A Certified Music Practitioner (CMP) is a musician who completes a clinical training and certification program through the Music for Healing and Transition Program (MHTP). A CMP provides live acoustic music at the bedside, one-on-one, for therapeutic purposes (focused on the patient with the aim of bringing in-the-moment comfort to the patient’s whole being). A CMP has no goal other than addressing the patient’s immediate needs.
Only Certified Music Practitioners (or musicians who have obtained certification from similar programs) are qualified to provide Live Therapeutic Music as defined by The National Standards Board for Therapeutic Musicians (NSTB). To learn more about Live Therapeutic Music and how to become a CMP, visit MHTP.org
Chuck has been providing Live Therapeutic Music to patients in healthcare facilities since 2010. As Executive Director of Strings of Mercy, he is committed to raising funds and helping create funded CMP positions around metro Atlanta. Currently, Chuck is also the Therapeutic Music Program Coordinator at Northeast Georgia Medical Center and also provides LTM for Hospice patients across north Georgia.
Larry is a Chaplain who also works as a CMP, providing LTM sessions for Capstone Hospice patients in their homes and at several facilities. Prior to the COVID restrictions, Larry also provided Live Therapeutic Music at Northside Hospital Gwinnett in Duluth, the Northside Gwinnett Joan Glancy Rehabilitation Center in Duluth, and the Northside Gwinnett Extended Care Center located in Lawrenceville, GA.
An Atlanta native, Max provides LTM for patients and staff at Northside Hospital Gwinnett in Lawrenceville. Max is a diverse and talented guitarist who provides private guitar lessons and comforts patients with soothing finger-style guitar instrumentals by day, then cranks up his amp at night as guitarist and vocalist with Atlanta-based metal band, Halcyon Way. Max is also an accomplished artist who sells commission portraits in various media.
Connie is a 2017 MHTP graduate and currently provides LTM for clinical staff and patients at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, GA, and St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens, GA.
Connie holds an M.A. in Music Education, and has taught music in the public schools as well as private lessons. She is MHTP certified on keyboard and concertina.
Lorretta has been playing the harp for hospital and hospice patients across north Georgia since becoming a CMP in 2004. Before the COVID restrictions, Lorretta provided LTM for patients at Northside Forsyth Hospital, Northeast Georgia Medical Center and NGHS Hospice in Gainesville, GA.
Teresa plays LTM on a replica of an 18th Century Baroque flute. During her MHTP internship in 2013, she developed a love for comforting ICU and Neonatal ICU patients. Before the COVID restrictions, she provided LTM to babies in the Neonatal ICU at Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, GA.
Teresa watches the babies' monitors as she plays comforting tones from the soft dove-like voice of her instrument. “Even if the patients cannot talk to us or tell us what they need, their vital signs speak for them.”