We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jenny Ciurro. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jenny below.
Jenny , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?
As a music educator in the public school system for nearly three decades, I have seen many changes and also that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Children are still being asked to perform and behave in such a way that doesn’t really fit their innate nature of exploration body, mind and soul.
In most public schools to date, kids are still being asked to stay in the box set by administrators, government and our institutions for higher learning.
Sitting still for hours at a time, often in silence, lining up in straight lines in order to transport from one place to the next, performing under high anxiety situations with harsh lighting…
I could go on and on.
I applaud teachers, schools and administrators who are looking for and implementing more exploratory, hands on, experience based education for our youth, but unfortunately, they are few and far between.
I was lucky enough to teach music in a school that let me teach as I saw fit.
Students came into the music room ready to explore. They took their shoes off as soon as they entered, to enhance exploration and reduce inhibitions. Together we sang songs, spoke poems and improvised opinions and perceptions, did body percussion, moved freely to sounds and music, held hands, encouraged each other, played instruments and made up our own riffs often. It was a beautiful, nurturing environment where everyone had a place and felt like they belonged.
I was lucky enough to be granted the allowance to create such an environment, and I would like to see that in more than the arts. I would like to see fluid education where one “subject” is not a thing, but students moving back and forth fluidly within one classroom and learning space just as life works.
I do believe awareness is there. That’s a big first step, but we still have a long way to go.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Well, my name is Jenny Ciurro, and I’m the owner and proprietor of Musical Zen with Jenny.
The main services I provide are integral group and individual sound healing, biofield tuning and reiki energy healing.
Along with being a healing facilitator, I am also a teacher, musician and mom of a 15 year old named Alex as well as a 7 year old standard poodle named Ivy, who is also my healing assistant.
When not making music or facilitating in healings, I like trail running, skiing and hiking along with all things “woo”.(metaphysical/mystical)
My main partner/ colleague and I did our first Reiki Plus class this fall, and it was a beautiful success. We attuned and educated our students in Reiki level I & II as well as gave information and hands on experiences with other modalities, such as EFT tapping, breath work and sound healing. We will be doing another course in the next few months. (Probably this spring)
I have been a musician since I was quite young. It is a big part of my life. When in music school, I decided to go into education. I taught band, choir, Off-Schulwerk elementary music in the public school system for almost 30 years. I sincerely believe that all of my experiences and training in music have prepared me to be the sound and energy healing facilitator I am today. There are many examples of this in my life, but what really hits home and is an excellent example is when I learned how to tune my guitar using a tuning fork as a young girl. I now use the same principles when listening to and tuning others’ biofields using tuning forks around the body and chakras on the body. I am able to hear and feel when there is energetic static or depletion in the energy field around and on the body. The singing bowls are able to speak to me and tell me emotions involved as well as ancestral and childhood/ lifetime patterns that are the cause of static, depletion and overall emotional and physical discomfort in my clients.
Something I wasn’t expecting when I started facilitating healings was the strong connection with the other side of the veil I get. Yes, mediumship started coming up during sessions, especially during the biofield tuning portion. During any given session, I receive information about ancestors, behavior patterns and what era or generation they started in or were at their height.
A common theme with clients is mysticism in the ancestral line along with the “witch wound”. (Salem Witch Trials, etc.)
Every session is so uncanny and unique. Spirit never ceases to amaze me!
With all of this information and assessment through the singing bowls, we are able to clear and heal ancestral and lifetime traumas through the frequencies of tuning forks. This work goes beyond the individual through to the ancestral lineage. I’ve had clients who have found peace in their families where before the sessions there was strife.
One of the coolest parts about doing energy work, is that it can be done both in person and via distance. Energy can travel through the ethers and facilitate healing just as effectively, if not moreso sometimes. It’s like listening to an old record 50+ years after its been recorded. We still get goosebumps because that energy is traveling from its original place and time through the ethers to us now. I’m always in awe of how effectively distance sessions work
If you have not experienced the magic and wonder of sound healing, I hope you are able to do so in the near future.
It is an ancient sacred healing modality who’s power of healing and transformation is becoming realized once again.
Please feel free to reach out. I love chatting with others and am an absolute energy healing and music nerd!
If you’d like to schedule or inquire about a session, message me. ( I am typically booked out three months.)
