Guided by Music: An Interview with Stephanie Bolton

Stephanie Bolton, MA, MT-BC, is a board-certified music therapist and Fellow of the Association for Music and Imagery. She is based in Huntsville, Alabama. Her private practice is called Healing Sounds Music Therapy, and she specializes in the areas of depression, divorce, and anxiety. She is also an author of guided visualization books, including “Diving Deeper: 30 Guided Visualizations for Individual and Group Work.”

As does Rachelle from last week’s interview, Stephanie also has both her bachelor’s and Master of Arts in Music Therapy. After graduating with her Masters, Stephanie completed training in Guided Imagery and Music (GIM), a specialized form of music therapy practice. GIM was developed through the work of Dr. Helen Bonny, a pioneering music therapist and consciousness researcher.

In our interview, Stephanie and I spoke about:

• The role of music in her life and what led her to a career in music therapy
• What GIM is, and what led her to this specific form of music therapy practice
• Why it’s important to work with a professional when doing GIM

Guiding Through Music

Listening to music is a common practice in our society. We listen to music for many different reasons. Sometimes we use music as a distraction away from our troubles or thoughts. Other times we may use music to honor and celebrate key life events. Because listening to music is so commonplace, it can be easy to dismiss the power that a song can have on us. During our conversation, Stephanie spoke about the complexity of music, and why training as a GIM practitioner is important:

Because music is more than what we hear. Because music affects us on so many different levels. And sometimes we’re aware of that, and oftentimes we’re not.

Hear our full interview by watching the videos below.

Part 1:

Part 2:

You can find out more about Stephanie’s work as a music therapist, at Healing Sounds Music Therapy. You can also find her book, “Diving Deeper: 30 Guided Visualizations for Individual and Group Work” in digital form and in paper form.