Meet Our Trainers

CATHY MCKINNEY, PhD, MT-BC is a board-certified music therapist and a Fellow and approved Trainer with the Association for Music and Imagery. Co-founder of the Appalachian GIM training program with the late Dr. Roseann Kasayka, she has been involved in training GIM therapists since 1996. Her clinical interests are the use of music improvisation and the Bonny Method of GIM as vehicles for personal awareness, growth, and transformation. Co-editor of the Journal of the Association for Music and Imagery, her research has focused on the effects of GIM on mood and physiology in healthy adults and women with breast cancer and on the effects of music on imagery. She is professor of music therapy and founding director of the Music Therapy Programs at Appalachian State University. A list of selected publications related to GIM may be found here.

MADELAINE VENTRE, MS, LCAT, MT-BC is a board-certified music therapist, a licensed creative arts therapist, and an Association for Music and Imagery Fellow and approved Trainer. She has been in private practice in GIM for over 40 years. Madelaine has been teaching GIM in universities and institutes both nationally and abroad since 1978. She specializes in the use of improvisational GIM to address abuse and women’s issues. She has published in professional journals and books and presented at national and international conferences.

HEATHER WAGNER, PhD, MT-BC is a board-certified music therapist and a Fellow and approved Trainer with the Association for Music and Imagery. A music therapy educator, clinician, and supervisor with over 25 years of experience, she is currently assistant professor and coordinator of the music therapy program at Southern Connecticut State University. She has extensive clinical experience with children and adults in medical, rehabilitation, and mental health settings, focusing on integrative approach to health and recovery.

TIM HONIG, PhD, MT-BC is a board-certified music therapist, Fellow of the Association for Music and Imagery, and co-editor of the Journal of the Association for Music and Imagery. As Assistant Professor of Music Therapy at Westfield State University, Dr. Honig directs the music therapy degree program and maintains a GIM private practice. Prior to Westfield, Tim served as a music therapist in inpatient and outpatient mental health settings in Newark, Delaware. He holds the Master of Music Therapy degree from Appalachian State University and the PhD in music therapy from Aalborg University, Denmark, where he researched GIM with adults who have major depression.

KATURAH CHRISTENBURY, MMT, MT-BC is a board-certified music therapist and Fellow of the Association for Music and Imagery. Senior lecturer of music therapy at Appalachian State University, she maintains a clinical practice providing Bonny Method of GIM sessions and supervising advanced trainees in GIM. She holds the Master of Music Therapy degree from Appalachian State University and a certificate in the Austin Method of Vocal Psychotherapy. She has published in Music Therapy Perspectives and the Journal of the Association for Music and Imagery.