Music in Experiential Medicine and Therapy
22 November, 2026 10:00-18:00 | SchmalzHofgasse 4/DG 1060 Wien
Cost: 220€/180€ for Members of APSTA & ÖGATAP
Lisa Summer, PhD, LMHC, MT-BC, FAMI
Al Hoberman, MA, LCAT, MT-BC
music and non-ordinary states of consciousness
As psychedelic-assisted therapy becomes an increasingly visible and research-based treatment option, many clients are becoming increasingly interested in therapeutic work with non-ordinary states of consciousness. Music often plays a powerful role in this work, but its clinical function remains under-examined. Practitioners have rarely had access to systematic frameworks or dedicated training for understanding how to work with music in psychedelic therapy or in other forms of non-ordinary states of consciousness, such as breathwork, hypnosis, EMDR, biofeedback, and mindfulness/meditation, and others.
This full-day experiential workshop, grounded in Lisa Summer’s Continuum Model of Guided Imagery and Music, will introduce clinicians to practical ways of understanding and working with music in psychedelic therapy and other non-ordinary states of consciousness. Through teaching, discussion, and experiential exercises, participants will deepen awareness of their own relationship to music, practice focused and intentional listening, explore music as a resource for wellbeing and inner exploration, and consider how a client-centered understanding of music can inform and expand their own clinical practice.
This workshop is designed for licensed mental health professionals—including psychotherapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and music therapists—who work with or are interested in non-ordinary states of consciousness. Participants interested in developing these skills further will have the opportunity to continue into a short, supervised practicum focused on resource-oriented applications of music in clinical practice. Details will be announced separately.
Background
Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) is a music-based intervention developed by American music therapist Helen Bonny in the early 1970s, following her work with music and LSD alongside Stanislav Grof and Walter Pahnke, and influenced by the work of such figures as Hanscarl Leuner, Johannes Schultz, and Elmer and Alyce Green. Lisa Summer, a student of Bonny’s, later developed the Continuum Model of GIM, systematizing and expanding Bonny’s original work through the methods of Music and Imagery (MI) and GIM, practiced at supportive, re-educative, and reconstructive levels of psychotherapy. Central to the model is a client-centered decision-making process that considers the client’s goals, present condition, relationship to music, emotional capacities and needs, readiness, and the therapeutic relationship.
More recently, Summer has been at the forefront of bringing the now over 50 years of subsequent GIM theory and practice back into dialogue with psychedelic research. She currently works with psychedelic research teams in Boston across a range of clinical populations and has developed a GIM-informed method for creating and delivering music-listening programs for psychedelic-assisted therapy.
About the Presenters:
Lisa Summer, PhD, LMHC, MT-BC, FAMI, is a leading figure in the fields of Music Therapy and Guided Imagery and Music (GIM). She served as Director of Music Therapy at Anna Maria College and Director of the GIM Program at the Bonny Foundation. She has chronicled the development, theory, and clinical applications of her Continuum Model of GIM, and she holds the American Music Therapy Association Presidential Award. Currently she serves as lead psychedelic therapist and music programmer for psychedelic trials for patients with cancer-related opioid refractory pain, fibromyalgia, alcohol use disorder, and older well adults. Her interest is in blending GIM practice with psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Al Hoberman, MA, MT-BC, LCAT, is a music therapist living in Vienna, Austria, and working internationally in online private practice. He is a Level III trainee in the Continuum Model of Guided Imagery and Music with Dr. Lisa Summer and a clinical supervisor and assistant trainer with the Institute for Music & Consciousness. He is a member of the Association for Psychedelic Science and Therapy Austria (APSTA) and has co-presented with Dr. Summer on music and psychedelic-assisted therapy. His clinical and research interests include liberatory approaches to digital technology in music therapy, and the intersections of music, psychotherapy, and non-ordinary states of consciousness.