Jayda grew up in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and earned a Bachelor’s of Music in performance with a minor in psychology from Northern State University, her hometown university. She discovered music therapy two years into her undergrad simply by googling “What can I do with a bachelor’s in music?”.
The only musician in her family, Jayda has been immersed in music since childhood: piano at 8, voice lessons at 12, choirs throughout K-12, playing piano in Symphonic Band, and private lessons continuing through college. She also performed in several productions, including The Pirates of Penzance as one of the daughters and as Heather McNamara in Heathers. For a few years during her undergrad, Jayda was the lead singer of a local pop/funk/rock band called Citrisity and performed at gigs from weddings to county fairs. “My parents really threw my siblings and me into all activities and let us choose whether to continue–but we had to give it a try. For me, I clung to music and was the only one in my family to do so.”
After discovering music therapy, Jayda applied to school immediately, finding an equivalency/master’s program at the University of Iowa. During her two years there, she gained clinical experience with a day program for adults with developmental disabilities, a special education high school classroom, an older adult skilled nursing facility, and a transitional program for college-aged students with disabilities. Alongside her practicum experience, she taught private piano lessons up to 13 students, worked as a classroom assistant on a child psychiatric unit, and during her final semester she served as a teaching assistant and was the secretary for the Iowa Music Therapy Student organization (IMTSO). As a graduate student, she focused her research on music therapy for pain management–specifically for post-operative recovery for adolescents after spinal fusion surgery–inspired by her own surgical experience and passion for helping others on similar healing journeys.
Now Jayda is our current intern, completing the required 1,200-hour internship before taking the board certification to become a Board-Certified Music Therapist (MT-BC).
“Music therapy is like secret therapy. A client can be working toward four different goals at once without even realizing it–they’re simply having fun and engaging with the music. But behind the scenes, fascinating things are happening in the body and brain. I’ll forever be passionate about the power of music therapy and always be a lifelong learner of it.”
