“Music therapy, to me, is music performance without the ego. It’s not about entertainment as much as it’s about empathizing. If you can use music to slip past the pain and gather insight into the workings of someone else’s mind, you can begin to fix a problem.” — Jodi Picoult (author of the bestselling book Sing You Home)
Please help us in welcoming Melissa Pate to Kensington Park! Melissa joins the wonderful Creative Arts Therapies team as our newest music therapist. Melissa received her bachelor’s degree in music therapy from the University of Georgia and completed her six-month clinical internship at Trident Medical Center in Charleston, South Carolina.
Before moving to Washington, D.C., she worked at the George Center for Music Therapy in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to music therapy, Melissa also headed up the company’s older-adult programming as director of senior services. Her specialty is neurological music therapy (NMT), commonly used with those diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which employs specific clinical techniques for cognitive, motor, and speech and language training and rehabilitation.
Apart from her work at Kensington Park, Melissa enjoys exploring the Washington area with her husband, baking breads and desserts, and advocating for people with learning and neurological differences. Melissa is thrilled to be joining the Kensington Park team and hopes to extend music therapy’s benefits through innovative programs in all three buildings.
August 21, 2018