Music And Counseling

Cris Cohen: From what I read, your first love is music, but your second love is counseling. And you are even in the process… or finished getting your degree from Lenoir-Rhyne University in Counseling. Is there any way that your work in music has influenced how you are as a counselor?

Barrett Smith of Steep Canyon Rangers: Definitely. No question. I'm a lifelong musician. I've been pursuing that really heavily since I was probably 14 or 15. When I was studying counseling in school, there was a lot about music that informed the way that I approached that. I'd say most importantly, that I've been teaching music lessons. I've been doing that since I was probably 20 years old. It was generally a weekly session with a person, one-on-one. That person is sitting in a chair, I'm sitting in a chair, and we hang out for an hour. And then it's like, “Alright, I'll see you next week.” And when I started really looking at the counseling session, the way it tended to go, where it should flow, I realized I've been doing some form of that this whole time with some students who came along. It was in a way as much counseling as it was music. You start digging into "Why do you want to do this? What does this mean to you?" All that.

Watch the full interview