My website is under construction at the moment. Depending on when you read this, give it a try.
https://musicalzen906.squarespace.com/
You will be able to see services and book a session if it is up and running.
Thank you for your patience. Being fellow entrepreneurs I know many of you will understand.
Keep striving and serving fellow entrepreneurs!
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
My business started out as a side hustle but not intentionally. I never intended on having a sound/energy healing business. I had been struggling in my own life and no longer wanted to use antidepressants or alcohol to cope or manage with what was an ongoing wound. I have, and continue to work toward healing what is called “primal wound”. I was abandoned as a baby and have trauma from it. It has been the foundation for the relationship issues I’ve encountered most of my life.
Music was a source of solace for me when I was younger. In high school, I took up running and joined the cross country team. That kind of camaraderie and discipline was similar to the musical experiences I’d had but really moved the emotions out of my body in a way that music didn’t quite do. The combination of music and running helped me cope through my formative years.
As an adult with more responsibilities, the anxious feelings weren’t as manageable. After a decade of anti-depressants and drinking, I finally decided that I needed to find a different path.
I was introduced to EFT Tapping. I consider it the first energy healing modality I tried. (The breath work from running, singing and trumpet playing could count as well, but I had no idea I was doing energy work then.)
After I had been doing EFT Tapping and other meditations for a few years, I started to see the word “reiki” all over the place. Those of you who know how The Universe works, know that it likes to deliver hints until we take them. Eventually they become less and less subtle. haha
I made the decision to get certified in levels I,II,master/teacher in Reiki and haven’t looked back! This is where my transformation went into turbo overdrive! Soon after that, I received a knowing and guidance from a few psychic friends that I would be “taking what I know as a musician and music teacher and using it in my healing practice.”
This intrigued me. As soon as I received that information in my first one card reading from a friend, I went to the computer, and “Solfeggio Frequencies” appeared. I took that bait, and by the end of the day, I was enrolled in a level one sound healing course through Sound Healing Academy. I then went right to level 2 diplomas and had some biofield tuning training.
Before I finished the training, people started to approach me for sessions. For the last two years of my teaching career, I was facilitating sound healing/reiki sessions on the side. My last year of teaching was in 2020. I left my music room in March, never to teach in that school again. The anxiety and overwhelm in the collective was palpable. I still did a few in person session but moved into streamed sound baths and mini-energy tools videos on my YouTube channel. I even put together a list of videos to help those with Covid…clearing the chest, sinuses and mind.
A year or so into the pandemic, my business started growing without me really knowing what was happening.
Many people set up their website and socials, get and EIN, LLC, bank account, put a sign out front in person or virtually, and then get started with their business and clients. I feel like my business started itself and has been dragging me along for the ride as it goes. lol.
Oh, what a ride its’ been!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
A few years into my business and after retirement, I realized that it was time to leave my marriage. There was nothing left there for me, and I needed to leave before anymore damage was done to me and my child.
The summer of 2021, things had become clearer, as I felt like a prisoner in my marriage. In August, after asking for a separation, I knew that I was going to be the one who would have to leave our home of 17 years with 13 year old child and poodle in toe.
Late August, The Universe performed its magic again and showed me the exact house that I was to purchase. It would show up on my computer screen without me even searching. I told my realtor about it, and she told me to keep looking because that particular house was pending and was all but a done deal. My intuition knew better, and I told her to look again.
The next day, to her utter amazement, the house was back on the market! There were four other parties in line after me to purchase the house, and I had NO CREDIT, therefore couldn’t get a loan. I decided that my only choice was to take money out of my retirement to purchase the house. Once I made that decision, everything opened up, and the house was mine!!
The transition from one household to the new one, all the time running Musical Zen and making sure my kiddo and pup are ok and feel loved and cared for has been one of my greatest challenges as well as one the my greatest gifts.
I encourage you all to follow your gut and trust your instincts, because when you take one step towards The Universe, The Universe will take 10,000 steps back. 🙏✨
Contact Info:
- Website: https://musicalzen906.squarespace.com/
- Instagram: musical.zen.906
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063572468974&mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@musicalzen9105?si=Da1GyFTWS8YK_HYE
Image Credits
Madeline Zaycheck Andrea Brandt Chapoton