CUTV News Radio spotlights Michael Kenny of Drum Heart

Dallas, TX – The jazz musician Albert Ayler once said, “Music is the healing force of the universe.” Music doesn’t just engage the mind and the body, it engages our emotions for a powerful, evocative and often transcendent experience. Music enlivens our reality.

This is because music is a whole-brain activity: it activates expressive and receptive language, special and temporal reasoning, motor cortex, and our social and interpersonal skills.

We know rhythm, tempo, melody and harmony affect our brain. How can we target music to address those areas of the brain that govern how we function?

Michael Kenny is the founder of Drum Heart, a private music therapy practice for children and adolescents with special needs as well as the elderly in hospital and nursing home settings. As a music therapist, Kenny applies the elements of music to address therapeutic goals. His results have been nothing short of miraculous.

“Some of my friends are tired of hearing about what a great day I had at work and how much I love my job,” says Kenny. “I’ve had autistic children light up and engage with sustained eye contact. I’ve seen 90-year-olds spring out of their wheelchairs and dance."

Whereas in music education, the goal is outcome driven (repertoire, performance), music therapy is process-oriented, relying on improvisation and interaction. Kenny specializes in a therapeutic modality known as TaKeTiNa, a group rhythmic process that utilizes sight, sound, and movement to activate human and musical potential through rhythm.

“My true bliss in music involves uniting with other people through music,” says Kenny. “I am serving them and the music itself but I’m also serving my bliss.”

For more information on Drum Heart, visit http://www.drumheart.org