Healing Through Music: A Conversation with Vanessa Lomas

🎶 Have you ever wondered how music can heal and bring people together? In this heartfelt episode, I sit down with Vanessa Lomas, founder of TheraCare Music Therapy of Lafayette and president of the Autism Society of Acadiana, to explore the transformative power of music. 🎶 

Here’s what we dive into:  
🎶 The deep connection between music and life events, like birthdays and celebrations  
💊 How music therapy can reduce anxiety and teach calming skills—sometimes even reducing the need for medication  
🎸 Adaptive equipment for musical instruments and how Vanessa has taught individuals with unique abilities, including those who are blind  
🤝 The support groups offered by the Autism Society of Acadiana for moms, dads, and siblings of individuals with autism  
🌟 The vital role volunteers play in supporting the Autism Society’s mission  

This episode is packed with inspiring stories and practical insights for anyone interested in the healing power of music or supporting the autism community.  

🎧 Tune in now and let’s celebrate the beauty of connection through music! 

Transcript

Mary Baudoin (00:14):

Thank you for joining us today for this episode of This Ability Podcast. I'm your host, Mary Baudoin, and joining us today is Vanessa Lomas, founder and owner of TheraCare Music Therapy of Lafayette, and also the current president of the board of directors for the Autism Society of Acadiana. Vanessa, thank you so much for joining us today.

Vanessa Lomas (00:34):

Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Mary Baudoin (00:35):

So tell us a little bit about yourself, where you from, your education, background, things like that.

Vanessa Lomas (00:41):

Yeah. So I am originally from Mississippi. That's where I moved from. My husband went to UL, kind of how we got in the Lafayette area. I went to school for music therapy, so I have a master's degree in music therapy from Florida State. I started working straight out of school pretty much, and I've been working as a music therapist since 2010.

Mary Baudoin (01:00):

You started an organization called TheraCare... Am I pronouncing it right?

Vanessa Lomas (01:04):

Yeah.

Mary Baudoin (01:04):

... Music Therapy. So tell us about music therapy. What exactly is it?

Vanessa Lomas (01:09):

Yeah. I won't lie, I get that question a lot. Most people do know intuitively it's there. So we all listen to music, right? We all use music for whatever, motivation at the gym, connection to life events. We sing Happy Birthday, we sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game, we have music for funerals. There are just songs that we all know are parts of life. What we do is we basically just take that and we use it for therapy purposes. So if maybe you're needing to rehabilitate from an injury or surgery and your doctor and physical therapist are like, "Hey, I think learning to play the guitar would help you," they would refer you to a music therapist. If you are in a mental health crisis and you're struggling with emotions or things like that, you could be referred to a music therapist.

(01:53):

Everybody connects with music. There's an emotional component with music. We all know that, again, intuitively, even if we're not necessarily thinking about it from the perspective of, oh, I listen to this song and it makes me happy, or I listen to this song and it finally lets me cry. We're not always aware of what it's doing for us. That's kind of what my job is is to know those things. Some of it's way more scientific than that. So like premature babies, there's a device, it's called a PAL. It's a Pacifier Activated Lullaby system. It's very scientific. So the baby moves the pacifier, the music starts. As the music therapist, I can make it harder and harder each time, so they have to move it more and they get less music. So they have to continue moving it in order to keep the music going. They learn to suck from a pacifier, which translates to drinking from a bottle, which means they get to leave the hospital sooner. So there is some very scientific components to using music to help people heal.

Mary Baudoin (02:44):

That's very interesting.

Vanessa Lomas (02:45):

Yeah, I mean, I'm in this for a living and I'm still kind of blown away sometimes by how it works.

Mary Baudoin (02:52):

Right, because technology's constantly changing and improving, so I'm sure that you're always learning new things.

Vanessa Lomas (02:58):

Oh yeah. There are some music therapists who deal with sleep, and they'll bring you into the sleep clinic, they watch your brainwaves, and then they create you your own CD based off of your brainwaves to help keep you in certain states of sleep, and it's just for you. It's your own personal sleep mix, and I'm just like, I'm blown away by it.

