I am Brooke Jordan, currently a Music Therapy and Music Education dual major at Slippery Rock University. Music Therapy may not be as mainstream as other healthcare professions, it is an independent or assisted therapy that targets emotional and mental healthcare needs. It is practiced in a variety of fields, such as hospice care, hospitals, neonatal units, rehabilitation units, pre-op and others. MT is frequently used in conjunction with physical therapists and clients, often for pain management and to encourage the client throughout intensive sessions. I was one of those individuals. In July 2021 before my senior year, I suffered a significant knee injury. Surgery and PT were extremely painful and intense, my left knee was unable to bend past 30 degrees without extreme force from multiple physical therapists. While struggling through PT, I found that different types of music helped to ease the pain and drive me to keep going. I rediscovered heavy metal music, which helped me cope. I struggled with pain, lack of mobility, independence, and frustration. I missed my senior year, being unable to walk, I was not able to attend classes in person due to the facility's lack of accessibility. Friends and classmate interaction was primarily through the lens of a Chromebook. Music was the highlight of my day and how I connected with friends, as I was able to attend after-school music events. I found comfort and solace in music. I am working through college. I am the Student Assistant Secretary of the SRU Music Department, and I work for our family business during breaks, summer and on weekends. Our family has struggled over the past few years, most recently with my multiple knee surgeries and ongoing three years of recovery. My mother runs her own business, and was unable to work much as she was caring for me during this time. Of our family of three, there has been one major injury/illness per year since 2014. We press on, blaring our tunes as we adapt to challenges. I am a part of the National Flute Association Collegiate Ensemble, Region 1 PCMEA Co-Ordinator, and I am active within SRU's Music Therapy Club. I would love to embrace more Modern Band/Musical Re-Creation techniques with clients, particularly experimenting with analog synthesis and other pieces of music technology for the benefit of communication and expression. I also hope to assist my professors in an ongoing study of using EEG devices on clients to produce musical traits (i.e., using a client's thoughts/brainwaves to synthesize music, primarily for non-vocal/paralyzed clients). As both a therapist and an educator, I want my clients and students to express themselves through music; I want them to overcome, cope, and embrace their struggles and concerns in a way that is healthy and safe. Mental health is as important as physical health. I what to implement more Music Therapy programs within our schools; students need to have positive outlets and methods of expression (such as the Popular Music Pedagogy classes, sensory rooms, alternative methods of communication, etc). Current education is very limiting to most students, especially those with neurodivergency and special needs. Music Therapy is one of many methods to help client's self-regulation, expression and integration within society. Heavy metal music is something that has always been there for me, something that is familiar and has grown with me and my tastes. My mother introduced me to hair metal as she listened years ago. when younger, with Twisted Sister, Dio, Ratt and the Scorpions being permanently engrained in my memory. As I got older, I became enamored with learning each culture's representation of metal, such as Japanese Visual Kei bands like Dir En Grey, The GazettE and BUCK-TICK, or Sweden's BatAAr, or Woods of Ypres from Canada. I found my close friends through STARSET and Korn, and I continue to build within college through other bands. Heavy metal has given me an incredible community, it has given me the intensity to push me through both physical and mental pain.

Music is my passion, studying music has unlocked the world for me, I have a new voice; I plan to both teach music in school, as well as become a music therapist (I am currently a double major at Slippery Rock University, holding a 4.0 after completing my first year).

Ever since I was a child, music was always played around the house; My mother would often joke that I 'feared silence', always humming a tune or creating some form of rhythmic background noise. Through both of my parents, I would create an emotional bond to music, often relating them as people to certain artists and albums (i.e., 'Wish' by the Cure with my mother, or Classic Rock with my father). I struggled to find my place within most of grade school, but I found comfort in the music that my parents had given me. I first began playing the flute in Grade 4, being taught by a family friend. I was enamored with the instrument and the sounds that it could make, it introduced me to the fundamentals of music through middle school band and choir. It wasn't until my eighth grade when I joined the marching band that music forever became a part of me. I fell in love with the community, I had finally found my place and found joy in the effort that we would give with every song, every movement. I began working more on my instrumental technique, auditioning for PMEA Honors/Districts/Regions throughout my high school years for vocal and flute, attending some of these festivals later on. I would continue to push myself, being a part of my school's Marching/Concert Band, Concert Choir, Women's Choir, and Chamber Singers, as well as participating in theater. In 2022, I was accepted into the Slippery Rock University Flute Studio where I have continually grown, being one of 24 chosen for the National Flute Association Collegiate Level Ensemble. I am currently a beginning Sophomore dual Music Education and Music Therapy major, Vice-President of the SRU Flute Choir, Assistant Student Secretary to the SRU Music Department, and the PCMEA Region 1 Coordinator, and am fairly active within SRU's Music Therapy Club. I pursued a musical degree for a multitude of reasons, summarized simply by the fact that I cannot live without it. I have such a joy and passion for music, it is what motivates me. It has helped me find my place, it has helped me find my friends and comfort, and it has been a form of self-expression when I am unable to speak. I want to know as much as I can about this subject, and I want others to know its value and its ability to heal and help; I want to facilitate that action, either as an educator or a therapist. It has gone beyond a passion and has become a way of thought, a need and a necessity. I have seen how music can give all ages a voice, a reason to 'get up in the morning', I have seen music save multiple lives and be a constant positive in a world of hurt. Throughout my life, I have dealt with struggles, such as depression, self-harm and injury. Due to a significant injury before my senior year, I was unable to walk without a wheelchair or crutches for over five months. Due to my investment in this program, I went through the marching band season with these aids and participated in every event that I could. I was unable to attend standard school due to this injury, but I was able to attend these musical events and connect/create. I want others to experience this strength, this form of commitment to a passion. I want to help children to use music as a therapeutic element throughout their entire lives, I want them to not only enjoy music but to speak it and live it.