”)
As a profession, music therapy began in the 1940’s, in response to the profound physical and emotional effects of music that were observed in the Veteran’s hospitals after WWII. During the war, musicians began volunteering and were eventually hired as physicians noticed the benefits of music for the hospitalized veterans. The need for training of the musicians resulted in the first music therapy program at Michigan University in 1944. This same year, Frances Paperte founded the Music Research Foundation. Since that time, the profession of music therapy continued to grow.
In 1950, the National Association for Music Therapy (NAMT) was founded to increase clinical training and education of music therapists. This organization began publishing a The Journal of Music Therapy, in 1964, which is still in publication as a prominent music therapy research journal today. In 1998 The NAMT became the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA). The AMTA represents over 5,000 music therapists and is the largest professional association for music therapy.
Reference
Creative Art Therapies of the Palm Beaches (2023. About Music Therapy. Retrieved from https://catpb.com/about/music-therapy/