Mary Baudoin (03:18):

This is so cool. That is really cool.

Vanessa Lomas (03:19):

Yeah, I mean, again, these are things we all know, right? People go to sleep listening to music. It's just the research and the scientific component isn't what's always on people's brains to begin with. Oh, it just makes me feel better. Oh, it makes me fall asleep faster. But what's actually going on inside their brain, that's kind of what they teach us when we go to school and things like that so we're able to help direct things in a more appropriate way, I guess, to use music more effectively.

Mary Baudoin (03:45):

Okay. So out of college you have this specialty. So tell me how did you go from really embracing this type of therapy to starting your own organization.

Vanessa Lomas (03:59):

Oh.

Mary Baudoin (03:59):

What an adventure.

Vanessa Lomas (04:00):

I won't lie. My first real moment of, oh my gosh, there's something to this, was actually with my brother. My brother is a level 3 autistic adult male. When we were little, I used to sing to him, like when we were just waiting around or whatever, waiting rooms, cars, whatever, just nursery rhymes and things like that, and one of the first times I ever heard him talk was during the nursery rhymes. I was singing one and I think I paused to cough or sneeze or something, and I guess he didn't like me not finishing it so he finished it, and it just blew my parents and I away, and we didn't even know he knew those words, much less that they connected with this song.

(04:36):

So then my mom starts going through every nursery rhyme and song she knows and she'll stop at certain parts to see what he does, and he just fills in the gap. They called all the aunts and uncles and grandparents to listen to him, they were so excited. I didn't think much of that because again, nobody knew what music therapy was. People still don't know what music therapy is.

Mary Baudoin (04:54):

Yeah, I didn't.

Vanessa Lomas (04:55):

And then when I got older, I went to a camp for kids with autism and I met a couple of college music therapists there who were volunteering at camp, and then the professor of my local college at that point in the game, the music therapy professor, and he just kind of was like, "Oh, you already play a musical instrument and you're already familiar with the special needs community and things like that, this might be a good job for you." I'm like... nobody wants to be a starving artist for a living. Musicians don't make money unless you make it big-

Mary Baudoin (05:21):

Exactly.

Vanessa Lomas (05:22):

... and your chances of that are slim, so I really just kind of wrote it off. And then I started college as a business major and absolutely hated and despised it, no offense, business people. But looking back on it now as a business owner, I wish I had kind of stuck with it.

Mary Baudoin (05:37):

You can always go back, Vanessa, you can always go back.

Vanessa Lomas (05:39):

Yeah, because I'm telling you, I'm learning a whole lot of new and exciting things as a business owner that I'm sure college would've prepared me for. But I swapped right away to music therapy, and I just, I really never looked back, went to work right away, and I was working in Baton Rouge but living here. I'm not going to lie, that commute is evil.

Mary Baudoin (05:57):

Yeah.

Vanessa Lomas (05:58):

The commute is horrid. The job itself was fine, but when my husband got done with school, he was like, "Do you want to keep working there?" And I was like, "No, but I don't know what else to do." Never thought about opening my own business at all, and I was like, "I guess I could try." So I got hooked up with Melissa Stevenson from The Music Garden, and rented a space from her for a little while, and yeah, just kind of went from there. I left being partnered with her during the pandemic and kind of struck out on my own.

Mary Baudoin (06:29):

Right.

Vanessa Lomas (06:31):

And yeah, it just sort of happened. There was no real thought into it, I guess. I never went out there with the whole idea that I was going to be a business owner and make my own career.

Mary Baudoin (06:40):

Well, and that's how a lot of grassroots organizations starts from an idea and you just kind of go with it. Like I did with this podcast, it just kind of developed on its own in my own little brain. Who is your target audience for music therapy?

Vanessa Lomas (06:55):

I won't lie, I mean, Lafayette's a little devoid of music therapy. I'm the only one practicing in town.

Mary Baudoin (07:01):

Really?

Vanessa Lomas (07:01):

Yeah.

