We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elisha Ellis Madsen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Elisha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

In October 2021, I took a big risk and chose to walk away from a stable, high paying job without having something else lined up (which, by the way, was very out of character for me: a high-achieving, people-pleasing, recovering perfectionist.)

I’d been hired to create and help grow a first-of-its-kind music therapy program for a major hospital system in San Francisco. Building a program from scratch is a coveted opportunity for a music therapist, and for over three years I had dedicated my blood, sweat, and tears to the task. Though the program itself was thriving, I was not. Working on the front lines at the hospital during the COVID pandemic had left me cynical, mentally and physically drained, and unsure if I even wanted to be a music therapist anymore. That last part terrified me, because music was the one flame that had always stayed ablaze in my life. But the horrors of COVID—fearing for my own life and watching other people lose theirs—nearly extinguished the flame that music had always been for me. So I walked away, and everyone had the same question: “What’s next?” Truthfully, I had no idea. I just knew I had to take the risk and bet on myself.

The first day after my resignation, I hiked up to an old oak tree near where I live in Marin County, California. I vividly remember standing next to the old tree with my beloved dog and saying to myself: “You are worthy. Your self-worth is not defined by what you do. It’s okay to take a break. You deserve to rest. ” At the time, I didn’t believe any of those things yet, but now, almost 2 years later, I do.

I made some drastic changes in my life, which included practical things like re-budgeting, simplifying, and downsizing. I also prioritized my health and explored healing practices like meditation, regular time in nature, mindfulness, and writing. It was a time of deep reflection, rest, transition, and having many more questions than answers. I asked myself the hard questions I’d never had the time or courage to ask before. In the stillness, I discovered that I’d been exhausted for a long, long time. When I didn’t cover it up with caffeine, external voices, and chaos, I could feel the exhaustion in my bones. Then, about 6 months into my “sabbatical,” I started hearing the siren song of music calling me back to it. I hadn’t touched my guitar since leaving the hospital job. (It was literally covered in dust!) For the first time in a long time, I wanted to create music. I *needed* to create music.

I picked up my guitar and started singing “Tomorrow Will Be Kinder” by The Secret Sisters. I vividly remember singing the lines “Today I’ve cried a many tear, and pain is in my heart. Around me lies a somber scene, I don’t know where to start. But I feel warmth on my skin, the stars have all aligned. The wind has blown, but now I know that tomorrow will be kinder.” I had tears in my eyes, but there was also something new: a very clear vision for my future. Now I knew exactly where to start. Just like in the song, I could feel the energy shift toward a new idea, if only I was brave enough to stop numbing and keep feeling. And there it was: Feel. Feel Creative Wellness, my private practice, was officially born just a few months later. I’d clawed my way through the darkness and back into the light by refusing to rush through or numb the pain – by leaning on creative practices and choosing to feel – and I wanted to help others do it, too.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Elisha, board-certified music therapist and owner of Feel Creative Wellness (Feel, for short), an innovative private practice specializing in holistic music therapy for adults. Like many music therapists, my background was in music (specifically, singing), prior to earning my Master’s degree in Music Therapy in 2013 and becoming nationally board-certified in 2014.

I have ten years of clinical experience providing music therapy, a well-established form of alternative and holistic therapy. In music therapy, we use music as the primary tool within sessions. Music therapy can help people heal in a unique way when more traditional methods alone don’t work. (I share a ton of information about music therapy on my website if you want to see specific examples.) Prior to starting my own private practice, I worked as a music therapist in a California state prison. I also founded and led the Music Therapy Program for Sutter Health-California Pacific Medical Center, a healthcare system in San Francisco.

I founded Feel in May 2022 with one thing in mind: to help people who are hurting feel heard, feel supported, and feel better. Feel offers a creative and holistic path to wellness through individual, highly personalized music therapy counseling sessions. Why “Feel?” Because decades of research in the fields of psychology, creative arts therapy, and neuroscience confirm that suppressing our feelings isn’t good for our health. We also know (and I have personally and professionally observed) that creative practices are science-backed ways to help promote healthy self-expression, modulate emotions, and regulate your nervous system. So, in a culture that often encourages self-numbing or guarantees quick fixes, we propose that lasting health comes from getting curious about the pain, fully expressing it, and allowing it to move through us. Trauma-informed music therapy creates a safe space for people to explore and process emotions and experiences – how they show up in our bodies and how we express them. After working with Feel, my clients have celebrated decreased anxiety, decreased depression, improved tolerance to stress, improved self-expression, decreased physical pain, improved self-esteem, improved sleep, and more.

