Musictherapy, Crossroad of Three Continents

When Dr Nicoletta Arbusti, a psychologist and psychoterapist from Florence, decided to found her no -profit company Consonanze in 2005, she had a clear idea in her mind: to help people all over the world through humanitarian actions and International cooperation projects. She has always wanted to link all the “faces” of the Planet, from the richest to the poorest countries; being firmly convinced that “differences” may be continuous sources of learning if used well.

Angela Chiummo and Nicoletta Arbusti

A necklace realized by Myria Gradi

With such a state of mind, the idea of creating a training course company has come naturally. Now the Consonanze Formazione Company is a well known enterprise in its field, and operates in Italy and abroad, in order to create links among different cultures and learning techniques, with precise attention to medical and psychological aspects.

The latest Consonanze’s project , which will be presented on September the 10th in a Press Conference at the Italian Embassy of Washington, DC, is the concrete sign of this attempt. The Conference, in fact, will talk about a “Postdegree Course in Musictherapy for Disabled Children,“ that will be held at the University of San Augustin of Arequipa (Perù) and will be addressed to all the recent graduates  of the psychology department.  But Perù is only the first step in a long term process: the inner idea, in fact, is to extend  the project to other South American Universities as soon as possible.

The course prepared for UNSA (University of San Augustin) has a mainly Italian staff coming from CETOM (Tuscan Center for Musictherapy) and selected by Angela Chiummo, the director of the Center, and Nicoletta Arbusti.  The choice of this center is explained by its 25 years of experience of work with people affected by disabilities through music. Yet even if the project starts as Italian, it is intented to become an opportunity of didactical and therapeutic exchange among Europe, the US and South America.

We cannot forget that charity is an important aspect of this project. Thanks to the hard work of no-profit company Consonanze, which is raising money for students and the young disabled of the Istitutional Center of Paucarpata, so that they can receive the courses and musictheraphy for free. As a result, many humanitarian initiatives have been organized: on September 6th there will be an exhibition of Myria Gradi’s jewelry at the Holy Rosary Church of Washington. Gradi, a famous stylist from Florence, will donate the proceeds of her unique jewelry to the project. In addition, the Braccialini Store of New York will give a percentage of its earnings from September the 14th to October the 14th to the postdegree course.

This is not the first time that Dr. Nicoletta Arbusti collaborates with the US. Her company has been involved in many Italian/American projects in collaboration with the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò of New York University, the Italian Embassy of Washington DC, and the US General Consulate in Florence. All of these former initiatives and collaborations prove that is possible to build bridges among people and istitutions of different countries.

We believe in this project and support its multicultural attempt and, above all, its humanitarian aim. We wish all the best to Nicoletta and her company Consonanze, because we think her company is already on the road to achieving its goals.