Mary Baudoin (07:01):

I did not know that.

Vanessa Lomas (07:02):

So I will not turn anybody away. I will let people know when they come in, "Hey, look, this isn't necessarily a big area of expertise for me. I'm going to have to seek some outside mentoring and guidance from my community." I'd hate to be like, "No, you can't have music." That just seems wrong. A majority of who I work with are people with autism just because that is such a strong background for my family with my brother. But I have kids who come for just music lessons who have social anxiety or anger management issues. I do have a lot of professional experience in mental health. That's pretty much what I worked in until I opened my private practice. So yeah, I mean, we won't say no to anybody, but just honesty up front. If I don't know what I'm dealing with, I'll have to seek outside help to make it as effective as I can.

Mary Baudoin (07:44):

If someone has, I guess, like attention deficit disorder where they're not really focused, do you find that music kind of helps to keep them focused, or it depends on the type?

Vanessa Lomas (07:54):

Sometimes music can be very encouraging to not pay attention.

Mary Baudoin (07:58):

What type of music is the most popular with your therapy sessions? I mean, are we're talking classical music? Are we talking pop, rock?

Vanessa Lomas (08:06):

So it does change based on the person, right? Our research in the music therapy field has shown that patient preferred music is always going to be the most beneficial and the most effective to working with them. Right now for most of my clientele, that's probably Baby Shark.

Mary Baudoin (08:20):

Oh.

Vanessa Lomas (08:22):

Yeah, yeah.

Mary Baudoin (08:24):

You poor thing.

Vanessa Lomas (08:25):

Boy, don't I feel that.

Mary Baudoin (08:26):

Oh.

Vanessa Lomas (08:27):

But it just, it also changes culturally, right?

Mary Baudoin (08:29):

Sure.

Vanessa Lomas (08:30):

Here we have a lot of obviously zydeco and Creole kind of music and things like that which has been really exciting for me to learn. Never in a hundred million years would've thought that a accordion would have any fascination for me.

Mary Baudoin (08:42):

Yeah. It's a fascinating object to look at, and then you're like, "Okay, wow. It's got all these options."

Vanessa Lomas (08:49):

Yeah. And I think they're fun and very interesting, but I'm not going to lie, even with my music background, I'm like, "This is the most confusing put together... who designed this?" And who thought, "Mm, what a great..." we have all these instruments and you just created this.

Mary Baudoin (09:03):

Yeah. And I'm presuming, yeah, country music, Taylor Swift?

Vanessa Lomas (09:06):

Country music's a big one. Obviously, especially with the young people and the teenage crowd, anybody who's just popular. Taylor Swift, rap, and hip hop, I won't say I don't use it, I do, but we're picky. We make smart choices.

Mary Baudoin (09:19):

Sure. That's good.

Vanessa Lomas (09:19):

Smart choices when it comes to those things.

Mary Baudoin (09:22):

Good times.

Vanessa Lomas (09:22):

Clean choices.

Mary Baudoin (09:23):

Understand. Yeah, yeah.

Vanessa Lomas (09:25):

So yeah. No, I mean, music is, that's the joy is it's for everybody. Everybody can connect with some kind of music. So I get to learn a lot of different kinds of music. Even if it's not my cup of tea, I can generally find something that I like from a style of music. Sometimes they really work on me. Anime music and some of the Japanese stuff that's becoming really popular with our teenagers and young people, it's pushing the boundaries of my skills, but that's okay.

Mary Baudoin (09:50):

Yeah. K-pop.

Vanessa Lomas (09:52):

Yeah. K-pop. Yeah, oh man. So many of the teenagers into that life right now, and I'm like, "Okay, figure it out."

Mary Baudoin (09:59):

Yeah, exactly. Learn as you go. So what would you say is the importance of music therapy? How can it help someone? How can it help all of us?

