A Live Workshop on The Science and Art of Therapeutic Playlist Design with Dr. Mendel Kaelen

All ticket-holders receive: full lecture recording, complete slide handout, an e-book with practical tools to help guide your own process & a bonus lecture video, Creating Playlists (Part I)

About

Whether you offer therapy sessions, facilitate ceremonies, or curate your own personal psychedelic journeys, the playlists you use matter greatly.

In altered state contexts, the music you choose can either make or break the experience. Many have an instinct that their music selection process can improve, but don't know where to begin.

This workshop offers an introduction and springboard into the exploration of this highly nuanced craft. In this two hour workshop, Dr Mendel Kaelen will share the key principles, frameworks, and decision-making tools he's developed and tested over the last 15 years across a wide variety of therapeutic contexts.

You'll leave with tips, dos and don'ts, practical suggestions and tools that you can start to use immediately within your own practice.

Topics Covered

1. How music actually works in therapeutic contexts: musical enactment, listening dynamics, triadic relationships
2. Key variables of therapeutic music: musicality, functions, attunement
3. Core principles of playlist design: phasing, sequencing, paths
4. Common pitfalls, and how to avoid them
5. Practical frameworks and suggestions for music curation
6. Maps and tools for designing musical experiences with greater attunement

This workshop draws directly from material taught inside Foundations of Therapeutic Music, Mendel's 9-month immersive programme.

Session Format

One hour of interactive teaching

Frameworks, principles and decision-making tools brought to life with examples, reflections and demonstrations.

Resource Pack

Everyone who registers will receive the following after the workshop, whether you are able to attend live or not:

• The full lecture recording (excluding the live Q&A)
• The complete slide handout, including detailed proprietary frameworks
• An e-book with reflections, exercises, maps and practical tools to help guide your own process (covering how to shape your practice philosophy, how to develop listening and music curation routines, and how to plan each phase of the session).
• A bonus lecture video, Creating Playlists (Part I), drawn directly from the Foundations of Therapeutic Music course

Your Facilitator

Dr Mendel Kaelen is a neuroscientist, musician and researcher. He is the founder of Wavepaths and of the Foundations of Therapeutic Music professional training course. His research at Imperial College London has pioneered the study of how music shapes outcomes in psychedelic therapy, and how musical experiences can be designed to support healing processes. Over the past 15 years he has developed a significant body of work around the therapeutic use of music that is now taught to practitioners around the world through his training programme.

Feedback From Previous Events

"I loved the pacing, tone, and container Mendel created, and the history of creating therapeutic music. Deeply valuable." Therapist working with music for breathwork and medicine journeys (rated 10/10)

“Mendel teaches with humility, curiosity, and remarkable depth. Rather than offering rigid methods, he creates a space where participants rediscover music through direct experience, allowing each person to reconnect with their own musical intuition and trust the unfolding of the moment.” Musician and composer (10/10)

"Reflection on many levels. Depth and, at the same time, simplicity." Physician facilitating psilocybin sessions (rated 10/10)

"What stayed with me was framing music as worlds one enters, and Mendel's process of session design was fascinating." Psychological counsellor and musician (rated 9/10)

"Well-crafted, and the extended Q&A was genuinely useful." DJ with an interest in psychedelic-assisted therapy (rated 9/10)

"The crossover of relational therapy and music was really valuable for me." Psychotherapist, breathworker and psychedelic guide (rated 8/10)