Lisa Summer, PhD, LMHC, LCAT, MT-BC, FAMI
The Director of Music Therapy at Anna Maria College for 28 years, Professor Summer is the leading voice and trainer for Helen Bonny’s transpersonal method, Guided Imagery and Music (GIM). As well as working alongside Bonny as Director of GIM Programs at the Bonny Foundation until her retirement from the field, she published Bonny’s collected writings, Music and Consciousness (2002, Barcelona Publications) and a commemorative journal issue devoted to Bonny’s legacy (Voices, 10(3), 2010). Her own writing includes Music: The New Age Elixir, a critique of music healing, and she has chronicled her own theory, clinical, and pedagogical approach to the Continuum Model of GIM in many book chapters and articles. Her service to the music therapy profession has been recognized by awards for research and service, including the American Music Therapy Association Presidential Award. Lisa is active, giving trainings, workshops, and presentations in the USA, China, South Korea, Europe, and on-line. After joining the PATH study team in 2021 as a music programmer and co-therapist, she developed the PATH music program with Yvan Beaussant (Principal Investigator). In addition, in collaboration with the PATH team she has designed a novel GIM-informed psychedelic music protocol which she is applying to further psilocybin research at DFCI and MGH in Boston.