I was inspired to create Feel in the aftermath of COVID. After working the front lines in a hospital during the pandemic, I was keenly aware that people were suffering. Everyone seemed tired, anxious, cynical, and fearful. (I was one of those people!) Mental and physical health had taken a severe hit, and people were not getting the quality care they deserved. Part of the problem was that healthcare providers and therapists were burned out (many of them still are), leaving the burden of the mental health crisis on a small number of tired practitioners. Even with my own providers, I started to feel less like a person and more like a number—a cog in the American healthcare machine. I remember saying over and over to my partner in moments of frustration: “This is not a sustainable system!” And it wasn’t.

My personal sabbatical gave me an opportunity to reflect on the growing mental health crisis and offer an innovative solution. I proposed this: in a world where things are getting increasingly complicated and overstimulating, let’s get back to the basics and tap into creativity as health and wellness. My unique approach prioritizes what I refer to as “the 4 M’s:” Music, Mindfulness, Meditation, and Mindset. (And no, I didn’t plan on everything starting with the letter M, but that has really come in handy!) The 4 M’s are the backbone of Feel, and it has been my privilege to partner with the incredible humans who have found healing through these modalities.

When I started doing market research prior to officially launching Feel, I saw a huge lack of music therapy counseling services specifically for adults. There are plenty of music therapy businesses for children and adolescents, but where were the services for anxious and overwhelmed adults? Where was the music therapy counseling for adults who were burned out from the pandemic? What about adults suffering from grief and loss? What about adults living with chronic pain? Why had adults turned away from creativity, and how could we help them tap back into it to support their health? This led me to create a music therapy practice exclusively for adult clients. Feel is extremely unique in this way, and I’m very proud of it.

My personal therapeutic approach is warm, attentive, person-centered, and rooted in the belief that people are the experts in their own lives and hold the keys to their own healing. When working with clients, I see myself as a partner and guide. I practice holistically, which means I see everyone as a whole person, not just a collection of parts. Mental and physical health are deeply connected, so part of my role is helping people learn to listen to their body’s wisdom to unlock better, lasting health. You will often hear me asking clients questions like, “Where does this emotion show up in your body? What does it feel like? What does it sound like?” I may then guide a client to explore what an emotion sounds like by playing it on a musical instrument. These experiences allow people to fully express the emotion (rather than keeping it pent up inside of them, which can create even more stress in the body), and lead to a sense of relief. And by the way, the #1 question I get about music therapy is this: “Do I have to be good at music to do it?” The answer is no – you do not need any background or skills in music to participate in and benefit from music therapy. All that’s required on the client’s part is a willingness to tap into their innate creativity.

Being in private practice allows me to prioritize quality over quantity, so I make sure my clients don’t feel rushed or just like a number. I intentionally cap my client caseload so that I can devote the time and attention people deserve both within and in-between sessions. Keeping a lower caseload also helps prevent therapist burnout, so I make sure my clients are getting the best version of me every time we meet. I also offer both in-person and virtual services to maximize options for my clients. Some people prefer to meet in the comfort of their own home, so I travel to them in the San Francisco Bay Area. Others prefer to meet in my residential office space in Novato, CA. If the weather is nice, as it often is in Northern California, we try to incorporate nature into our sessions. On sunny days, you may find me sitting with clients in the middle of a gorgeous grove of redwood trees. Teletherapy has been a very popular option, as it allows me to see clients anywhere in the country, and it doesn’t require any travel for anyone. There are options to fit everyone’s needs.

The main thing I want people to know is this: if you are suffering or know someone who is, you/they do not need to suffer in silence. You do not have to navigate the hard waters alone. You do not have to sit in the back seat of your own life. You deserve to feel happy, to feel safe to express yourself, to practice creativity, to find tools to cope with hard things like anxiety or depression, and to feel free in your own life. There are people and resources out there that can help get you on the road to feeling better. Healing starts the moment you take that first step toward it, so don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it. Especially right now, when the world feels particularly heavy, please remember that it’s important to check in on your mental health and to ask the people around you how they’re doing. That’s how we can show up for one another.

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

In 2013, I was diagnosed with a neurological condition called Chiari Malformation. It began with scary physical symptoms, which led to many visits with doctors, intrusive tests, additional complex diagnoses, and eventually brain surgery. (A special shout-out to my fellow “Chiarians” who may be reading: Don’t give up – there are better days ahead!)

