We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amos Fisher a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amos, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you get your first job in the field that you practice in today?

Halfway through my final semester of grad school, covid lockdown hit. My partner and I promptly packed up our 4-bedroom airbnb apt and relocated–and then relocated again 3 months later–due to several logistical reasons that made staying at our place not an option. This ended everything i was doing in NYC: playing in three bands, studying karate, in person internship and classes, and spoiler alert, my partner and I broke up a year later after 9 years together, plus my cohort never had a graduation ceremony. So none of this stuff got any real closure.

We ended up in my home state of North Carolina. I was nervous enough being new to the field, especially in a place with so little music therapy, and even more so due to my emotional state. Fortunately, an employer created a contract position for me as an experiment–and it went so well my duties doubled and included three other locations of the same company over the following two years. Contrary to my self-consciousness about performing therapy while so wounded myself, committing myself to the clients there seemed to strengthen the healing process for them and me.

This was a Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP), with anxiety and depression the most common issues, often with other diagnoses such as borderline, bipolar, attention deficit and autism spectrum disorders. These issues were everywhere, these same symptoms acting up and becoming unmanageable during the pandemic for so many. Despite how alone I felt in my own story, the overlap was tremendous. This gave me ample opportunity to develop my approach with passion and heal at the same time, despite my distinct lack of passion at the time.

My supervisors Kristin Cheshire and Michele Finkelstein did so much to help me grow, namely giving me ample freedom to design the program and develop my style. To this day I give thanks for their support–most of all the legitimacy they gave to my field and my specific style within the field, which is shockingly difficult to find, even in NYC where it is more common.

After a year of working this job and making long-term plans to stay in NC and attempting unsuccessfully to start my private practice down there, I realized I needed to return to New York. When I announced this, we all wanted me to keep doing virtual sessions from New York. I did that for three different locations, which filled half of my work schedule for my first year back. This was extremely helpful because NYC was not welcoming me into music therapy the way NC had, ironically.

I continue to put myself back together, yet now it is far beyond anything I had before. This first job as a healer helped get me from in pieces to stronger than ever before, and with a clearer vision about how to apply these skills in my own business.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

This vision is a culmination of lifelong passions and dreams. What I’m trying to be is a “Consciousness Communicator.”

I’ve always loved music, and I’ve always loved bringing people together. I threw elaborate parties in our finished basement as a child, put on activist benefit shows in high school, and booked touring punk rock bands at my house in college. Later I dreamed of starting a vegetarian restaurant with a performance venue in it; later a yoga & meditation studio with event space; later a self-exploration themed coffee shop with meditation events and art performances; and now a private therapy practice with a similar community space. Each of these visions was of course primarily about the magic that happens in a space when people come together, with coffee or yoga or vegetarian food as the marketable attraction.

Then there’s my musical life, which has always had two halves, like hemispheres of my brain: classical training on clarinet, and self training on guitar and drums. I have always tried to put those two together, and I have always gravitated toward music that puts you through something transformative. The only thing missing from my classical conservatory education was emphasis on the inner experience of music, and finding the inner voice. I was able to supplement this through my new discovery of meditation and philosophy, but soon I had to quit school to live a life of adventure and self-exploration. This most notably took the form of travel, intensive yoga with an Indian guru, psychedelic experiences, research into all things mystical, and developing my music writing and storytelling. I finished school when I saw how to add this missing piece.

What started with philosophy and led me through spirituality and self-discipline eventually became music psychotherapy. I was delighted to bring to bear all of my earlier “fringe” experiences on this new pursuit. For years people had recommended music therapy to me as a career path based on my skills, but I was still exploring me. Now I saw clearly that what I was doing was healing–and I heard this from other people too as I consciously brought this out in my work. While in school I began to fancy myself a ‘tuner of people’ and took great joy in integrating my own personal process into my approach.

I had been developing an idea called “The Philosophy of Listening” for some time, and applying this to music therapy moved it forward dramatically, particularly with my thesis. Unfortunately, just as I was approaching this part of school, covid-19 hit the US and in-person classes and internship were cancelled. This global trauma seemed to set the world back a ways in all the communication and listening skills I was just getting serious about. On the bright side, it made it quite clear what I wanted to offer to the world, because more and more people now know they need it.

So, what am I offering? It’s a fair question. Besides private music psychotherapy services, this project has three parts: One, I host events which roll together all sorts of group music experiences, known as community music therapy, together with courses on The Philosophy of Listening, and hands-on meditation. Two, I create videos which constitute a web series called “Empathetic Resonance with somA the somnAmbulance Driver” best described as Sesame Street for adults about mental health and consciousness. Three, I am composing an evolving one-man musical show which presents this idea on stage.

