We recently connected with Allison Lockhart and have shared our conversation below.

Allison , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Is there a heartwarming story from your career that you look back on?

In my third year as a neurologic music therapist®, I worked with an Autistic 6-year-old. She was non-speaking and constantly seeking sensory input in the form of deep pressure on her muscles to help her calm and regulate her body’s sensory system. When we started working together, her mother talked about how giving her daughter access to communication was so important to her, and she longed for the day she would hear her daughter speak. I started working with her daughter, and we started working on her sensory regulation and integration. We know that before we can work on any other goals, such as speaking, we have to help our clients regulate their sensory systems, or else they won’t be able to process and respond to new information. We worked hard on this, and as her body regulated, we began incorporating oral motor exercises into her treatment. What we have learned through new research is that Autistic individuals can have difficulty with their ability to initiate, coordinate, and inhibit voluntary movements due to sensory processing needs and other neurologic factors. This can make speech difficult because it requires motor coordination of muscles such as the tongue and lips. So we started doing some neurologic music therapy® interventions focusing on strengthening the tongue muscle. The oral motor exercises combined with sensory integration techniques helped my client with her underlying speech needs, and without practicing words or phrases, she began to speak because she was better able to connect her brain and body and activate her motor system.
We didn’t have to start by teaching her words because, at six years old, she had listened to language for her whole life and knew the words she wanted to say but couldn’t get her mouth to say them (not to say we didn’t have to work on learning new words and phrases down the road). After two months of neurologic music therapy®, this started happening, and her mother was thrilled! Three weeks after she started vocalizing some words, we exited the treatment room and went to her mom. As I was telling her mom the exciting updates, her daughter suddenly wrapped her hands around her mom and said, “I love you.” Her mom immediately started crying because that was the first time she got to hear her daughter say those words. Working on goals in therapy is hard, and progress is not always so immediate (and children don’t always say such heartfelt things to their parents after sessions). It was a rare, beautiful moment, and it reminded me of the power of music and what neurologic music therapy® can do to help clients better access their external world.  

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.

Growing up, there were two things I was passionate about: music and my family. I was always heavily involved in music and theatre. I also grew up in a large Hispanic family with many cousins. I was an only child, but my mom’s brother and sister each had a child, and they were like my siblings. My Aunt’s daughter has tuberous sclerosis, and my uncle’s son has autism. I am incredibly close to both of them.

I joined a singing group in high school that performed throughout South Florida. My Autistic cousin attended all of my performances, and I would see him mouthing along the words to every song I sang. Sometimes, I felt he knew the songs better than I did! He and I would sing together at home, and the more we sang, the more we noticed his speech improved. His purposeful communication increased, and his echolalia (repetitive speech) decreased. He was also very shy, but when we would sing, he would open up more around the family. Because my cousin was interested in singing, I invited him to join the music group. Initially, he was very nervous, but as he warmed up to the group, he began to sing in front of his peers and socialize more. He always had a lot of echolalic speech, but it was almost nonexistent when he was in this group.

The group was set to sing solos at a County Fair in South Florida. My cousin decided he would like to try to perform. When we were about to take the stage in front of 1000+ people, I asked him, “Are you nervous?” He ran up on stage and said, “No, I’m ready. This is going to be fun!” I was shocked since he had always been nervous about performing in front of people. That was the turning point for him, where we saw him grow into the confident social person he is today. After that moment, I thought, “There has to be a career where you can help people with music.” So, after a little googling, I found music therapy. I completed my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music therapy and am now the Assistant Director and Clinical Training Coordinator at Perfect Harmony Health.

Perfect Harmony Health is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that believes that just because healthcare is innovative does not mean that it should be a luxury. Our team specializes in treating the whole person in harmony by connecting the brain, composing the mind, and synchronizing the body through providing therapy, resources, and community access. Our entire therapeutic team is board-certified music therapists with advanced certifications in neurologic music therapy®, meaning we completed continuing education and training through The Academy of Neurologic Music Therapy® to expand our knowledge of music and the brain. We are one of the few music therapy practices in the country with a team of music therapists who all hold the neurologic music therapy® credential. We work with individuals with varying neurological, neurodevelopmental, and neurodegenerative differences across the lifespan.

