Foundations of
Therapeutic Music
A 14-week experiential training and mentorship program
From January 12 to April 7 2026 | Online via Zoom
One single course for the questions
that matter most
Discover a new approach to therapeutic music based
on the latest research and most essential insights
Informed by working with hundreds of therapists, this course identified and focusses on key challenges
and knowledge gaps that are present in real-world practices today:
- How to discern what is needed in a given moment.
- How to listen with your whole body and not just your ears.
- The connection between music and consciousness.
- How to develop your own musical intuition as a therapist.
- How to know when not to play music.
- How to perceive and create the right emotional dynamics.
- How to adapt music to different therapeutic modalities.
- How to curate, label, and organise music.
- The significant role of transference in music.
- How to translate complex musical concepts into simple therapeutic tools.
- How to optimise your therapeutic room.
- How to adapt music without losing affective resonance.
- How to balance music and silence.
- How to guide clients between catharsis and integration through music.
- How to sense when music is amplifying versus soothing emotions.
- The role of authenticity in music selection.
- How to recognise the various roles you and the music can provide for your clients.
- How to apply entirely new modes of listening.
- How to weave music into a narrative arc of healing.
- The neuroscience of therapeutic change.
- How to decide on the centrality of music within your approach.
- How to recognise different musical personality types.
- The art of being present with your patients.
- How to use music for guided meditations.
- The neuroscience of music.
- How to know which musical parameters to avoid or prioritise.
- How to provide musical anchoring.
- The basics of musical affect attunement.
- How to enrich the therapeutic relationship.
- How to match music to personality types.
- The ideal traits and qualities of therapists.
- The role of familiarity and novelty.
- How to work with metaphors.
- How to design and apply musical themes and phases.
- How to recognise different rhythms.
- How to use music for preparation.
- How to harness silence as an active therapeutic instrument.
- How to modulate intensity and pacing to match the therapeutic process.
- How to sense when music is too much or not enough.
- How to notice the subtle body responses evoked by sound.
- Integrative perspectives on therapeutic music.
- The three distinct types of musical rejection.
- How to recognise musical archetypes and their therapeutic impact.
- How to reconnect with or deepen the musical self.
- How to balance individual versus cultural considerations.
- How to guide clients into altered states of consciousness through music.
- The evolution of musicality and music.
- How to use music as a mirror of the client’s inner world.
- How to design playlists.
- How to design the right therapeutic arcs within the music.
- The significance of musicality in child development.
- The pitfalls and opportunities in verbal language.
- How to create therapeutic rituals through sound and silence.
- How to optimise the quality of music delivery.
- Different expressions of musical enactment.
- How to get to know your client in your first meeting.
- How to apply improvisation as a co-creative healing process.
- How to combine science and art in your therapeutic music practice.
- How to use music to open and close sacred spaces.
- How to discern the symbolic language of music.
- The therapeutic use of music with lyrics.
- The neuroscience of music.
- The ways in which music is intersubjective.
- How to match music to different use cases.
- How to deepen the therapeutic alliance.
- The differences between sound, musicality, and music.
- How to guide clients between catharsis and integration through music.
- How to design soundscapes that honour cultural and ancestral lineages.
- The mechanisms and outcomes of attunement and misattunement.
- How to use music as non-verbal direction.
- How to distinguish tonalities.
- How to create your own guided listening protocols.
- How to use music in group settings.
- How to facilitate safe emotional release through sound.
- How to use rhythm as a grounding force in therapy.
- How to hold space for clients’ unique musical journeys.
- How to apply entirely new modes of listening.
- The multidimensional model of therapeutic music.
- How to match music to the therapeutic process.
- How to know what your patient is experiencing.
- The evolution of musicality and music.
- How to design soundscapes that honour cultural and ancestral lineages.
- How to define, recognise, and apply distinct therapeutic functions of music.
- How musicality evolved.
- How the musical self can be recognised.
- How to enrich the therapeutic relationship.
- How to provide musical anchoring.
- How to apply improvisation as a co-creative healing process.
- The role of familiarity and novelty.
- How to get to know your client in your first meeting.
- How to weave music into a narrative arc of healing.
- How to know which musical parameters to avoid or prioritise.
- How to adapt music without losing affective resonance.
- How to perceive and create the right emotional dynamics.
- How to create your own guided listening protocols.