Vanessa Lomas (10:08):

I mean, part of the drive for getting into this is while I truly respect doctors, I think what they provide and offer the community is amazing, we need them so much. I, personal philosophy, is sometimes think that maybe prescriptions and surgeries and things like that could be maybe not a first choice. If I can alleviate stress and anxiety by teaching you coping skills through music and specifically curated playlists that, oh, your heart rate is up here because your anxiety is up, you turn on the playlist that we've made together, that we've practiced our calming skills together with, and you calm down without being put on anxiety medication. Or, hey, I'm struggling with staying focused, ADHD, routines, and again, we help basically program that with music, and then you don't need to get on medication until we've hit a point where music can't be effective anymore.

(11:01):

I mean, I think that's just kind of what everybody wants. Nobody really seems to want to pick taking a pill first. We've seen people, I've worked with people with Parkinson's who can't walk because their tremors are so bad, but the moment they put on their playlist that they've practiced walking to with the physical therapist and the music therapist, they can walk as long as the music's playing. The moment the music stops, they have to stop to shake. It's just what your brain can do is amazing.

Mary Baudoin (11:26):

So it's like the rhythm and the beats of the music?

Vanessa Lomas (11:28):

Yeah, they get so used to that. We call it entrainment. Obviously that's a word that circulates in the therapy community anyway, not just music therapy. But yeah, they get so used to... and it takes practice. It's not like we just hand them the music and like, "Go forward and conquer and you're going to make it." We actually work on walking to the beat of a drum and then adding this, and then, okay, we're going to do it through headphones because obviously we can't just follow you around in life beating on a drum, right? That would get horrible for everybody. So things along that nature.

(11:56):

Or if I get a really, really hyper kid, we'll start with, really, it looks like chaos. If you were to come in at that point in time, it looks like I have lost my mind. It's loud, it's noisy, it's crazy. And then the next song's not going to be as loud and noisy and crazy, and then the next one's going to be even less, and then the next one, and finally, when they leave, they're back to like, "This is my emotional state of calm." Again, that's just something that they teach us in school. It's called iso principle, bringing somebody from where they are, meeting them there, and bringing them to where you want to be. Or the other way, if they're super lethargic and I need to pep them up, we got to amp up here. Same idea. We start chill and build our way up until we're a little bit more-

Mary Baudoin (12:34):

Okay.

Vanessa Lomas (12:35):

... awake and with life.

Mary Baudoin (12:36):

Yeah. Do you teach people how to play musical instruments, or is it all-

Vanessa Lomas (12:40):

Oh yeah.

Mary Baudoin (12:41):

Oh, you do? Okay.

Vanessa Lomas (12:42):

Yeah, yeah. Sometimes if it's appropriate, absolutely. And then just sometimes, I mean, there's people who come in, anybody could come in and be like, "Hey, Vanessa, I heard you on the podcast. I want to learn how to play the violin." Okay, fine. I won't say no. Music for everybody, but no, if it's appropriate, for sure. Are some people a little bit more capable in that area than others? Yes. Are there some modifications that can be made to help people be more successful? Sure. I can write music in colors. So you don't ever have to learn to read music. You can learn red means this, green means that, blue means that.

Mary Baudoin (13:11):

Oh, so it's like color coded?

Vanessa Lomas (13:13):

Yeah.

Mary Baudoin (13:13):

That's incredible.

Vanessa Lomas (13:14):

I can write it color coded. I could write it with letters. If you wanted to learn, hey, I'm never going to learn to read it on a sheet music, but I know my letters, got it. There's also adaptive equipment for most of the instruments nowadays. So the color coded stuff, if I write it in color on the music, it's also color coded on your instrument. So I can add vinyl decals to the violin, the guitar, the piano. Some instruments are already colored. It's kind of weird, but you can get a keyboard that's already colored the same as the music that I'm going to give you.

Mary Baudoin (13:40):

Wow.

Vanessa Lomas (13:41):

There's pieces you can put on the guitar to help with finger things. If you can't do all the finger movements that I can do, you can just press the button and it does it for you, but you can still play the guitar.

Mary Baudoin (13:51):

Nice.

Vanessa Lomas (13:51):

Until you're ready, until you're ready to move on from that. But yeah, there's adaptive equipment for almost every instrument known to man.

