Music Therapy in NYC
Virtual music therapy sessions provided across New York and New Jersey
Music Therapy in NYC is Exactly What You’re Looking For If…
Music has always meant something more to you. A song comes on and something shifts in your chest before your mind even registers why.
Certain lyrics feel like they were written about you. A melody can take you somewhere words never could.
Your own inner world can be harder to put into words. You feel things deeply, and language only captures part of the weight of it. Something always seems left unsaid.
Talk therapy has its place. Some things live somewhere else: in a chord, a rhythm, a lyric that hits before you even understand why.
Music can be a way in for anyone. It just needs to mean something to you. I offer virtual music therapy for adults across New York and New Jersey, blending music with psychotherapy to reach what words alone can't.
What if music could take you somewhere words haven't been able to?
What is Music Therapy?
Music can get to places that words sometimes can’t.
In music therapy, we use the music that already means something to you as part of the therapeutic process.
That might look like:
listening to a song together and talking about the memory or emotions it brings up
writing lyrics to a song to personalize it
improvising
singing
You don’t need to play an instrument or think of yourself as musical. If you’ve ever had a song make you feel understood, bring you back to a specific moment, or help you feel something you couldn’t quite explain, that’s enough to begin.
As a board-certified music therapist (MT-BC), Licensed Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT), and psychotherapist, I offering virtual music therapy to adults across New York and New Jersey.
HOW DO I KNOW IF THIS IS RIGHT FOR ME?You May Benefit From Music Therapy in NYC If…
✧ You want a therapy approach that can adapt to how you process best, rather than relying on conversation alone.
✧ You tend to intellectualize your emotions and want a way to access them more directly.
✧ You’re looking for therapy that can include creativity, sensory awareness, and emotional expression while still being clinically grounded.
✧ You want support with emotional regulation, self-expression, or reconnecting with parts of yourself that feel harder to reach.
✧ You’re interested in combining music with psychotherapy, attachment work, or trauma-focused approaches like EMDR.
✧ You’re navigating anxiety, grief, trauma, identity changes, or a major life transition and want more than a purely verbal approach.
Does this sound familiar?
A song comes on and suddenly you’re back in a memory you thought you had moved past.
You have playlists for every version of yourself, but rarely stop to notice what they’re telling you.
You feel a lump in your throat, tightness in your chest, or tears before you even know why.
You can talk about what happened calmly, but music brings you closer to what you actually feel.
Certain songs feel almost impossible to listen to, while others are the only thing that helps.
You’ve always used music to cope, but you’re curious what it might be like to use it more intentionally in therapy.
Music Therapy in NYC
Can Help You
Put words around emotions that feel hard to name
Explore memories and experiences that surface through music
Notice how your body responds to sound, rhythm, and emotion
Use music more intentionally for grounding and emotional regulation
Process grief, trauma, anxiety, and major life transitions
Connect music with the patterns, relationships, and parts of yourself you’re working to understand
How Does Music Therapy in NYC Work?
STEP 01.
We start with what’s meaningful for you musically
That might be a song you keep returning to, music connected to a memory, or simply noticing what you listen to when you’re anxious, grieving, overwhelmed, or trying to feel more like yourself.
STEP 02.
We use music to explore what is coming up
We might listen, write lyrics, improvise, sing, or reflect on what you notice emotionally and physically. The music gives us another way to access feelings, memories, and patterns that can be harder to reach through conversation alone.
STEP 03.
We integrate the insight and connect it back to your life
Together, we connect what comes up to your relationships, coping patterns, identity, and everyday life so the work carries beyond the session. You don’t need to prepare anything or know exactly how you want to use music. We start with what feels comfortable.
Hi, I’m Mandy,
your Music Therapist in NYC
II’m a psychotherapist and board-certified music therapist based in New York City. I was born in Hong Kong, raised in Canada, and have built my life and practice here in New York. Music has always been one of the ways I make sense of emotion, identity, and belonging, and that continues to shape how I work with clients today.
My approach brings together music therapy and psychotherapy for adults navigating anxiety, grief, trauma, relationship patterns, AAPI identity, and life transitions. Sometimes we talk. Sometimes a song, lyric, or musical experience gets us closer to something that has been harder to name.
I offer sessions in English and Cantonese, with conversational Mandarin, and welcome music from any language or cultural background. You don’t need to be musical. You just need to be curious about what music might help you notice, express, or understand differently.
Music Therapy and Psychotherapy
in the Same Session
As a psychotherapist and a board-certified music therapist, we can move between conversation and music depending on what feels most useful.
Some sessions may be mostly talk therapy. In others, a song, rhythm, or musical experience can help us access emotions, memories, or patterns that are harder to reach through words alone.
When it fits, I may also integrate music into EMDR therapy, grounding, and trauma work to support emotional regulation and help you feel more resourced as we approach difficult material.
Frequently Asked
Questions
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No. You do not need to sing, play an instrument, read music, or consider yourself musical. Music therapy can be meaningful even if your relationship with music is simply listening, making playlists, or noticing how certain songs affect you.
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Music therapy sessions may include listening to music, songwriting, improvisation, singing, lyric exploration, or talking about the emotions, memories, and associations that music brings up. Each session is shaped around your goals, comfort level, and relationship with music.
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Talk therapy relies mainly on conversation. Music therapy can use both words and music to explore emotions, memories, identity, and relationship patterns. For some people, music offers another way to access what is harder to reach through conversation alone.
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Music therapy can support adults navigating anxiety, grief, trauma, stress, identity, relationship patterns, and major life transitions. It can be especially helpful for people who tend to intellectualize their emotions or feel like talking only gets them so far.
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Yes. Music therapy can support anxiety by helping you notice emotional and physical responses, practice grounding, explore patterns of overthinking or perfectionism, and build more flexible ways of regulating stress.
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Yes. Music therapy can be integrated into trauma-focused psychotherapy to support grounding, emotional expression, memory processing, and a greater sense of safety. When appropriate, I may also combine music therapy with EMDR and other trauma-informed approaches.
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Yes. I offer virtual music therapy to adults across New York and New Jersey. Online sessions can still include music listening, songwriting, lyric exploration, vocal work, body percussion, and instruments you already have at home.
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No. Music therapy is a clinical practice provided by a credentialed music therapist and is guided by individualized therapeutic goals. Sound baths or sound healing may support relaxation or wellness, but they are not the same as board-certified music therapy.
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Individual sessions are $250 for 45 minutes. Mindful Roots Collective is an out-of-network practice, and clients with out-of-network benefits may be eligible for partial reimbursement.
Mindful Roots Collective offers anxiety therapy across New York City, including Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Long Island City (Queens). Sessions are available via secure telehealth platform for residents of New York and New Jersey, including clients in Jersey City, Hoboken, and across Northern New Jersey.
Many of the people I work with are navigating anxiety, grief, trauma, identity shifts, or major life transitions, and are looking for a way to process what they’re feeling that goes beyond conversation alone. As a board-certified music therapist in NYC, I also work with clients who feel deeply connected to music and want to use that relationship more intentionally in therapy.
For Asian American and immigrant clients, music can also become a way to explore culture, family, language, memory, and belonging in ways that don’t always translate neatly into words.
That part of you that has always known music could say something words couldn’t is still there. We can start there.
Music Therapy in NYC and across New York & New Jersey
Questions?
Ready to Schedule a Consultation Call?
Fill out the form and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. I look forward to hearing from you!
