Empowering Youth Through Music
Transforming Lives with Music Therapy
Our program integrates music therapy into schools, fostering emotional growth and resilience in students while addressing trauma and enhancing social skills.
Empowering Youth Through Music
Transforming Lives with Music Therapy
Our program integrates music therapy into schools, fostering emotional growth and resilience in students while addressing trauma and enhancing social skills.
Our Mission and Vision
Our program is a one-of-a-kind groundbreaking initiative that has been established in two Connecticut cities, New Haven and New London, for the last 11 years. It reaches high risk students who have a history of domestic violence and/or other significant trauma. Originally named The Michael Bolton Charities Beyond Trauma: Youth Music Therapy Program, our mission is to reach high-risk students, many within the range for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), through a highly personalized music therapy program that possesses the potential for life-changing impact by being a powerful and critical tool in the healing process and violence prevention. The program has now transferred to new leadership and is rebranding, but our mission remains the same.
Students become empowered by their own musical creations, benefitting from the chance to express themselves in a non-threatening and creative way. Their music is a means of reducing anxiety and anger, changing attitudes toward academic work and their own potential. The program now operates at Riverside Education Academy, an alternative high school in New Haven, CT, and the Bennie Dover Jackson Multi Magnet Middle School in New London, CT. Independent evaluations reflect that the music therapy program is providing a “life-changing” impact. Reports emphasize that “no one expected it to become this successful.”
Empowering Youth Through Music
What We Do
We provide music therapy programs in schools to support students’ emotional and social development, helping them navigate challenges and trauma through creative expression and healing.
Our Approach
Our approach integrates music therapy techniques tailored to the unique needs of each student, fostering a safe environment for self-expression and growth.
Who We Serve
We serve children and adolescents aged 5 to 18, focusing on those who have experienced trauma or are in need of emotional support through music therapy.
Get Involved
Support Our Work
Join us in making a difference by donating, volunteering, or spreading the word about our mission to bring music therapy to schools.
Contact Us
For more information about our programs or to get involved, please reach out to us via our website or social media channels.
Hi, I’m Mellany Gomez and I am the co-founder of Composing New Narratives: A Youth Music Therapy Program. I am passionate about supporting youth and young adults by empowering them to live authentically as themselves. Through music therapy, our program provides them the tools to explore, reflect and take control of their emotions, habits and behaviors. I’ve spent the last several years advocating for increased access to music therapy for urban youth through our school-centered, trauma-informed music therapy program — this is that dream come to fruition. I’m so excited to connect with our youth through music. This is how generational trauma is broken, and healing begins.
Hi, I’m Courtney Biddle, and I am the co-founder of Composing New Narratives: A Youth Music Therapy Program.
I have been a board certified and licensed music therapist for over 20 years, working in a variety of settings. However, I have a huge passion for working with adolescents who are trying to better their mental health.
I have served on the board of The New England Region of The American Music Therapy Association in several capacities, and have been the owner/director of Progressions Music Therapy Services for 21 years. I hold undergraduate degrees in music education with concentrations in music therapy and public school teaching from The College of Wooster (Ohio) and a Master’s of Music Therapy from Temple University (Pennsylvania)
Composing New Narratives is such a passion project for me because I have seen the real results of what music therapy can do to help young people process through their trauma in a healthy way. It is an incredible honor to be able to help students navigate through life’s obstacles.