Sounding Joy Music Therapy, Inc. was established in September 2002, as the first and only non-profit organization, with IRS code 501(c)(3), to promote music therapy in the State of Hawaii. It was to respond to the growing demands for music therapy services in our community.

Since its establishment, Sounding Joy has provided Hawaii’s children and youth in Special Education with music therapy through the Department of Education and the Department of Health. Since 2005, receiving grants from the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and the Department of Human Services, Sounding Joy has expanded its music therapy programs to serve more than 1,000 at-risk youth and families.

In 2011 and 2014, Sounding Joy presented original work at the World Congress of Music Therapy in Seoul, Korea, and Vienna, Austria, representing Hawaii’s music therapy communities at this international conference for the first time in history. Sounding Joy also supported relief efforts in response to the Great Earthquake in Northeast Japan through music therapy. In 2012, the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority awarded Sounding Joy with a grant to offer music therapy to Native Hawaiian communities through exchange programs, empowering native people and culture.

In 2014, Sounding Joy collaborated with Hawai‘i Pacific University to establish the first music therapy introductory course in Hawai‘i. In recent years, the City and County of Honolulu has awarded grants for Sounding Joy to provide underserved populations on O‘ahu with music therapy. Local and national agencies including the C. T. C. Ching Foundation, Nadao and Mieko Yoshinaga Family Fund, Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Parkinson’s Foundation, and Autism Speaks have also funded and expanded Sounding Joy’s services to specific populations.

This year, Sounding Joy celebrates its 21st anniversary, having provided more than 2,700 individuals and families with music therapy and educated more than 51,000 people in Hawai‘i. We have collaborated with more than 100 local agencies, serving schools, nursing facilities, hospitals, daycare centers, correctional facilities, homeless shelters, etc., which request our unique, creative music therapy services that no other program can offer. Sounding Joy also serves as an internship site for music therapy students and those in related fields.

Sounding Joy has received numerous awards and recognitions from the Governors, the State Senate and House of Representatives, and the Mayors of Honolulu for its outstanding contributions to Hawai‘i.

Music Therapy consists of therapeutic uses of music to address behavioral, social, psychological, physical, communicative, sensory-motor, and/or cognitive functioning. It is an allied health profession similar to occupational and physical therapy.

Music therapy may include the use of behavioral, biomedical, developmental, educational, humanistic, adaptive music instruction, and/or other models. It enhances one’s quality of life, involving human relationships, which are structured and adapted through the elements of music to create a positive environment and set the occasion for successful growth and changes.

Because music therapy is a powerful and nonthreatening medium, unique outcomes are possible. Music therapy is used successfully with all ages and disabilities.

MUSIC THERAPY is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program. (American Music Therapy Association, 2005)

MUSIC THERAPY is the use of music and/or its musical elements (sound, rhythm, melody and harmony) by a qualified music therapist, with a client or group, in a process designed to facilitate and promote communication, relationships, learning, mobilization, expression, organization and other relevant therapeutic objectives in order to meet physical, emotional, mental, social and cognitive needs.

MUSIC THERAPY aims to develop potentials and/or restore functions of the individual so that he or she can achieve better intra and/or interpersonal integration and, consequently, a better quality of life, through prevention, rehabilitation or treatment. (World Federation of Music Therapy, 1996)


MUSIC THERAPY is considered a related service under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). When music therapy is deemed necessary to assist a child benefit from his/her special education, goals are documented on the Individual Education Plan (IEP) as a related service intervention.

MUSIC THERAPY provisions have been also enacted as part of the Older American Act of 1992.

MUSIC THERAPY is also recognized as a viable treatment modality by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO), the Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission (CARF), and the National Rehabilitation Caucus (NRC).

For more information, visit the website of American Music Therapy Association: www.musictherapy.org

As Music Therapists, we partner with individuals, groups, and organizations in healthcare, medical, early intervention, educational, mental health, and correctional & forensic settings, with a wide variety of clients — infants, children, special-needs individuals, patients, adults, and seniors. Business corporations have also used music therapy sessions at workplace to manage stress of their employees.

Music therapists are uniquely trained in the application of music to facilitate engagement in non-music behaviors (Tamplin & Baker, 2006).

Music Therapy with Individual Populations

• Acquired Brain Injury


• Addiction Treatment


• Adults with Mental Health Conditions


• Crisis & Trauma


• Adults with Substance Use Conditions


• Autism Spectrum Disorder 


• Child & Adolescent Behavioral Health


• Dementia Care


• Older Adults Living with Memory Disorders


• Hospice Care


• Military Service Members and Veterans


• Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)


• Pain Management 


• Pediatric Medical Care 


• Special Education


Here are examples what credentialed music therapists do:

1. Work with Congresswoman Giffords to regain her speech after surviving a bullet wound to her brain.


2. Work with older adults to lessen the effects of dementia.


3. Work with children and adults to reduce asthma episodes.


4. Work with hospitalized patients to reduce pain.


5. Work with children who have autism to improve communication capabilities.


6. Work with premature infants to improve sleep patterns and increase weight gain.


7. Work with people who have Parkinson’s disease to improve motor function.



For more info : 


www.musictherapy.org


www.musictherapy.org/research