- How to balance music and silence.
- The art of being present with your patients.
- How to combine science and art in your therapeutic music practice.
- How to curate, label, and organise music.
- How to use music for integration.
- How to modulate intensity and pacing to match the therapeutic process.
- How to use music as an extension of your therapeutic personality.
In-depth, focussed and personalised guidance from a leading expert
Designed to develop a unique combination of 3 core competencies
At the heart of this course is an integrative model of therapeutic music that unifies cognitive and affective neuroscience, developmental and evolutionary psychology, psychodynamic and humanistic theory, relational and medical approaches, and a variety of philosophy and anthropology perspectives on music, ritual and healing.
Therapeutic
Musicality
The capacity to perceive, express and modify musical qualities in service of a therapeutic practice.
It does not concern the mastery of a musical instrument or the learning of music theory. Neither does it's development depend on these.
Therapists often fear that they lack enough musical skills. You may for example argue that you do not play an instrument, that you do not understand music theory, or more broadly that you do not understand music enough.
The reality is that these are not needed to develop the most primary and fundamental skill for working with music therapeutically.
By developing your therapeutic musicality, this course is designed to abilities to:
- Recognise distinct musical qualities.
- Intuit and predict musical narratives.
- Creative and modify musical experiences.
You will practice and apply therapeutic musicality across five dimensions:
- (P) Perceptive: Noticing distinct musical qualities and nuances.
- (R) Responsive: Exploring spontaneous, embodied expressions of musical qualities.
- (A) Attunement: Recognising and mirroring affective contours of musical qualities.
- (N) Narrative: Dialling into the implicit predictions and intuitive expectations within musical structures.
- (C) Creative: cultivating play, divergent thinking and improvisation.
From day 1 you are guided into new ways of relating with music in an experience-based manner.
Each week you are given a fresh list of experiences you can easily implement by yourself at any point in your day.
You will be engaging with sound recordings, your environment, the voice of yourself and others. All of these are purposefully designed to be short, immersive and fun.
Situational
Flexibility
The capacity to modify your ways of responding to the dynamic needs of the present context.
It does not discard models, protocols, guidelines, but teaches how to apply them into the reality of your practice.
Many therapists fall in in the trap of searching for protocols and step-by-step guidelines that can be easily copy-pasted.
For example, you may collect playlists created by others, or follow a set of prescriptions of tracks to use for specific use-cases.
Although models and protocols have a clear value and function, when applied too procedurally this will create an inherent dissociation between therapist, method and client.
What you will learn instead in this course is how to adopt a modular, fluid way of working.
By providing a new dimension of flexibility into your practices, this course is designed to:
- Learn how to adapt ways of working to yourself and the unique needs of yourself, your client and the context.
- Enrich and deepen intersubjective and relational dynamics
- Enhance personalisation, attunement and insightfulness in your client’s experience and needs.
n this course you will learn how to apply a number of different models and guidelines, to different therapeutic needs, situations and clients.
You will familiarise yourself with the following:
Distinct intersubjective dynamics & roles that therapists and music can inhabit dynamically.
- Core variables that define subjective effects of music, including 5 Distinct Therapeutic functions of music
- Methods for personalising and designing a musical narrative.
- Learn different qualities of Listening and how your clients can be guided.
- How to recognise distinct therapeutic functions of music
- How to design and personalise these functions into a musical narrative (i.e. a playlists)
- How to remain attuned and insightful in your client’s dynamic experience and needs
- How to adapt music in-real time to support your client’s process
- How to develop and use music-experiences in preparation and integration sessions
- How to develop and use voice-guidance scripts and methods
- How to use your voice and your language for constructive prompts and resonant metaphors
- How to curate and organise your own unique music library
- How to design therapeutic rituals
- How to design your setting
Via a combination of theoretical models, guided listening experiences and interactive triad-based practices, you will learn how to adapt ways of responding in a variety of contexts. Both to yourself and others.
Multidiscplinary
Integration
The ability to hold distinct paths of meaning-making together simultanously and inclusively.
This is not about recognising value in different perspectives, but how they interweave as different expressions of the same phenomena.
Therapists and students of therapies tend to box themselves into one or a small number of modalities and orientations.
While this is an organic outcome of working within limited frameworks and areas of competence, it can narrow one’s effectiveness when responding to phenomena that are, by nature, multifaceted.
