Heidi Ahonen, PhD

Dr. Heidi Ahonen has been Professor of Music Therapy and Coordinator of the PhD program at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, since 2001. She founded the Manfred and Penny Conrad Institute for Music Therapy Research and served as its Director for 20 years (2003–2023). In 2026, she founded the Resonance Research Institute in Texas.

She is a Registered Psychotherapist (by the CRPO, Ontario, Canada, and by Valvira, Finland) specializing in trauma therapy and group analysis, holding the highest advanced special-level psychotherapy training (registered by the Medicolegal Affairs, Finland). Dr. Ahonen is an Accredited Music Therapist (Canada), a fellow of the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (by the Association for Music and Imagery, Maryland, USA), a graduate of the Harvard Medical School Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery training program, and a Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma Specialist. Throughout her career, she has worked to understand and share how sound and music can support healing.

Originally from Finland, Dr. Ahonen has spent more than three decades exploring how music can support therapeutic work. Her research centers on the therapeutic use of low-frequency sound, including its effects in pain management and in the care of people living with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. She also developed group analytic music therapy, a model she introduced more than twenty years ago.

Most recently, she has been a co-researcher in a collaboration with the University of Alberta Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, investigating how musical elements may influence the way the body metabolizes certain medications. This promising work connects music, the body and medicine in new ways.

Dr. Ahonen has written more than 100 scholarly articles and invited book chapters. She has presented at over 100 scholarly conferences. She is the author of Group Analytic Music Therapy, 2007 (Barcelona Publishers).

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