It's Music Therapy Awareness Month, and Note-Able Music Therapy Services, the only nonprofit music therapy program in the state, has been giving free assessments for their services all month. Note-Able has been using the healing power of music for the last twenty years.
"Music therapy is using music as a tool to accomplish non-musical goals," said Note-Able Founder and Executive Director Manal Toppozada. "So as music therapists, we're working on the same things as speech therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists may work on. So physical, cognitive, social skills, but we're using music as the vehicle to help people accomplish these non-musical goals."
Greg McNie has been coming to Note-Able for the last seven years. He plays the banjo and says he always enjoys his time here.
"What would life be without music?" he said. "Music is very emotional; it's one way to work with the emotions is through something that is a door to that. It's very therapeutic and I think a good use of my time. I really like it here and also I get to socialize."
The nonprofit serves more than two thousand people every year, all ages and abilities. The therapists are all professional musicians, but the benefits are for everyone.
"It can help anybody, one of the big misconceptions is you have to be a musician, and you do not," Toppozada said. "Every person responds to music you don't have to be a musician, you don't have to be musical in order to benefit from music therapy."
Note-Able continues to grow. The group is renovating a new space, bringing their services to agencies all over Northern Nevada, and continuing to do what they do best.
"We're changing lives in small and big ways every single day, here and throughout the community," Toppozada said.
For McNie, it's all about the journey.
"I feel like I've accomplished something," he said. "I feel like I am getting better and it's not about the end result, it's about the little steps along the way."
More information: https://www.nmtsreno.org/
