St. George therapist shares healing journey through music, aims to help others

ST. GEORGE — Music found Cory Reese when he didn't know he needed it. He also didn't know that, decades down the line, he would use it as a healing tool for others.

"There was a song that I really wanted to learn how to play on the piano; it's a song by David Lanz, called 'Cristofori's Dream,' and when I heard it, I was like, 'Oh my gosh! I want to learn how to play that,'" he said.

Not having a musical background, let alone the ability to read music, Reese learned how to play the song in an unconventional way.

"My sister wrote what each note was on the sheet music, and then I put tape on the piano and just kind of taught myself how to play that song the long, hard way," he said. "From there, I just fell in love with it."

Reese was in high school when he discovered his love for playing the piano, and he quickly realized he preferred creating his own music. It was right about that same time when he experienced a loss that his young mind didn't know how to process.

"My dad took his life when I was 14, and I think I didn't really deal with that issue until much later in life," he said. "It was one of the things that led me to wanting to become a therapist."

For the past 25 years, Reese has been a licensed clinical social worker in southern Utah, working in many capacities with individuals facing a wide range of challenges. Just like many of his clients, he, too, reached many points in his life when he had to trudge through his own healing journey.

Music was very much a part of that journey, and he continued to compose, release, and perform for audiences. Somewhere along the line, he discovered ultramarathon running and subsequently dove into another form of creativity — writing.

He authored a popular running blog that then turned into two published books. It was his third book, published in 2021, however, that found him digging deeper into the loss of his father and the healing that he had neglected for far too long.

The book is titled "Stronger than the Dark: Exploring the Intimate Relationship Between Running and Depression." In it, Reese writes about understanding what it's like to be in a position of not wanting to continue on, something that his teenage self didn't want to face. Writing this book also came at the time of a health diagnosis that would shake his world.

"Five or six years ago, I got diagnosed with this weird, chronic health condition called common variable immunodeficiency disorder, or CVID," he said. "This basically means that my immune system doesn't do what it's supposed to do. So, I had to start these immunoglobulin infusions, which I'll have to do every week for the rest of my life.

"The impact this (diagnosis) had on me is that it changed my ability to run longer distances," he continued. "I used to run a lot of ultra marathons and 100 milers, and (CVID) kind of forced me to modify what I'm able to do. As unfortunate as that has been, I don't know that I would have found my way back to music."

Music for healing others

Reese found his way back to music during a year-long training to become licensed to perform ketamine assisted therapy (KAT) on his clients. KAT combines controlled doses of ketamine — a fast-acting, dissociative anesthetic — with psychotherapy. This practice is legal in the state of Utah under a licensed medical professional and is often used to treat individuals with major depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

"During that time, I realized that music is such a crucial part of that healing process," he said. "Around that time, my daughter sent me a reel by Chris Martin, who's the lead singer of Coldplay, and he was just talking about how he sometimes gets into a depressive funk, and he talked about some things that help him."

One of the things the famous singer mentioned was the use of music in conjunction with psychedelic therapy. Reese listened to some of that music and decided that he wanted to try creating some of his own.

"My music brain was thinking, 'I love that, but I would probably do this a little differently,'" he said. "So I just thought, 'OK, well, let's do it.'"

For the next several months, Reese worked on creating an hour-long instrumental track that combines a wide range of sounds and visuals, along with a guided therapy practice. He named it "Ceremony of Sound," which he made available on YouTube. He has since made several smaller tracks that he is releasing on other streaming platforms, including the mindfulness app Insight Timer.

"Something that I've noticed in myself, and in my therapy clients, is that our nervous systems are just really dysregulated with everything going on in the world," he said. "My ultimate goal is to just use music to bring healing and peace to people because I think music is capable of doing that."

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