Rick Soshensky, M.A. MT-BC, NRMT, CBIS, has been working as a music therapist with children, adolescents and adults with diverse diagnoses since 1992. He is the author of numerous professional publications and a frequent lecturer on music therapy topics. Rick's work has been featured in print media, on radio, and he was selected by Therapy Times Magazine for their 2008 list of "The Most Influential People in the Therapy Field."

Rick began his musical career in fairly conventional style as a singer-songwriter in NYC, playing at area clubs and hitting the road with various groups, including the "World's Greatest Party Band," The Lester Lanin Orchestra, with which he performed at such world-renowned events as The Royal Wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, Queen Elizabeth's Birthday Ball at Windsor Castle and Malcolm Forbes' so-called "Party of the Century."

But after years of such pursuits, Rick felt that something was missing from his professional musical life. Luckily, he found a far more fruitful and heartfelt path in Music Therapy. After pursuing his Master's Degree in Music Therapy at New York University's Steinhardt School with additional training at the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy at NYU, the course was set and the foundation laid for any ideas and approaches subsequently explored by Rick.

Currently the Director of the Fine & Performing Arts Department at Northeast Center for Special Care, a residential facility specializing in brain injury rehabilitation in Kingston, NY, Rick's methods employ music's inherent nature to function simultaneously as a private, inner experience, expressive art form and connector of people. Utilizing both traditional therapy formats and, if desired by the client, recording sessions and public performances, individuals recovering from profound trauma can develop self-awareness, functional skills, confidence, and a sense of community through ongoing opportunities to play, compose and share music.

This sense of inclusion that invites full community participation, honors diversity and suggests that people join in as they are, is a central philosophy in contemporary brain injury rehabilitation. The dominant message is that being an individual with a disability does not preclude having active, creative and interesting experiences in life and, as Rick's research has shown, participants were less likely to regard themselves as disabled and more so as creative, involved and enthusiastic people.

Rick was named one of Therapy Times' 2008 Most Influential: Recognizing the movers and shakers in the therapy industry. More here.