That experience tested my resilience and, perhaps more interestingly, my relationship with rest. I was deeply convinced that rest was earned—not inherently deserved—and I believed you earned it through productivity. (I grew up in the heart of the Midwest, where everything is hard-earned, including rest.) This became a big problem when I quickly and unexpectedly found myself unable to work the way I used to be able to and required a lot of rest!

At the time of my first symptoms, I was working full-time for the California Department of Corrections (CDCR) as a Music Therapist in a state prison in Vacaville, CA. I loved that job. It checked all my boxes for both productivity and usefulness with the bonus of feeling like I was making a difference in people’s lives. I worked long, hard days and went home to enjoy my “well-deserved” rest.

But as I became sicker, I began resisting my body’s need for rest. Unsurprisingly, I got even sicker. I worked in the prison for months beyond my doctors’ recommendations, until finally a sweet-natured therapist asked me a question that would change my trajectory: “What would happen if you took a break from working to focus on your health?”

I didn’t know who I would be without my career. I think in some ways I had decided it was easier to destroy my body than to take the time I needed to rest and begin healing. But eventually it was no longer a choice. I had to step away from work and focus on preparing for brain surgery.

Even after surgery, rest did not come easily for me. My then fiancé (now husband) would often find me around our small, one-bedroom apartment searching for ways to be productive so that I wouldn’t feel guilty for being on disability leave, but even those small acts would make me feel sicker. Eventually, with much commitment and support from others, I started to tell myself a different story: I did not have to earn rest. I was deserving of rest, simply because I existed.

I practiced that mindset shift for years, and now I can say that I truly believe it. I realized that my productivity has nothing to do with my self-worth. I deserved to take time to heal. Everyone does. That experience tested and then built my resilience. It also helped shape who I am as a music therapist, because I know what it’s like to go through something really, really hard. The lessons I learned during that time in my life inform every single interaction I have with my private practice clients today. In many ways, I think lived experiences with hardship and resilience are what separate great therapists from good therapists, so I feel gratitude for that time in my life. It increased my ability to create safe spaces and help hold pain for others on their own healing journeys.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

When I started Feel, someone gave me a piece of advice that really stuck with me: “If you’re talking to everyone, then you’re talking to no one.” With that in mind, I brainstormed and defined my “ideal” client— someone who I felt certain would benefit from the innovative and holistic approach to therapy that Feel would offer. (I even got so specific as to name this fictional person—I called her “Jennifer.”) I wrote down where Jennifer lived, what she looked like, what kind of clothes she wore, what kind of family she had, what kind of dog she had (“Jennifer” is a dog person, but to be clear I do have clients who are cat lovers :) ), what kind of music she listened to, what her hobbies were, her job, what she did on the weekends for fun, what made her tick, what brought her joy, what caused her fear, and what caused her pain.

Now, nearly two years later, I make every single decision with “Jennifer” in mind. I designed my website with her in mind, including colors and layout. When I start to write a new article for my blog, I ask, “Will this resonate with Jennifer? Is this a topic that she cares about?” Before I publish a new post or even something as small as a story on Instagram, I ask, “Is this content relevant for Jennifer? Will this help support her healing journey, or will it just add to the noise of her busy day?” (My ideal client prioritizes quality over quantity, so I don’t worry about reaching influencer status on social media with my business. This strategy helps me reach the people who are most likely to benefit from what Feel offers, rather than being concerned about a number of “followers.” It also helps protect my own mental health!)

Making business decisions with my ideal client in mind has allowed me to remain fully authentic to the voice of Feel, which happens to be *my* voice. It reinforces Feel’s values: authenticity, transparency, honesty, trust, and compassion. As a result, my client growth has been completely organic. If you follow the business on social media, you already know exactly who I am, what I’m about, and what you can expect from me within a therapeutic relationship. That results in clients who are ready to commit and do the work to heal. Those people turn into happy clients who tell their friends about my business. Those people tell their cousin on the other side of the country about my business, and so on. I just focus on two things: staying true to my ideal client, and staying true to myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.feelcreativewellness.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feelcreativewellness/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/feelcreativewellness
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elishaellismadsen/
• Other: Email: info@feelcreativewellness.com Phone: 415-322-3013 Bio.Site: https://bio.site/feelcreativewellness

Image Credits
Allison Fleming