Transformative ‘Talk Therapy:’ Psych Congress Keynote Considers Medicinal Music

The 36th Annual Psych Congress meeting convened on Wednesday, September 6th, in Nashville, Tennessee, with a robust pre-conference program that concluded with the second-ever Eric C. Arauz Memorial Keynote Address.

The keynote honors its namesake, Eric C. Arauz, who served as a Psych Congress Steering Committee member from 2014 to 2018. “What a great testimonial to a life well-lived that he made an impact on so many of us,” said Rakesh Jain, MD, Psych Congress 2023 co-chair.

Entitled “Healing Through Music: The Transformative Power of Songwriting in Mental Health,” the session was presented by Christine Moutier, MD, Chief Medical Officer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), and Jason and Chelsea Garriott, founders and directors of Music Neighbors, a Nashville-based nonprofit organization promoting self-healing through music.

“Tonight is about storytelling and vulnerability,” Dr Moutier began before sharing a personal story of mental health struggles experienced by her and her colleagues during medical school, often minimized and overlooked amid a competitive academic environment. After a friend died by suicide at the beginning of their 4th year of residency, Moutier realized how harmful the stigma against mental health challenges could really be.

“Connection and care are game changers. They require stripping away the usual norms, but it can be done—suicide prevention is possible,” Moutier ardently advocated. In addition to community outreach and organization, AFSP is the leading private funder of suicide prevention research in the United States.

The keynote was one part of the expanded partnership between Psych Congress and AFSP that aims to infuse the psychopharmacology conference with mental health sessions and greater community backing for AFSP’s mission. AFSP is also this year’s charitable partner for the meeting and the recipient of a donation from Psych Congress totaling $10,000.

Dr Moutier then invited the Garriotts up to the stage to share more about Music Neighbors’ origin and mission. Jason, executive director of the nonprofit, shared the story of his father’s unexpected death following a life-long battle with undiagnosed bipolar disorder. That year at Christmas, Jason’s mother gifted him his first guitar: “I had a way to communicate my emotions finally. Playing guitar was my talk therapy.”

Together, Jason and Chelsea, operations director, founded the organization upon moving to Nashville and witnessing the number of underserved music populations. Alongside studio recording sessions, videography, and photography, offered according to sliding scale options, Music Neighbors provides a variety of programming that encourages emotional exploration and community building through music.

The keynote session concluded with a “writer’s round” featuring 4 musicians who have developed their artistry and careers through support from Music Neighbors. The musicians, including Raleigh Keegan, Julia Cannon, Bobbie Purser, and Mercy Bell, took turns playing original songs and sharing the mental health journeys that inspired them.

Purser, a nonbinary artist born and raised in Nashville who developed an intense dissociative disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic, introduced a song inspired by their condition’s onset and subsequent healing journey. “This is the one audience to whom I don’t have to explain what a dissociative disorder is,” Purser quipped.

Cannon, a Black woman raised in a self-described “unorthodox” household in Alaska, shared her belief that “music saved my life—it was my first form of therapy. I think it was all of our first forms of therapy.”

Those wishing to make a charitable donation to AFSP can do so at afsp.org/psychcongress.

For more information about Music Neighbors, visit their website.