Mary Baudoin (13:57):

Let me ask you a question, and this is not a trick question, but-

Vanessa Lomas (14:01):

I feel a little nervous now.

Mary Baudoin (14:03):

... recently I've been learning American sign language. So I'm just curious, have you worked with anyone who was deaf or hard of hearing, and how would you incorporate music therapy into their life since they have difficulty hearing or cannot hear at all?

Vanessa Lomas (14:18):

I personally have not had any experience working with someone who was completely deaf. I have had experience working with some folks who are hard of hearing. A lot of what we're working on is not necessarily strengthening that, but helping them kind of learn, particularly early on like if it was caused by an injury, kind of helping to learn how to use what hearing they do have. So a lot of auditory discrimination stuff and things like that, like can you shake these two things and tell me if they sound the same. Just like I said, strengthening the skill that they do have left. But again, that's few and far between for me. I have had experience teaching some folks who are blind. That's been fun.

Mary Baudoin (14:52):

Tell me about that experience.

Vanessa Lomas (14:54):

We usually go with piano or guitar because it's such a... you can feel where you need to be. Thus far, it's been great. I have kept up with a few of my clients who were blind and continued. They continued even long after they left the hospital with me-

Mary Baudoin (15:07):

How awesome is that.

Vanessa Lomas (15:08):

... just because they were so excited to be able to actually, I can make music. Yeah, yeah, you can. I mean, anybody can hit a drum so anybody can make music of some kind, but actually truly, he could feel where the frets are on the guitar, so he knew where he needed to be. Technically, I tell all of them, we're not supposed to look at our instruments when we play. So it's all supposed to be by feeling once you hit a certain point in music anyway. So it works really well if you can't see. We're not supposed to look anyway.

Mary Baudoin (15:38):

Exactly.

Vanessa Lomas (15:38):

So you're good to go.

Mary Baudoin (15:40):

It's just a tool to help you.

Vanessa Lomas (15:41):

Yeah, it's just for beginning.

Mary Baudoin (15:41):

Yeah, absolutely.

Vanessa Lomas (15:42):

So it takes a little while longer to learn the instrument that way, but once you have it you have it. I mean-

Mary Baudoin (15:49):

I'm sure that they're also not distracted by too many other things going on in the room too.

Vanessa Lomas (15:55):

Correct.

Mary Baudoin (15:55):

They're really focused on that one instrument and how it sounds.

Vanessa Lomas (15:58):

There is so much time that I spend with my visual students, like, "No," blocking their vision from being able to look at their instrument because they get so hooked on needing to see it, and I'm like, "Nope, you can't do that."

Mary Baudoin (16:10):

No, that's a great point. I'm glad you brought that up because that's not even something I would've thought about. But of course, our podcast is all about people with special needs, and so having someone who is visually impaired, yeah, it just makes a lot of sense for them to try out some music therapy. Let's switch gears a little bit and talk about the Autism Society of Acadiana.

Vanessa Lomas (16:27):

Okay.

Mary Baudoin (16:29):

I'm presuming that you got involved with them because you do have a brother who is autistic, but tell me about how that journey developed and how you became involved with volunteering for the society.

Vanessa Lomas (16:39):

Yeah. So I came on to the board of directors in 2020. It was a very unique time to get on anything, right?

Mary Baudoin (16:48):

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Nerve-

Vanessa Lomas (16:48):

None of the programming that they had been doing in the past was really up and running. So yeah, I think 2020 and 2021, I wasn't really sure what I was doing or what we had going on.

Mary Baudoin (16:59):

Nobody did.

Vanessa Lomas (17:00):

Right, yeah. It was a confusing time for the whole world, but it kind of let me get into it all slowly and really learn the chunks that I needed to learn. But yeah, I got a phone call one day from one of the people that worked there and was like, "Hey, look, we have some spots for some new board members. If you'd like to apply and interview, we'd love to maybe have you join up." So I did, and yeah, I've kind of been there ever since. I've served as the secretary for a little while. I served as the vice president under our most recent past president and then in July of last year took over for her and just kind of trying to keep it up and running, understand and improve it a little bit before I hand it to the next person.