Both people and music are inherently complex, layered, and at times ambiguous.
Using music in therapy therefore requires an integrative attitude: an openness to multiple ways of being, listening, interpreting and responding. This is the third foundation for working with music in therapy settings.
This integration allows the therapist to move more fluidly between perspectives (behavioural, medical, psychodynamic, musical, cultural, neuroscientific, somatic, etc) without collapsing into any single framework. Each lens will enrich and open up rather than limit the therapeutic processes.
This course presents multi-displinary perspectives on Music, Self and Therapy
These disciplines will include:
- Evolutionary Theory
- Culture Studies and Anthroplogy
- Child and Human Development
- Molecular Neuroscience
- System Neuroscience
- Complexity Science
- Medicine & Psychiatry
- Cognitive Sciences
- Somatic Psychology
- Humanistic Psychology
- Transpersonal Psychology
- Psychoanalysis
These will be presented through teaching the following integrative frameworks:
- An Integrative Theory of Self-Development, Wounding and Repair
- The Dynamic Roleplay of Therapist and Music
- The Many Dimensions of Therapeutic Music
- The Musical Enactment Framework
This will be teached primarily via video lectures, conversational formats, use-case studies and additional reading suggestions.
A practice-first program
This is not a course you study. This is a course that you will embody.
Each week bridges conceptual depth with lived understandings. Whether through self-guided practices or live group
interactions: you’ll use music from day one, and not just study it.
Theory Lectures
Group Conversations
Experiential Practices
Interactive Experiments
Guided Listening
Case Studies
Playlist Design Workshop
Reflective Exercises
Optional 1:1 Mentorship
Converging into a 1-month playlist-design workshop in which you
will apply your learnings directly into your ways of working.
Within small groups you´ll experience each others approach. Beyond playlists this practice offers the space to include
methods for interviewing, preparing, guiding, personalising, sequencing, mixing, adapting, etc.
Who is this for?
You’ll develop a flexible framework for using music therapeutically and learn how to adapt
this seamlessly to your own setting and way of working.
Although originating from expertise in music for psychedelic therapy, the frameworks offered in this approach are purposely agnostic to and applicable within a range of therapeutic orientations. Therefore this course creates an diverse and collaborative learning collective
Those sharing specific orientations will have numerous opportunities to come together in focussed working-groups, conversations & practices.
Psychedelic Therapists
PAT • KAP • Individual & group work
Therapists & Trainees
Psychotherapists • Psychiatrists • Counsellors • Clinicians
Body-Mind Practitioners
Bodyworkers • Coaches • Yoga Teachers • Breathworkers
Musicians
Composers • Producers • DJs • Audio Engineers
Groups & Institutions
Training directors • Clinics • Collectives • Student Cohorts
Course Details
Delivery
13 Weeks
Zoom
Written
Recordings
Private Portal
Formats
Live Lectures & Q&A
Self-guided Practices
Interactive Working Groups
Pre-Recorded Content
Optional 1:1s Mentorship
Delivery
Every 1 Week
Every 2 Weeks
…
From day 1 you are guided into new ways of relating with music in an experience-based manner.
Each week you are given a fresh list of experiences you can easily implement by yourself at any point in your day.
You will be engaging with sound recordings, your environment, the voice of yourself and others. All of these are purposefully designed to be short, immersive and fun.
Events
From day 1 you are guided into new ways of relating with music in an experience-based manner.
Each week you are given a fresh list of experiences you can easily implement by yourself at any point in your day.
You will be engaging with sound recordings, your environment, the voice of yourself and others. All of these are purposefully designed to be short, immersive and fun.
Content & Syllabus
This is a high-level overview. The actual sequence of these could vary somewhat in the actual program.
Foundations
Understanding Therapy
An integrative perspective on mental health, the development of a self, and the nature of change.
Foundations
Understanding Music
An integrative perspective on music and musicality, its evolutionary and ontological roots and the many dimensions in which it is expressed.
Foundations
Therapeutic Roles
Defining the distinct roles the therapist and the music can play to listeners
Foundations
Musical Enactment
Introducing a unifying framework to understand the multitude of experiences music can provide.
Therapeutic Practice
Person-Centred Music
Understanding the variables within both music and listener that define 5 distinct functions of music.
