Welcome to episode 267 of Live Happy Now.

This is Paula Phelps, and this week we're talking about one of my favorite topics, which is music.

If there was every year that needed a soothing soundtrack, it would be the one that we're in right now.

Music has powerful healing properties, and nobody knows that better than this

week's guest. Dr. Sandy Curtis is an internationally trained music therapist who specializes

in working with women and children survivors of violence. She is the author of the interactive

book, Music for Women's Survivors of Violence, which draws upon pop culture and contemporary music to

help survivors navigate their healing. This week, she's here to talk about how all of us can use

music to help us through this challenging year. Sandy, welcome to Live Happy Now. Oh, thank you so much.

Happy to be here. This is a wonderful topic for us to talk about because I personally feel that music is so powerful on so many levels.

And I wondered when you first realized the importance of music in the healing process.

Oh, gosh. It seems like quite a while ago.

I think I knew of it for myself personally, but way back in the 1980s, I learned about music therapy as a profession.

I had been studying music, but I wanted to connect with people more intimately and have a more profound impact in their lives.

And I learned about this thing called music therapy.

And once I began to explore that and study that and read all the research, it's just amazing how powerful music is in so many aspects of our lives and certainly in healing.

Can you explain what music therapy is?

Because we hear that term, but we might not necessarily know what that means.

Yeah, yeah.

It's not unusual that people might be unfamiliar with it.

And some people might think it be just listening by themselves to some music.

But music therapy involves a trained credentialed music therapist who has background,

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