The mission and method of this project is rooted in a few concepts. One, Jungian psychology and the idea of the shadow: “Repression only adds to the darkness. Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will control your life and you will call it fate.” Two, Internal Family Systems: we are not one unitary mind that is dysfunctional, we have many parts which play roles, and many have been thrust into the wrong roles in response to trauma; restore order by getting to know these parts. Three, dream psychology: when we dream, we split ourselves into characters to access knowledge that is guarded when conscious. Four, the importance of creativity in mental health: telling children to “stop dreaming” or “keep your feet on the ground” works against their ability to see possibilities, adapt and solve problems, and think outside the box. We all have lost some of the imagination we had as children, but we can get it back through self-exploration. Five, the need for connection and community: similarly to creativity and imagination, togetherness reminds us of the possibilities outside ourselves, and collaboration increases our sense of contact and engagement. And finally, what binds all of these things together? Listening. The deeper we listen to something, the more we learn about ourselves and learn to respond to life, developing confidence in the inner and outer. And what is the quickest and most effective tool to learn this kind of listening? Music.

I want to reshape people’s idea of music as far more than entertainment or even a tool–as a place to go in ourselves, where we can be clear, content, connected, creative, and confident. This would directly combat all of the worst trends in human well being today. Studies show that singing together makes people more likely to keep an open mind in a disagreement, less aggressive, more cooperative, and more compassionate. What is happening here? What is it about hearing our voices blend with another’s that carves these new pathways in our brain which we can’t seem to do otherwise? Whatever it is, the result is an Empathetic Resonance. A connecting vibration which strengthens itself.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

In a word, resilience. That kind of applies to any business! But especially innovative ones.

Self awareness and radical acceptance are most important. Without those, you’re not clear what you’re doing.

Boundaries go hand in hand with that–especially for the performance aspect, because I’m creating a character, and need just enough distance between myself and him. In high school I did a history report *as* David Bowie, and learned about the strain of him performing as Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, and this figures into my vision. It’s different from boundaries in therapy, because I am actively including my own story and the audience isn’t vulnerable.

Unfortunately at this time, resilience against being underpaid and underappreciated are essential in music therapy. There is self-awareness again.

Above all, comfort with the unknown and ability to adapt, improvise, and try new things.

In many ways I’m trying to change my field, to bring out the inner processes we hide and free them from shame and secrecy. To reveal that the missing pieces of ourselves and our relationship to the world are to be found in things we already know, by listening differently. And that healing doesn’t have to happen behind closed doors. To be successful in that, I need to be self aware in my own process and adaptable to what works.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My whole story since the pandemic has been one of resilience, mainly because of how much I lost and how many plans I had to change. Within that epic saga there are several specific examples.

My cohort in grad school was the first to have to consider virtual music therapy, in order to complete our internships. The first time someone asked “If covid comes here, will we go remote?” the answer was “I can’t imagine that working, but we’re not there yet fortunately.” The next day 8 March 2020, NYU announced all was going remote. For me, the pandemic began that day. To this day I often lament the limits of my online groups. For those who don’t know, video calling always has a time lag which makes it impossible to synchronize music. However it still frequently happens that we hit a nerve and do some real work, and even more frequently that someone says when about to complete that program “I was very skeptical about music therapy, but I have really come to treasure it and look forward to it. Thank you for that.”

Here’s one about my own music project rather than the business: when I moved to NC, my band in Brooklyn was halfway through writing a big concept album I had been working up to for a while. My bass player told me that when his lease ended he would move to Mexico to be with his girlfriend (now wife) rather than sign another lease under lockdown conditions. So, I used stimulus money, unemployment money, and remaining student loan money to bring the band down for a month, acquire instruments for them to play, and rehearse and record the album before dropping him off at the airport to Mexico. Not coincidentally, my decision to go back to NYC came shortly after that album was completed, as if that had been the real reason I was down there.

My decision to leave my first job and come back to New York City was a decision of resilience as well–I had two living situations go quite sour and one old friendship nearly end, plus much strain on family relations due to a dear one’s mental health issues. In fact I felt like most of these conflicts stemmed from people not addressing their mental health needs, like grieving the loss of a spouse, or drinking to cope with a trauma. Feeling as defeated as I did and still pushing back against all this in order to get somewhere better was a hard won move. Now I’m in a wonderful living situation, with a cat given to me by aforementioned old friend–but now work is the struggle. Starting this business is creative resilience against that struggle, rather than just finding a full time job.

Since then I’ve been saying, if you always do what is easy, your life will remain hard. If you choose to do what is hard, your life will get easier.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @somA_thesomnAmbulanceDriver
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ERMTCommunity/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amos-fisher-00317ab/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFxtlAOvm5wRhQlJjoL-pBg
• Other: TikTok: @EmpatheticResonance

Image Credits
Headshot with scarf by Julia M Roberts Album cover: Workhorse by CONTINVVS, by Naomi Greenberg