About Us
Phoenix NMT is all about providing best practice Neurologic Music Therapy to the clients we work with and their families. We combine specialist interventions with wholistic, family-centred approaches. We are also passionate about sharing our unique knowledge and insights with anyone who will listen. We provide educational resources and trainings for parents. Joe also regularly provides training and supervision to other clinicians in the industry.
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We can come to you!
We offer home-visits for our session, saving you the hassle of travelling to and from a clinic. We currently are available to see clients anywhere in the Inner West and North Shore regions, Blacktown, Northern Beaches or Penrith LGAs, and parts of the Lower Blue Mountains, The Hills and Parramatta.
If you are interested in our services but live outside of these areas please still get in touch. We may still be able to come to you, however, a travel fee may apply.
Framework and approach
We draw on several philosophies and frameworks to inform what we do...
NEUROLOGIC MUSIC THERAPY® (NMT™)
We are exclusively an NMT practice. We believe that NMT not only represents the best opportunity for client growth, but also helps us to support our clients emotional needs. NMT has the strongest evidence for any music therapy field, and the most comprehensive grounding framework.
ASSUMING COMPETENCE
You may not have heard of 'Assuming Competence', but its worth talking about! This is the framework that says: "a person having difficulty demonstrating their intelligence, is not the same as them not having any". We believe that all of our clients have as much intelligence, comprehension, thoughtfulness and insight as their mainstream peers (if not more!). 'Not being able to speak, is not the same as having nothing to say'.
BUILDING SECURE ATTACHMENTS
A really key part of our personal and professional journey has been understanding how building secure attachments in relationships is vital to all elements of life. Drawing on frameworks such as 'Circle Of Security', we can't help but look through an attachment lens as we seek to understand our clients.
NEURODIVERSE AFFIRMING
We believe that having a different brain doesn't mean you have a worse brain. And that people shouldn't be telling you to stop doing any of your unique-brain-type-actions, just because they're different.
Why the name?
Firstly, we feel the Greek myth of the bird that rises to new life out of the flames of its old ashes is the perfect metaphor for therapy. What better way to symbolise the ever-present potential for growth and renewal – even out of what may feel like the bleakest of circumstances
The second meaning is a reference to the city of Phoenix, USA, where our founder and director, Joe Thompson lived briefly to work at Neurologic Music Therapy Services Of Arizona (NMTSA). Much of Phoenix NMT’s philosophy and practice is inspired by NMTSA. Joe remains in regular contact with the staff of this world-leading clinic.
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