Mary Baudoin (17:41):

Definitely. What type of programs are offered through the Autism Society and how are they funded? Do you guys depend on a lot of fundraisers in the community, things like that?

Vanessa Lomas (17:50):

So everything for us is completely out of the goodness of other people's hearts. Whether that's fundraising or donations or sponsorships, everything that we get financially to do what we do comes from the community. And then programming wise, so the original kind of bare basic beginnings was to have a resource center so that families with folks with autism could come and like, "Hey, you need to find a doctor in one of our parishes. We know those folks. Hey, you need to find a dentist. We know those folks. Hey, you need to find someone who can give a haircut." So it was just kind of a Walmart of resources for family members to come and do.

Mary Baudoin (18:28):

Understand. Okay.

Vanessa Lomas (18:28):

And then as funding allowed and requests were made by the community, we were able to add a little bit more over time. So now we run, we're still a resource center, people can still come and get all that information, but we also run support groups. We have support groups for our dads and male caregivers, support groups for our dads and our male caregivers, our moms and female caregivers. We help kind of support three support groups for people with Asperger's and autism that are run by people with Asperger's and autism, and then we have our sibling support group for siblings from five to 17.

Mary Baudoin (19:01):

Yeah, I think that's called S.T.A.R.S., right?

Vanessa Lomas (19:03):

Yeah, I lead that. I'm a sibling and not a parent, so that's kind of one of the reasons that the board was interested in having me join up, and siblings aren't usually on. They can be, right?

Mary Baudoin (19:12):

Right.

Vanessa Lomas (19:12):

There's no rules saying they couldn't, but it's just not the norm. And then that transition to even more programming. So now we have things like our teacher Mini-Grant program. It'll be opening in September. So teachers across the Acadiana can apply for a grant from us to do something in their classroom. Three times a year, we offer family grants. If a family member's like, "Ooh, I'd really love for my kid to take a couple months of horseback riding, see if it's for them," or a couple of months of music lessons or whatever, they can apply for that from us three different times of the year.

Mary Baudoin (19:45):

Now do they have to be registered within a special education class, or is this for the general population?

Vanessa Lomas (19:52):

The family grants are for the just general population.

Mary Baudoin (19:54):

Okay, okay.

Vanessa Lomas (19:55):

There are some things in the application, obviously like, hey, we need you to have done... you need to have a diagnosis of autism obviously, things like that. It's designed to go towards our community and things that maybe insurance wouldn't necessarily pay for or things along that lines. We do offer life skills classes in the spring and in the fall in partnership with club at UL. So they come to the office and they do three separate little classes each month. And then we have our water safety training and our cooking series every summer. So they get to get together at Vermilionville and actually go through a cooking process with a chef from Greedy's To Go, Krystal Moses, and then the water safety training with Ms. Jennifer Simms in compliance with some stuff that we need to do. Nationals is really big on water safety, all the affiliates should have a water safety program.

Mary Baudoin (20:46):

Definitely.

Vanessa Lomas (20:47):

Yeah, yeah. Because it's a thing.

Mary Baudoin (20:49):

It's a, yeah, big thing.

Vanessa Lomas (20:50):

Yeah. And then we just have kind of like holiday events. We'll have our TRuNK OR TReAT like we do every year. We have our Christmas party like we do every year. We have our family picnic in the spring. Just kind of things like that.

Mary Baudoin (21:01):

Yeah. Sounds like you guys are really busy.

Vanessa Lomas (21:04):

Yes.

Mary Baudoin (21:04):

Well, if someone is listening and they want to help, how can they go about volunteering for the Autism Society of Acadiana?

