Alison Etter Guzardo
Alison received a Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy from Southern Methodist University and completed her clinical internship at San Antonio State Hospital. She received a Master in Music Therapy from Colorado State University. She has worked at Kerrville State Hospital for over 10 years and has also worked as an adjunct instructor at Schreiner University. Alison has been a Board-Certified Music Therapist since 2011.
In 2014 she received the Harmony award for Clinical Practice from the Southwestern region of the American Music Therapy Association (SWAMTA). She is the website administrator for SWAMTA and previously served on the technology committee for 8 years.
She has presented at the following conferences and events: Kerrville State Hospital Forensic Networking Conference (2013, 2014, 2016), Central Texas Music Therapy Association Conference (2014), Music Therapy Awareness Weekend hosted by Mu Tau Omega at Sam Houston State University (2016), the Southwestern region of the American Music Therapy Association Conference (2013, 2015, 2018), the American Music Therapy Association Conference (2015), the American Art Therapy Association Conference (2016), Schreiner University (2018), Dartmouth's New Hampshire Hospital (2018), the Canadian Association for Music Therapists conference (2018), the International Art Therapy Practice/Research Inaugural Conference in London (2019), Canadian Art Therapy Association Conference (2020), Alverno College (2021), and the Health and Specialty Care System Leadership Conference (2022). She was a featured panelist for The Sound Health Network webinar "Music in Incarceration" (2022).
In her spare time she enjoys spending time in nature and spending too much money at record stores.
Publications:
Peterson, J., Etter, A. (2017). Creating community and shattering stigma: Collaborative arts interventions for the forensic population. Canadian Art Therapy Association Journal, 30(2), 78-87.
Peterson, J., Etter, A. (2021). Empowerment Through Mentorship: Peer-Led Craft Workshops in a Forensic Psychiatric Hospital. In L. Leone (Ed.), Craft in Art Therapy: Diverse Approaches to the Transformative Power of Craft Materials and Methods. (pp. 204-217). Routledge.
Peterson, J, Guzardo, A.E. (2022). Creative Arts Mentorship and Vocational Rehabilitation in a Forensic Psychiatric Community. In D. Betts, V. Huet (Eds.), Bridging the Creative Arts Therapies and Arts in Health: Toward Inspirational Practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Links to Publications
Canadian Art Therapy Association Journal (2017)
Craft in Art Therapy: Diverse Approaches to the Transformative Power of Craft Materials and Methods (2021)
Bridging the Creative Arts Therapies and Arts in Health: Toward Inspirational Practice (2022)
Featured Webinar
The Sound Health Network
The panel will include Alison Etter, MM, MT-BC, a music therapist working at Kerrville State Hospital, serving individuals on a forensic commitment, such as those who were found not guilty by reason of insanity. She will be joined by ethnomusicologist Benjamin Harbert, PhD, who directed the film Follow Me Down: Portraits of Louisiana Prison Musicians and who is an Associate Professor at Georgetown University, along with Conseula Gaines, an organizer, educator and motivational speaker who aims to change the criminal justice system in the US, after spending 22 years incarcerated for a crime of passion.
The Sound Health Network is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with the University of California, San Francisco, in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Renée Fleming.