Bring Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills to life through music, songs, and practical activities.
Meet the Core Creative Team
who created the content for the DBT Music Memberships.
Deborah Spiegel MT-BC
Deborah Spiegel MT-BC is CEO and director of the DBT Informed Music Therapy Center, providing music therapy based resources for clinicians and participants of DBT to help them master the skills and live their best life.
She also provides a comprehensive DBT informed music therapy training program for music therapists, in conjunction with a team of trained DBT informed music therapists, through the Spiegel Academy (a platform for music therapy continuing education.)
Deborah was first introduced to DBT in 2001 when she worked as a member of a Dialectical Behavior Therapy based treatment team at the Colorado Mental Health Institute. She was trained in DBT alongside her treatment team by representatives of Behavioral Tech. Being a Board- Certified Music Therapist, she found herself using music to teach the skills in her DBT skills training groups, and also reinforcing the DBT skills in her music therapy groups. Over the next 11 years this evolved into her passion for using music therapy to support patients in strengthening DBT skills.
Author of a book in 2010, the 2nd edition, called Creative DBT Activities Using Music – Interventions for Enhancing Engagement and Effectiveness in Therapy, was published by Jessica Kingsley in 2020. (Co authors: Lauren Bonavitacola Psy.D, and Suzanne Makary MT-BC)
Deborah and the co authors wrote a second book which breaks the presentation of each skill into small easy pieces for the young learner or others needing modifications. It's called Creative DBT Activities for Children Using Music, published by Jessica Kingsley in 2025.
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Her passion for integrating DBT with music therapy led her to present workshops nationwide since 2011, and online, which has evolved into an extensive DBT informed music therapy training program offered through the Spiegel Academy.
She also spearheaded a research project comparing a traditional DBT skills training group with and without the addition of music therapy. Results show favorable benefits of music.
Bailey Hinz MA, MT-BC, LPMT, LMSW, CSW-I
Bailey Hinz is a DBT informed music therapist, a social worker, and facilitator of the Spiegel Academy’s DBT Informed Music Therapy Consultation groups.
You'll see her psychoeducational skills training videos and other creative resource videos in the DBT Skills Mastery through Music memberships.
In 2013, Bailey received her master’s degree in music therapy from Colorado State University. Her graduate thesis was on the utilization of therapeutic music for young women with negative body perception and disordered eating. Bailey completed her master’s in social work in 2023 and now splits her time between music therapy private practice and a partial hospitalization program for adolescents. She currently provides DBT skills groups for adolescents in and out of the clinic using music therapy.
Stephen King MT-BC
Stephen King, contributed creative resource videos in the DBT Skills Mastery through Music memberships, and is also a facilitator at the Spiegel Academy.
In early 2018, Stephen enrolled in the Spiegel Academy in conjunction with Behavioral Tech, to earn his designation as DBT informed Music Therapist.
Stephen explored his interest in Music and Psychology with his undergraduate work at Harding University, after which he studied the Masters in Music Therapy program at Texas Woman’s University. His Music Therapy career allowed for experience with older adults, addiction and recovery, children with developmental challenges, and most recently adolescents with behavioral and emotion regulation difficulties.
Combining his interest in electronic music and technology, Stephen brings unique skills to the community of Music Therapy with sessions both online and in-person.