Vanessa Lomas (21:12):

Yeah, so we're always on the hunt for volunteers. Whether that's volunteers for specific events, hey, I want to come and take pictures at TRuNK OR TReAT, or, hey, I want to come serve food at Christmas, we're always open to those volunteers. If there were people who were wanting to do a little bit more dedicated, hey, I want to give two hours every Monday or whatever, we totally have the opportunity for that too. We constantly have ongoing projects for, hey, make sure we call these businesses, are they still open, are they still servicing the autism communities so we can keep our website up to date, those kinds of things.

Mary Baudoin (21:44):

Do you remember what the website is exactly so we could tell everybody?

Vanessa Lomas (21:49):

Yeah. It is acadianaautism.org.

Mary Baudoin (21:51):

Okay.

Vanessa Lomas (21:51):

And then from there they can find all of the social media and address and all that kind of stuff.

Mary Baudoin (21:56):

Perfect.

Vanessa Lomas (21:57):

So yeah, we could always use dedicated all-the-time volunteers and just event volunteers. I mean, I'm pretty sure if anybody ever said that they couldn't use volunteers, they ain't tell the truth.

Mary Baudoin (22:10):

Right. I would agree. I would agree.

Vanessa Lomas (22:10):

I don't know a nonprofit that would be like, "No, we have all the help we need."

Mary Baudoin (22:13):

Most nonprofits need help, behind the scenes too, even just in the office to help with paperwork, especially when it comes time to an event, when you've got things or things to take pictures of for social media because as much as we love social media it can be a lot of work. Doing the videos, doing the pictures, writing the captions, doing a newsletter, it's a lot of work to put all that together.

Vanessa Lomas (22:37):

And I know, I mean some of our volunteers have talked about how some of the jobs are a little unglamorous, and that's very true, but they don't understand how much we still need them.

Mary Baudoin (22:46):

Yeah, absolutely.

Vanessa Lomas (22:48):

Having somebody who can just come in and sweep. Some days, some weeks, that's hard, that's hard to get to when we're super busy with an event or anything like that. It's not always easy to teach people the paperwork side that we need or the social media side that we need, but everybody can sweep the floor.

Mary Baudoin (23:04):

Sweep, vacuum, empty the trash, dust.

Vanessa Lomas (23:07):

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mary Baudoin (23:09):

Yeah. Like you said, the non-glamorous jobs, but they need to be done.

Vanessa Lomas (23:12):

Walk in and give us a hug or something some days.

Mary Baudoin (23:14):

Yeah.

Vanessa Lomas (23:15):

Yeah. There's help to be had in many way.

Mary Baudoin (23:18):

Now regarding your business, your website, what is your website? If someone's interested in learning more about music therapy, where can they go?

Vanessa Lomas (23:27):

I'm in the process of learning how to make a website, so they can hold off on that one. But if they just want information about music therapy in general, the American Music Therapy Association is a good place to start. They just give all the bare basics and things like that. Wanting to find me in particular, they can find me on Facebook.

Mary Baudoin (23:43):

Yeah, you have a very active Facebook page too which is great. It's always good to see the post and things that are going on because there's nothing worse than looking at a Facebook page that hasn't been updated in like six months, and you're wondering, "Okay, are they still operational?" But keeping it updated with fresh information makes you think, "Okay, they're really busy." That's a good thing, something to get involved with definitely.

Vanessa Lomas (24:08):

And hopefully, hopefully soon, as soon as I feel really confident in my tech skills. That said, it's a whole different career having your own business. I'm like, "Solid music therapy. Business owner, uh, I'm working on it."

Mary Baudoin (24:21):

Yeah. It sounds like you're doing great work. So thank you for all that you do in the community. Is there anything that we haven't covered that you would like to mention before we close out this show?

Vanessa Lomas (24:31):

I don't think so.

Mary Baudoin (24:32):

Okay. Well, thank you so much, Vanessa, for being here today. Really appreciate your insight on music therapy. I've learned a lot.

Vanessa Lomas (24:39):

Good.

Mary Baudoin (24:39):

And I'm sure our audience did as well. All right, everyone, thank you for listening to This Ability Podcast. If you're enjoying listening to our podcast, be sure to like our Facebook page and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Goodbye, everyone, and thank you for listening.