Music As Therapy 

Music as therapy for individuals with special needs and disabilities.

Give to the Music Therapy Wellness Clinic

It’s said that music is food for the soul. If that’s true, then Ron Borczon, director of the Music Therapy Wellness Clinic at CSUN, has been feeding the souls of individuals with disabilities and special needs for over 20 years years. Only one of two programs in California and the only one located in the Valley dedicated to music therapy, the clinic creates a unique environment for children and adults to acquire necessary life skills through music.

“We’ve had many ‘mini miracles’ in the clinic, like children with autism who have never talked say their first words, people who have had strokes unable to speak, sing songs fluently,” said Borczon. “It’s just a lot of goodness, that’s a good word.”

Music therapy is a creative arts therapy that uses music in a prescribed manner as a treatment for rehabilitating, maintaining, and improving the lives of persons with physical, intellectual and emotional disabilities. It is a healing art, based on scientific principles and grounded in research.

Five board-certified music therapists provide individualized music therapy services and activities to more than 50 clients each week. Clients may see improvement in fine and motor skills, acquisition and application of academic fundamentals, life skills, socialization, self-esteem, and overall expansion of the quality of life through musical enjoyment and creative self-expression. The clinic is also home to three different choirs including: the Sunshine Singers open to young adults with a variety of challenges; the Rising Star for children with special needs and the Asteroids for teens with special needs.

The Music Therapy Wellness Clinic is one of the few universities in the country that has a clinic attached to the music therapy program. As such, all sessions are utilized for student observation and learning and are part of the educational process for future music therapists. What’s more, all CSUN students are welcome to use the music therapy services of the clinic to work through challenges they may be experiencing.

Your gift expands the clinic’s services in the community and funds scholarships for clinic clients. Give the gift of music, it just may change a life.