Background

I am a Board Certified Music Therapist who received my undergraduate music degree in Piano Performance at the University of Dayton in 1995, a Masters in Music Therapy in 1998 from Temple University, and a PhD in Music Therapy from Temple University in 2012, specializing in Music Psychotherapy.  I am currently a candidate training in Jungian analysis through the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts.

During my doctoral work, my interest and research in clinical improvisation led me to New York City, where I trained in Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy and Analytical Music Therapy, two post-graduate models of music therapy requiring advanced musicianship, supervised individual and group music therapy sessions, and engaging in music therapy as a client, to experience the work from within.  My immersion in these two models resulted in two published qualitative music therapy studies on the clinical-musical responses of Nordoff-Robbins music therapists, for which I received a Research Award from Temple University in 2010, and the first doctoral thesis to explore the pioneering music of Mary Priestley, the founder of Analytical Music Therapy and the first music therapist to integrate psychoanalytic theory and techniques with improvised clinical music.  Since 1996 I have worked with adults, young adults, and children in a variety of clinical settings including: general medical hospitals, cancer units, adult and adolescent psychiatric hospitals, adult day-treatment centers, an independent music therapy studio for individuals with developmental disabilities, dual-diagnosis forensic units, and addiction treatment centers.  

I maintain a private practice in Memphis, TN, working primarily with adults and young adults in individual psychotherapy.  My practice also includes musicians, artists, poets, and writers who are drawn to the natural integration of artistic expression in their psychotherapy process.  

My clinical experience helping clients "sound" the previously inexpressible parts of themselves, and witnessing the meaningful change which can follow from bridging musical experience into words, inspired me to pursue Jungian psychoanalytic training as a means of deepening my own capacity to work symbolically with the music of the unconscious, in all its creative manifestations.  I have a special interest in the interface between music, the psyche, and the individuation process.

affiliations

Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts

American Association for Music Therapy

Certification Board for Music Therapists  

PRESENTATIONS

(2007). The Role of Aesthetics in Analytical Music Therapy.  Paper presented at the American Association for Music Therapy National Conference.

(2007).  Panel member representing Analytical Music Therapy on The Role in Aesthetics in Analytical Music Therapy, American Association for Music Therapy National Conference.

(2013).  Sounding the Soul:  Music Therapy in the Treatment of Addictions. Paper presented at the Freedom and Recovery:  Integrated Mental Health and Addiction Treatment for Service Members Conference. 

PUBLICATIONS

Cooper, M. (2005). Review of The Architecture of Aesthetic Music Therapy, by Colin Lee. Music Therapy Perspectives, Vol 23 (1), 70-81.

Cooper, M. (2010). Clinical-Musical Responses of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapists:  The Process of Clinical Improvisation. In S. Hadley (Ed.), Qualitative Inquiries in Music Therapy: A Monograph Series, 5, (pp. 86-115).

Cooper, M. (2012). A Musical Analysis of How Mary Priestley Implemented the Techniques She Developed for Analytical Music Therapy. Temple University, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 3509047.