Meet Music Therapist Lacey Friesen: She doesn’t sing ALL day

I guess you could say that music runs in Lacey Friesen's blood. Her role as a Music Therapist at HSC Children's Hospital could not be better suited to her interests, personality, or way of life.

"I grew up in a very musical family, with a mother who taught private music lessons, a father who plays drums and sings, and two musical sisters. We grew up singing in church together," said Lacey. "There was just so much music around me."

Alumni in Their Own Words - Nicole Richard Williams

Nicole Richard graduated from CMU in 2013 with a Bachelor of Music Therapy.

Where has your life taken you since you left CMU?

After finishing my Bachelor of Music Therapy at CMU, I worked as a music therapist in Winnipeg for about three years. During this time, I started working with many clients on the autism spectrum and noticed that doing rhythmic and drumming interventions with these folks really seemed to help them reach some of their therapeutic goals. I wanted to deepen my understanding of how exactly music therapy could help autistic children. Going to grad school had always been a dream of mine, and so I decided to take some time off working to do a Master's in Music and Health Science at the University of Toronto. During that degree, I decided I wanted to continue on and do a PhD and was accepted again at the Music and Health Science Research Collaboratory (the lab out of which the master's and PhD are based) at the University of Toronto.

Ten stories of CMU alumni (audio)

As an extension of the A Time of Reckoning symposium that took place at CMU in October 2023, this student-led media project is one way of reflecting CMU's story from 2000 to 2023. Every now and then, it's good to consider what we say we're doing, what we think we're doing, and what is actually going on.