BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (WTVF) — A lot of us have stories about why we chose to follow a certain career path.
Those reasons can even feel like a full circle moments down the road.
That's how it feels for Lydia Lowery, a music therapist at Musical Bridges in Brentwood.
"Never heard of music therapy before in my life," said Lowery, when looking back on how much she knew about it prior to her teenage years.
Musical Bridges provides therapy through activities for people as young as babies all the way to adults in nursing homes.
Each session shakes things up a little bit. There's a different focus with each activity. This includes communicating wants and needs, or even balance and mobility.
To see examples of these activities, watch in the player above.
"When we stood up to play the piano with her feet, we were crossing midline, which works on balance as well," Lowery said.
There can be a lot to balance for the therapists between multiple clients, all with different needs.
"You know that you're making a difference in their lives," Lowery said.
For this life-long lover of music, she knows she has been given a generous gift.
"I know I had to go through what I did with cancer to be able to go on the path that I think God wanted me on," she said.
Lowery was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma when she was 14 years old.
She underwent aggressive treatment and was in remission in less than a year. She loved music but when you're limited in what you can do and who you can be around, how do you find any sense of hope?
"This man came and knocked on the door and he had a full wagon of instruments with him and stuff and he asked if he could come in," Lowery remembered about her treatment. "And he introduced himself as a music therapist."
"Not having any music really involvement at all during treatment, this was like — it gave me peace in the moment," she said.
It gave her peace in the moment — and a purpose for the future.
"I've always been told that everyone has a gift and everyone has a purpose," she said.
It took one, 30 minute music therapy session for Lowery when she was 14 to find her life-long gift of giving back.
Do you have a positive story you'd like to share with us? You can email me at Austin.Pollack@newschannel5.com.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
