Creating Connection, Transforming Lives
We create meaningful, deep connections with people who have experienced trauma, and we help them carry home that ability to reconnect — improving the lives of partners, caregivers, and communities.
Our Mission:
Mental Wellness Through the Power of Music
Our mission is to help heal those who have experienced trauma. We accomplish this through our life-changing music therapy retreats by:
- incorporating evidence-based music therapy techniques,
- engaging talented songwriters in this process,
- providing ongoing education and training to music therapists, and
- expanding research in music therapy.
Board of Directors
Mallory Rexroad Even
President
I wholeheartedly believe in the work of Music Therapy of the Rockies, as bearing witness to personal stories being told through original song continues to be the honor of a lifetime.
Linda Trageser
Secretary
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Ken Hammerle
Treasurer
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Philip Levy
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Rich Holly
As a life-long performing musician and long-time arts advocate, witnessing how retreat participants transform is one of the greatest joys of my life.
Chris Nole
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Lesa Prime, US Air Force MSgt (Ret)
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Meet The Founder
Mack Bailey has been a musician since the age of eight. He toured with various groups including the Hard Travelers, the Limeliters, a musical tribute to John Denver featuring John’s band members, and as a duo with his wife, Rachel Levy.
In 2011, Mack went back to school to pursue his masters in music therapy at Colorado State University. After finishing the program and completing his internship at Colorado Children’s Hospital, Mack became board certified in the field. He started his own music therapy practice in Aspen, CO.
In 2019, he founded Music Therapy of the Rockies as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization focusing on mental health, music therapy research and techniques, and helping military veterans re-frame their military experience.
Mack’s personal story includes a time of deep depression in which he did not seek support and found himself ready to end his life. He credits writing a song at the 11th hour with saving his life. Through his education in neurologic music therapy, he became interested in how music rewired his brain.
Mack started working with veterans through Challenge Aspen in 2014, where he incorporated therapeutic songwriting as a means of self-expression and reframing their story. There were many powerful moments within the sessions and it became apparent that through structured, evidence-based techniques, the elements of music were instrumental in rewiring how the brain processed emotions, self-expression, and behaviors.
Mack began developing a full curriculum of the research and studies to show that this belief could be replicated. With much success, Mack implemented retreats in Nashville (at Amy Grant and Vince Gill’s farm) and in Cleveland, even being featured on CNN and Amy Grant’s Holiday TV Special.
Mack founded Music Therapy of the Rockies with a mission to help veterans and people who have experienced trauma, and to teach other music therapists the proven skills that have been positively affecting people’s lives. Mack is also dedicated to furthering music therapy research and mental health in his local community of Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado.
Our Partners
We rely on the support and generosity of like-minded companies and organizations who share our values and are committed to helping people with trauma.
Interested in sponsoring a retreat or supporting our mission in a bigger way? We’d love to hear from you. Please send an email to: info@musictherapyoftherockies.org
“I have been working with Mack Bailey and Music Therapy of the Rockies for a few years now. His organization does all the programming and logistics, and I provide Alumni from the Wounded Warrior Project to attend the retreats. The response has been nothing but positive, to say the least. ‘Life changing’, ‘I needed this’, and ‘saved my life’, are some of the most common responses I hear from Warriors attending MTOTR retreats. I fully support and will continue to support Mack and his work during my time here at Wounded Warrior Project. The work they do is beyond words.
As past attendee Wounded Warrior Project Alumni George DeShields puts it, ‘the retreat gave me another ‘tool’ and way to deal with everyday thoughts that come up. With the music, I was able to share my story and hear it back as a song that I can use as a reminder that things really are ok. The gift of the guitar also gives me something I can hold on to, put my hands on to remind me that others care. And being able to make music, helps take my mind away.”
As past attendee Wounded Warrior Project Alumni George DeShields puts it, ‘the retreat gave me another ‘tool’ and way to deal with everyday thoughts that come up. With the music, I was able to share my story and hear it back as a song that I can use as a reminder that things really are ok. The gift of the guitar also gives me something I can hold on to, put my hands on to remind me that others care. And being able to make music, helps take my mind away.”
Our Supporters
Robert and Lexie Potamkin
Jack and Diane Kennedy
Snowmass Rotary
Michael and Linda Trageser
Amy Grant and Vince Gill
Lampton Family Foundation
Slifer Smith and Frampton
Press & Media Inquiries
For all media inquiries, please contact our founder Mack Bailey at mack@musictherapyoftherockies.org
Recent Press
May 19, 2022
When the longtime Aspen-based folk singer and music therapist Mack Bailey works with military veterans, one of the first exercises he has them do it to hold their index finger on a guitar’s high E string and pull it up toward the D string, hold the tension between them and then lower it back down.
October 25, 2020
In a tranquil, tucked away Franklin farm, veterans like Chuck Palmer are sharing their stories.
Stories of Impact
14 Retreats
Held 14 retreats in 5 locations around the United States. Retreat locations include: Nashville, TN; Dickerson, MD; Milford, Iowa; Cleveland, OH; Atlanta, GA
113 Veterans
Served 113 veterans with music therapy practices and helped them turn their stories into songs
64 Music Therapists
Trained 64 music therapists in the “Music and the PTSD Brain” continuing education program
Additional Recent Accomplishments:
- Created MTR Retreat Music (ASCAP) and MTR Healing Music (BMI) publishing companies to represent the veterans’ ownership of their songs
- Partnered with Colorado State University to research the efficacy of MTR programming
