Mar 8, 2022
You will be SO inspired by today’s guest my friends.
Today I sit down with my friend, Callie Mescher FitzGerald, a
licensed music therapist and founder of Centrally Rooted in
Dubuque, Iowa.
A native of Cascade, Iowa, Callie holds degrees in Music Education,
Vocal Performance, and is certified as a Neurologic Music
Therapist. She has been passionate about the development of
children her entire life and is eager to share her knowledge and
joy of music with children and families. Her approach is informed,
but informal, and she enjoys wearing her
'therapist
hat' to see the developmental milestones expand in little
ones.
In the midst of personal transformation after losing her partner to
mental illness, Callie decided to bring her music back to her
hometown to lead children in vocal and instrumental lessons
beginning in 2018. In a mere two years, Callie went from a handful
of students to now a full roster with a waiting list. And in 2021,
Callie and her new husband purchased a building in a historically
underserved neighborhood in Dubuque, Iowa, to create Centrally
Rooted. Centrally Rooted provides a safe space for creative and
self-expression for kids and families of all ages, abilities, and
income levels.
You will LOVE this episode. Tune in for a few key takeaways, and
then go give Callie and Centrally Rooted a follow!
Key Takeaways
-
Callie’s vision is to create a center for developing and supporting
positive mental health via self-expression. Right now, the
offerings include a lot of music, but Callie’s goal is to bring in
yoga, play therapists, art therapists, and more to help people
focus on their overall well-being in a variety of creative
ways.
-
As a girl, Callie did NOT love music. She says her parents forced
her to begrudingly attend weekly music lessons, but it wasn’t until
joining the theater club and performing on stage in high school
that she considered music as a career.
-
In her undergrad, Callie studied musical performance and music
education. But she also found that she loved the study of
psychology and understanding how the human brain worked. She then
decided to pursue a music therapy degree after finding the
neurologic, research-based effects of music on the
brain.
-
“Music has a way of sneaking into each different area of the brain,
and so there’s really no limit for what can be reached. New
pathways can be merged in the brain via music-making.”
-
“It’s amazing what music can do in the brain.”
-
Callie has worked with stroke victims, autistic children, spinal
cord damage, and has helped them recover in fun, effective
ways.
-
“The work is hidden; it just looks like play.” Callie
“hides”
the therapy into fun and play to intrinsically motivate her
patients and get them to push past some of their perceived
limitations.
-
Mindful Musicians is the combination of Callie’s personal mission,
professional training, and societal need to have constructive
conversations about mental health. Presented through music and play
to children and their caregivers, Mindful Musicians teaches kids
positive self-talk, accepting others, confidence-building, coping
skills, emotional expression, and more.
-
With music competence in children’s formative years comes verbal
development, coordination, and Callie says,
“It’s
about setting them up for the most success they can
have.”
-
Callie’s big goal is to turn Mindful Musicians into a curriculum
and make it available to families, schools, and organizations, to
positively impact kids in their care.
-
“I was letting the constraints of the world we live in limit my
dreaming capability.”
-
“All we can choose is how we react to it,” Callie shares that pain
and suffering is inevitable in life, but through reflection and
growth beautiful things can become of it.
-
And so, so much more in today’s episode!
Follow Callie and Centrally Rooted
Keep up on all the happenings at Centrally Rooted on Facebook
@centrallyrooted or head to www.centrallyrooted.com to sign up for
their programs or contribute to the scholarship fund.
MKM Spring Programming
Growing your business is hard...trust me, I know. But you don’t
have to go it alone.
So this spring, I'm offering two group programs to support you as
you run your small-town small business:
1. MKM Social School: Our 12 week education program to help you
learn the platforms, systems, and structures to market your
business online
2. MKM Business School: A mastermind for business owners looking
for growth beyond social media. A place where we will bring in
niched-down experts in areas like messaging, business finance,
productivity, etc. and where we can ask other questions as we grow
through the
"teen
years" of our businesses.