DBT Informed Music Therapy Center
Meet the Core Creative Team:
Below are members of the team dedicated to creating content for the DBT Skills Mastery through 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’s 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 in the favor of music.
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Bailey Hinz MT-BC
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.
Alice Browne, MT-BC
Alice Browne is also a member of the original creative team, so you’ll see her often in the recordings in the DBT Skills Mastery through Music Memberships. She created many amazing mindfulness experiences for members to enjoy and music therapy experiences to learn skills from.
She received her DBT- Informed Music Therapy training through the Spiegel Academy, and completed the DBT skills training with Behavioral Tech..
Alice has a B.S. in Music Therapy from Augsburg University that she received in 1984 and has been practicing music therapy ever since. She has achieved Level, l & ll Certification in Sound healing through Normandale Community College in Minnesota and through Sound Healer Kay Grace.
Alice’s experience includes work with a wide array of populations, including geriatrics, recovering alcoholics, homeless people, autistic children, and people experiencing grief. Alice often incorporates visual arts in her therapy sessions. She is a wife, a mother, a mother-in-law, and a cat owner.
Lauren Bonavitacola PsyD, MT-BC
Dr. Bonavitacola is the supervising clinician for the Spiegel Academy’s DBT Informed Music Therapy Training program.
She is a psychologist, DBT-Linehan Board of Certification Certified Clinician™, and board certified music therapist. In her private practice, Dr. Bonivitacola specializes in the implementation of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and associated conditions, as well as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for anxiety and mood disorders, particularly Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD).