Natasha Thomas, PhD, MT-BC (They/She + any neo-pronouns offered with respect) is a Queer, Black, Disabled child of Caribbean immigrants from St. Vincent, an island that has historically been home to shipwreck and volcano, as well as the Kalinago people and descendants of the Trans Atlantic Slave trade, among others. Natasha holds a PhD in Expressive Therapies and teaches Music Therapy at IUPUI, on the land of the Miami people (Indianapolis, Indiana), where she lives with her spouse and three year old. Natasha is a member of the steering committee for the Black Music Therapy Network and co-host of their podcast Black Creative Healing.When not actively creating or playing with their child, you can find Natasha exploring ancestral concepts of creativity and healing (particularly within African spiritual cosmologies), cooking, gardening, or community building with kin or anyone else willing to join themme. She works with those who are ready to transform.
Adenike Webb
Adenike Webb, PhD, MT-BC (she/her)is a board-certified music therapist with over 18 years of experience working in inpatient and outpatient behavioral health settings. She received her undergraduate training in music therapy at Radford University and completed her Masters and PhD in Music Therapy at Temple University. Her personal and clinical experiences as an Afro-Caribbean woman and immigrant in the United States sparked her research interests in developing cultural awareness and sensitivity in music therapy practice and education. She is active in her local and professional communities in educating on and advocating for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Working towards Healing Justice
Our work is rooted in the framework of Healing Justice (HJ), which centers Black/Indigenous ways of being and doing in the world, as a way of tending to the generational wounds of oppression.
HJ work includes curating spaces to explore collective memories, thoughts, sensations and feelings in creative and trauma-aware ways that can help expand our capacity to act. This means we spend care-filled time listening to our bodies, honoring experiences like grief as they arise, and strengthening our relationships through mutual support. This positions us to contribute to our communities in healthier and more sustainable ways.
We know that may never see ourselves fully"healed" in our lifetimes, but what we believe we CAN do is take conscious and care-filled steps, in solidarity, in order to build to the world we wish to see: one with less harm and more community care. We believe this is a world that Black Creatives are uniquely poised to catalyze and nourish.
Thanks to Shenandoah University's Music Therapy department, particularly regular collaborator Hakeem Leonard, for assisting us with building and sustaining these connections! Our current students are now in their second year with us, and we couldn't be happier to be welcoming them back!
BCH Graphic featuring photos of our three student collaborators: Breanah Williams, Maddy Butler, and Kalysta Bryant.
Breanah Williams is a senior Music Therapy student at Shenandoah, with dreams of working in Forensic settings. Breanah is behind most of the social media posts you'll see throughout the Academic year! Breanah is also the constructor of our Discord space!
Maddy Butler is a Sophomore in Music Therapy, and regularly provides support to Breanah on all things social media for BCH!
Kalysta Bryant is a Senior in Music Therapy, and contributes to the editing of our podcast episodes and transcripts.
