Rachael Finnerty RP, MTA, MMT, MA

Registered Psychotherapist, Music Therapist Accredited

Music Therapy Academy Founder

Rachael has been recognized as a music therapist since 2001. She served as the president of the Music Therapy Association of Ontario from 2010-2014 and was the recipient of the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award, for Healthcare in 2015. Rachael brought 2 music therapy courses to McMaster University in 2010 and currently educates over 2000 students each academic year about music therapy. To provide further education to the community and healthcare professionals Rachael founded the Music Therapy Academy.

Rachael started her graduate studies in Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour in September 2019. Her research focus is the use of music therapy for proactive wellness.

This presentation will highlight the importance of proactive wellness and the preliminary results of a research study exploring the impact of music therapy on stress and anxiety in undergraduate university students. The importance of collaborating and mentoring will also be discussed as part of advocating for wellness, and specifically, for the use of music therapy as part of #RaisingTheBarInHealthCare.

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The Music Therapy Friendship Initiative promotes collaboration between the clinical music therapy community and the broader scientific and educational communities in Finland and worldwide.

The idea for MTFI began when a few PhD students, studying music psychology and music therapy, accidentally met some students who were studying to become clinical music therapists. We realized that we were sharing University facilities and not much else. We decided that this lack of contact between the research and clinical worlds needed to change, and MTFI was born. We organize monthly MTFI Get-Togethers (Now in Zoom!), special events, and full-day seminars, where music therapists and music psychologists (and anyone else interested in these topics) can get to know each other and learn from each other. We hope you’ll join us!