Essentially, music therapy is a research and evidence-based practice that utilizes musical intervention to work on non-musical, individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional. We work on sensorimotor, speech and language, and cognitive rehabilitation. Some of the diagnoses we serve include but are not limited to, autism, down syndrome, intellectual and developmental disabilities, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and traumatic brain injury. Our practice offers 1-on-1 music therapy and adaptive lesson services. We also have a lot of group programming. We have a virtual Parkinson’s choir that is entirely grant-funded and thus free to all participants. We have various teen social groups, including a bucket drumming group and a performing arts group for teens and young adults with a variety of neurologic differences. Our performing arts group, called Roswell Players, puts on a full musical production every year, and this year, they are preparing for Willy Wonka!

Our website and social media platforms offer educational resources for families and therapists. We also host events throughout the year, such as a dance for neurodivergent teens and young adults and recitals where our clients can showcase their skills. On October 19th, from 2-7pm, we will host our annual Amp it Up Alpharetta fundraiser at Truck & Tap Alpharetta. We love this event because it is a day where the community we serve can join together in an inclusive environment with the North Atlanta community for a fun day filled with live music, food, drinks, and raffles. Some of our clients will even make special guest appearances with the bands throughout the event. We host events and fundraisers such as these throughout the year to decrease the financial burden of therapy for our families. The lifetime cost of raising someone with special needs can be 10 times higher than the cost of raising a “neurotypical” child. Our ultimate goal is to provide as many scholarships as possible for our families so that music therapy does not have to be a luxury and does not add to the already large cost of therapy and medical bills.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

The biggest thing that helped grow my reputation and Perfect Harmony Health’s reputation is that we firmly believe in being stewards of our own progress. The healthcare field and our knowledge of diagnoses are constantly changing. A stat says it takes ten years for a study to be published and another ten years for healthcare workers to integrate the new knowledge into practice, so we try to stay ahead. Specifically, in the world of autism, a lot of our understanding has changed. We serve a lot of Autistic clients, and I think the biggest thing that has built our reputation is we have kept up with the research and are advocates for the movement of “Presuming Competence.” In the Autistic community, the movement of “Presuming Competence,” put simply, means that non-speaking does not mean non-thinking. Essentially, we have learned that a lot of the difficulties experienced by individuals with Autism can relate to their sensory systems and their motor control – basically, the ability of the brain and body to communicate and for the body to be able to move in the way the brain wants it to. Everything we do in life requires movement from communication to socializing and activities of daily living. So, Autistic individuals might feel trapped in their bodies because their thoughts and intentions can’t match their actions. Essentially, they can’t get their bodies to move and communicate in a way that demonstrates their intelligence, so people often assume that if you can’t demonstrate intelligence ‘normally,’ you don’t have it. We know that is not true. Autism is a spectrum, and each individual has their own experiences, but we serve a lot of individuals with this brain-body connection difficulty, and by presuming competence and believing they are intelligent and have the ability to learn, we have created better bonds with our community and a safe space for all individuals to learn and grow. I believe that is a big piece of our reputation and who we are to our community.

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

A willingness to grow, learn, and adapt! We see so many different clients daily, and how they present one week doesn’t mean they will present the same way the next week. So, in our field, it is important to know that what worked previously might not work the next time and to be ok with adapting and changing the plan. With our clients, progress is not always linear; there are ups and downs, and it is important not to take that as a failure as a therapist but as an opportunity to adjust to meet the needs of our ever-changing clients. So, it is important not to be discouraged when things do not go to plan. There are also days when it can be hard, and it is important for people in our field to be resilient and remember that just because something is difficult doesn’t mean it is bad; we are just growing and adapting to changing needs.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://perfectharmonyhealth.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perfectharmonyhealth/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PerfectHarmonyHealth/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/perfectharmonyhealth/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/perfectharmonyhealth
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@perfectharmonyhealth

Image Credits

Brian LaBrec
CC Seder