Music Therapy Access Fund: Making Music Therapy Accessible for All
When I started Modulations Therapies in 2016, I wanted to bring music therapy to more people in our community. I had spent much of my career working in hospice and healthcare settings, where music therapy was part of the care people received. In private practice, I work with people in their homes, in schools, and through local community organizations.
Over the past ten years, grants and community partnerships have helped bring music therapy to children with disabilities, homebound adults, preschool classrooms, and intergenerational groups. I have spent many hours working with local nonprofits to find funding for these programs. Together, we have made a lot possible.
Yet funding can change quickly. A grant ends, a budget faces big cutbacks, or a family faces an unexpected expense. The need for music therapy doesn't end just because a financial situation has changed.
To help address these gaps, I began searching for a nonprofit fiscal sponsor and found a partner in Field Note Music School. Together, we created the Music Therapy Access Fund.
Music therapists use music to help people work towards goals related to their health, development, and wellbeing. For a young child, that might mean improving communication or attention skills, strengthening motor coordination, or learning to regulate emotions. For an adult with a neurologic condition, it might mean regaining the ability to speak after a stroke or practicing pain management techniques. For someone who is homebound, music therapy can provide opportunities for expression and connection that are otherwise difficult to access.
What Matters to the People We Serve
As much as I love talking about the neurological and biochemical benefits of music, I’ve come to understand that scientific evidence alone isn’t what keeps families paying out of pocket for yet another therapy service.
It’s watching their child communicate, engage, grow, and simply enjoy being themselves. It’s discovering that someone who has become increasingly isolated still has stories they want to share. It’s the connection, the joy, and the opportunity to do something that matters to them.
For some of the people I work with, experiencing success can be a powerful thing. An adult making a choice and having it heard. A student playing a song for the first time. An older person hearing their own voice in a recording.
These moments may look small from the outside. But they represent something much bigger: I can do this. I have something to say. I can connect. I belong.
In my practice, these are people and programs I get to know over months and years. We build relationships, learn what works, and adjust as their needs change. Being able to continue that work matters.
Helping the Work Continue
Our Music Buddies group, for example, has brought preschoolers and older adults together in Bar Harbor since 2017. At Special Children's Friends, music therapy is part of the weekly routine for children receiving early intervention services. These programs depend on funding that the participating organizations cannot always cover 100% on their own.
Individuals face similar challenges. Someone may benefit from ongoing sessions but need help with the cost during a period of financial hardship. A student who needs an adapted approach to learning music may have few other local options.
Financial barriers shouldn't prevent people from receiving the music therapy services they need.
A Partnership with Field Note Music School
I am honored to work with Field Note Music School (formerly Ellsworth Community Music Institute) on this Fund. As our fiscal sponsor, Field Note administers the Fund and accepts tax-deductible donations to help people receive services here in Hancock County.
The Fund will provide need-based assistance for music therapy and adaptive music lessons. It will also help local nonprofits continue programs between grants and make short-term programs possible when funding is otherwise unavailable.
Families and local nonprofits apply for assistance, and a committee reviews financial need, proposed services, and available funds. Field Note oversees the process, approves each award, and pays only for pre-approved, invoiced services.
Having a source of assistance means we can plan for these challenges instead of starting from scratch each time a funding gap appears.
How You Can Help
Community support has helped make these programs possible for ten years. Contributing to the Access Fund is a way to continue that support, with donations staying here in Hancock County to help local families and nonprofit programs.
A donation to the Music Therapy Access Fund helps cover the cost for someone who otherwise could not afford to participate. Contributions of any size can be combined to support individual sessions and community programs. The Fund is a rare example of charitable giving where your donation dollars are going directly into direct service delivery for people in need.
As Modulations Therapies celebrates its tenth anniversary, I want the programs and relationships we have built to have a dependable future. The Access Fund is a way for our community to help make that happen.
