Why Music Therapy Matters
Have you ever heard a song that exactly expressed how you were feeling? Has music ever given you energy, or been a comfort when you were depressed? Do you hear the music in your memories? Music is part of our daily lives. It is personally valuable and beyond that, it is therapeutic – for the board-certified music therapist it is a healing tool that helps with pain, anxiety and depression. It improves mental health and the symptoms of neurological disorders. It increases creative expression and enhances learning. Music therapists are healthcare professionals, trained to use music to complement, reinforce, or improve health and wellness goals.
Life without music is incomplete. Healthcare without music therapy is incomplete.
Our Mission
The Music Therapy Impact Fund advances our mission of establishing music therapy as a standard in healthcare and wellness. We seek to increase the awareness of and access to the benefits of music therapy by providing low or no-cost music therapy services in Northern California through individual and group music therapy sessions and emphasizing our competitive advantages of expert music therapists, commitment to this community, and dedicated services to our participants and community partners.
Our History
Music therapy was not available in Chico until 2014. While there was a lot of interest and enthusiasm over the potential of music therapy here, there were not a lot of options for financial support (insurance does not pay for music therapy at this time). So, in 2015 the Music Therapy Impact Fund (MTIF) grant program was created through the North Valley Community Foundation. Funded by donations and fundraisers, the MTIF has been serving hospice and palliative care patients for 10 years.
In 2019 the MTIF added the North State Therapy Choir to its programming. The NSTC is a FREE online therapeutic choir for people with Parkinson’s disease and their caregivers.
Current community collaborators and supporters of our programs are Butte Home Health and Hospice, Enloe Hospice, the Brain Injury Coalition.