Therapeutic Practice
Designing Playlists
From curation, labeling & organisation, to understanding temporal dynamics, and the foundations for effective musical attunement.
Therapeutic Practice
Set Design
How to know your patient, offer the ideal listening relationship, and using music as a tool for preparation and integration.
Therapeutic Practice
Setting Design
How to define and optimise the ideal qualities for therapist, the room and the music delivery.
Therapeutic Practice
Interactive Playlist Design Workshop
Applying the teaching into practice within rotating working groups,. guided feedback and group reflections.
Closure
Synthesis and Integration
Summaries and integrations of learnings, with extensive group conversations and Q&A.
About Your Teacher
Mendel Kaelen, neuroscientist and founder of Wavepaths, is internationally recognised for pioneering research on the therapeutic power of music.
In this course, Mendel shares the essence of more than 15 years of research and practice.
Mendel completed his PhD in neuroscience at Imperial College London in 2017, specialising in the role of music in psychedelic therapy. He has co-authored more than 50 academic papers and is widely regarded as a thought leader in this emerging field.
He is the founder of Wavepaths, a platform that has supported over 50,000 clinical sessions. Mendel also has an active and diverse music practice for several decades, has guided hundreds of group and individual sessions, and curated therapeutic playlists that reached more than 100,000 listeners worldwide.
Pricing Tiers
Our very early bird pricing are ending in
What is included
- Live Sessions & Q&A
- Playlist Design Workshop
- Guided Listenings
- Music recommendations
- Recorded Lectures
- Self-Guided Practices
- Wavepaths Subscription
- Course E-book (at closure)
Expert
Live | Interactive | Guided
- €1,300
- 20+ Hours
- 1 Month
- Each week
- Included
- 20+ Hours
- 14 Modules
- 3 months
- Included
Best for those who value real-time dialogues, personalised feedback and deeper experiential learnings.
We offer buy now, pay later options at checkout. Alternatively, email [email protected] for payment plans.
Essentials
Independent | On-Demand
- €350
- -
- -
- -
- -
- 20+ Hours
- 11 Modules
- 3 months
- Included
Ideal for those who prefer autonomy and self-paced study, while still developing new foundations in therapeutic music.
Access from January 2026
Expert
Live | Interactive | Guided
€1,300
Ideal for those who value real-time dialogues, personalised feedback and deeper experiential learnings.
Live Sessions & Q&A
- 20+ Hours
Playlist Design Workshop
- 1 Month
Interactive Experientials
- Every two weeks
Guided Listenings
- Every week
Music Recommendations
- Included
Pre-recorded Video-Lectures
- 20+ Hours
Self-guided Practices
- 14 Modules
Wavepaths Subscription
- 3 Months
Course E-book
- Included
- We offer buy now, pay later options at checkout. Alternatively, [email protected] to request a payment plan.
Essentials
Independent | On-demand
€350
Pre-recorded content for those who prefer autonomy and self-paced study, whilst still developing new foundations in therapeutic music.
Access from 15 January 2026
Pre-recorded Video Lectures
- 20+ Hours
Self-guided Practices
- 11 Modules
Wavepaths Subscription
- 3 months
Course E-book
- Included
Full Experience
Best for those who value real-time
dialogues, personalised feedback and
deeper experiential learnings via the
playlist workshop and other immersive
practicals.
Core Experience
Ideal for those who prefer autonomy
and self-paced study, while still
developing new foundations in
therapeutic music.
and self-paced study, while still
developing new foundations in
therapeutic music.
1:1 Mentorship
Details on possibilities to directly work with Mendel during or after this course, will be provided
by the end of this year.
by the end of this year.
FAQs
Absolutely. The course is designed to help you connect with and use the music that uniquely fits you and your musical personality the best.
No. We focus on the therapeutic use of sound, not performance.
Expect ~3–4h/week on average.
Standard headphones/speakers are sufficient; guidance provided.
Designed for therapists, psychedelic practitioners, coaches and wellness professionals.
- All live sessions are recorded.
- “Will there be any certificate or CE credits?
Certificate of completion provided; CE accreditation is in progress—we’ll update as soon as it’s confirmed
Yes, Wavepaths allows music to be streamed to any device, including laptops and smartphones, making it suitable for both in-person and remote ketamine therapy sessions.
You can start by trying Wavepaths for free. Visit our website to explore our features and see how our music can enhance ketamine therapy practice.