Growing our service capability: welcome Mei Lyn

To kick start 2022 Attuned Health are growing our capability to facilitate community based individual and group music therapy services. Our music therapy sessions are tailored to suit each participants needs and can be funded by an organisation or individual, with NDIS, HCP or private funding.

To grow our music therapy service capability we are excited to welcome Mei Lyn Woon to the team.

Mei Lyn has a Bachelor of Arts (music), Master of Music Therapy, is a Registered Music Therapist (RMT) with the Australian Music Therapy Association and is a certified Neurologic Music Therapist (NMT). She is passionate about the capacity of music therapy to celebrate individuals and address diverse areas of their health and wellbeing purposefully and often simultaneously. Mei Lyn works with participants to recognise their own strengths, encourage their relationship with music and explore the multifaceted ways that music can function to support health and wellbeing. To help you get to know Mei Lyn a little better we asked her to share a bit more about herself.

When did you first witness the power of music therapy?

When shadowing a music therapist in Brisbane across a variety of clinical settings I was able to witness the fostering of meaningful social connections and improvement towards physical and communication goals, all whilst clients where engaging in fun and intentional music play. It did not take me long to decide to officially pursue music therapy as a career.

What do you love about being a music therapist?

Being part of a process that supports others to engage in meaningful experiences and address their health and wellbeing goals it great. To be able to do this with music as the medium to support them is just a dream come true.

Can you tell us about a specific music therapy moment that has stuck with you?

As a student music therapist my final clinical placement was in a stroke rehabilitation hospital. In our first session a patient was only able to sustain playing music independently for a few minutes. We worked on building her sustained attention, endurance and regulatory strategies to maintain arousal and by the end of the following session that same patient was independently improvising with musical instruments and singing simultaneously for 10 minutes. It felt very significant to be a part of her recovery journey in that way.

What instruments do you like to play, and what music do you listen to?

I enjoy playing the guitar and piano and also sing alto with a Voyces, which is a Perth-based choir specialising in contemporary choral music. I love playing jazz but recently have been playing more acoustic / folk guitar styles so it varies. I listen to a lot of pop, jazz hop, symphonic metal and assorted instrumental music!

Tell us something we might not know about you?

I am un unapologetic earring hoarder, and enjoy doing unsolicited impersonations of reality TV shows.

What is your future goal?

I want to be able to promote music therapy and improve access to the service across various communities. Personally I’d like to keep discovering new and innovative approaches to music therapy practice.

Finally, what is one thing you wish people knew about music therapy?

No matter the space, music therapy is unique and more nuanced than meets the eye (or ear); everything that occurs can be passive, playful, profound, powerful and everything in between.

We can’t wait for you to meet Mei Lyn and work with her on your health, wellbeing and recovery journey.