Some (summer) Updates
Good Medicine is open, at 231 York Street. I am seeing clients there on Wednesdays, and super excited to be a part of this collaborative healing center. It seems like we were waiting for this for a long time- but that is because they rebuilt the place! I actually used to live right around the corner from it, almost 15 years ago, and at that time it was a dive bar that sold jello shots and had a jukebox. An integrative medicine center typically doesn’t have either of those- but we’ve got smoothie bowls from LB Kitchen and both music and sound therapy! For now, I am just settling in and seeing individual clients but I am hoping to eventual hold some workshops and group sessions here. The rest of the week, I am either working at the hospital, or traveling to group homes for sessions. Lindsey Mills of WCSH6 followed me to work this past week and captured some moments with one of my youngest clients:
She was covering some exciting news- this past month I won second place in The UPS Store/Inc. Magazine Small Business Challenge, which took place in Hollywood. I had entered it with 1700 other small businesses months ago, and made it to this final round, where I competed in five business skill challenges in front of judge, Robert Herjavec, of Shark Tank fame. I ended up winning $10,000 for Maine Music & Health, which is huge for a microenterprise. You can read more about the competition here: https://www.inc.com/lindsay-blakely/shark-tank-robert-herjavec-small-business-challenge.html . I don’t have an MBA, but I have had a lot of experience in just 9 years building a business from scratch. Trial and error does a lot.
Next week I am headed to Vermont for a training getaway with 23 other change makers, as part of National Arts Strategies’ Creative Communities Fellowship. https://www.artstrategies.org/news/nas-announces-2019-creative-community-fellows-new-england-cohort/ I am thrilled to have the opportunity to study with these talented folks and have the space and time to think about what’s next. I will be focusing specifically on a new project, developing training materials to bring to larger organizations so that they can use the arts to build community empathy. I’ve been working with an art therapist friend, Bodhi Simpson, training other therapists in using the arts as a tool, and absolutely love this aspect of my work. In addition to that project, I hope to spend the week developing some new leadership skills and learn from other artists who hold their own in larger non-arts organizations.
I can’t tell you how much sleep I lose worrying about the current state of the world and the future we are developing (or not) for generations to come. The thing that brings me back to a sense of hope and gets me out of the house each day is a belief that change is possible. Turning the tides of environmental destruction is possible. Improving education and supporting teachers is possible. Providing access to quality healthcare and healing is possible. Finding common ground is possible. And I believe the arts can help with that. I hope you are all finding peace in nature, in your communities, and in your minds.
Yours in Music,
Kate