Making Waves Music Therapy

02/05/2026

Help us give a warm Florida welcome to the newest addition to our team, Sailor DeRito, MT-BC! 🎉🎶🌊🌴

Sailor DeRito is a board-certified music therapist with experience working with individuals diagnosed with developmental disabilities and medical complexities, residents within memory
care units, and teens within emotional and mental health settings. Sailor is passionate about using music as a tool to empower individuals and explore their creative potential. In therapy,
Sailor prioritizes viewing people as whole individuals that possess inherent musicality and are capable of reaching their utmost potential. In her daily life, Sailor explores her own creativity
through videography, crafting, and knitting. Sailor is originally from Olympia, WA, lived on the East Coast for her time in college and is moving to Florida from the Midwest. From her
geographical experience, Sailor has seen the strong impact that music therapy can have on a wide variety of people across all populations and diagnoses that she has had the pleasure to
work with. Sailor holds a Bachelor of Arts in music therapy from Montclair State University, and is nationally board-certified through the Certification Board of Music Therapists.

To book music therapy sessions or adaptive lessons with Sailor starting in March call us at 702-202-5454 or email kconnick@makingwavesmusictherapy.com

01/27/2026

!!! January is Human Trafficking Awareness month !!! Music therapy is vital and helpful for survivors to heal and process.
Thank you mayor DC Reeves for this support and recognition and always my utmost gratitude and support for Survivor Led Solutions for connecting us and other amazing resources & therapies to survivors in our neighborhood and the greater Pensacola area.

12/26/2025

We made it to the end of 2025. Deep breath, then another. To start off the new year I wanted to do something special for all of the folks that I work for and with that spend so much of their time and talents taking care of their (and other's) loved ones. If you're a parent, guardian, or caregiver in any capacity, let's all grab a coffee together and talk roses and thorns, the good, the bad and the just alright. This is a meet-up where we can experience each other's company, learn about new resources, and even learn how music therapy techniques can keep you afloat too.

With care,
Kayla Connick, MT-BC

12/19/2025

WE HAVE A BILL! 🎉🎉🎉
This is a huge deal especially in light of recent events regarding Medicaid and fraudulent providers claiming to be music therapists across our entire state. The license is absolutely necessary at this point and will be so positively impactful for Florida. With so much gratitude and respect, thank you Representative Anna V. Eskamani

Today, we took an important step forward for health, healing, and dignity in Florida.

I’m proud to introduce legislation with Senator to recognize and support music therapy as an essential therapeutic service that improves lives — especially for people with disabilities, trauma history, and those who benefit from expressive therapies.

Recently, local families lost insurance coverage for music therapy, partly due to this lack of licensure. We want to prevent future coverage gaps, increase oversight, and ensure that Medicaid and other payers can more reliably reimburse qualified professionals.

Read more at https://annaforflorida.com/2025/12/18/musictherapy/

11/27/2025

We are very grateful for this work and these partnerships that allow us to work with these amazing women and show how music and expressive therapies really work in our healing journeys.

It is a pleasure to serve! Women from our local recovery programs gather with our indpendent survivors to create connections, support one another's healing, and learn something new. Thank you to our volunteers, sponsors, and providers for making this month's Adulting 101 Workshop a hit!

11/07/2025

☀️MUSIC THERAPY SUNSHINE SPOTLIGHT: MAKING WAVES MUSIC THERAPY!☀️

Making Waves Music Therapy (MWMT) is a private practice owned and directed by Kayla Connick, MT-BC. MWMT serves Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in the Florida Panhandle region through in-home, in-office, facility-based, and virtual music therapy sessions. Their mission is to put certified music therapists in motion with sound waves that carry lives forward.💙

Making Waves serves all ages with disabilities, neurodiverse populations, trauma informed care, adult mental health, memory care, and community music therapy groups free of charge to the public through local partners. They are excited to expand music therapy programs in the FL Panhandle region!

MWMT is currently hiring! You can connect with them on Instagram (), Facebook (Making Waves Music Therapy), and email (kconnick@makingwavesmusictherapy.com).

Thank you Making Waves for all the work you do! 💕🎶

(ID: caption on graphic with white background, MWMT black and blue disc logo and 3 pictures of MWMT, including 1) music therapist displaying instruments on a table, 2) headshot of Kayla Connick, MT-BC and owner of MWMT with a mandolin, and 3) music therapist playing violin)

11/05/2025

We are working diligently on the lengthy and tedious process of becoming direct Medicaid providers but this is the reality of what is happening to actual music therapists in the state of Florida. Thank you Tampa Bay Times for such an amazing write-up, we feel seen and heard by you!

https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2025/11/03/therapy-halted-kids-across-florida-after-audit-reveals-bogus-therapists/?fbclid=IwY2xjawN2QFRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETE3N0dQRnJkYk1vbW9oU21LAR5LLoPmOniK2GHEMBNh066Y6LwYZyLSJ68TSZ4CuPS2Tr42pawciqeEHnzPSg_aem_47F4XCOAe5Mu_JrMw9TTyw

Florida Medicaid program’s therapy network in disarray with providers unpaid and sessions canceled.

10/06/2025

First therapeutic songwriting showcase in the books and, wow...it was an amazing, magical, healing evening. I am so honored tobshare a stage with and proud of everyone here that poured themselves into song and were brave and vulnerable enough to share. You all cultivated a supportive listening room together. We are already eager for next year and the next community workshops.
Songwriting saves lives!!
Thank you to the .songfest and wonderful songwriters for sharing the stage and this beautiful historic space with us.

10/01/2025

This Saturday is the culmination of our therapeutic songwriting series featuring the original songs shared by these amazing people in our community. I am so proud and honored to have hosted and helped as a music therapist to release and be able to share these songs and voices.

Come out and hear this free showcase at the historic Barkley House downtown on the water at 5pm Saturday October 4th. Let's fill this house up and create a no judgement, listening room. The acoustics are great in here but some of us may plug in and mic up. Either way, we'll get to hear and share the story and process behind each song.

More to come on each songwriter but I am excited to play with and hear



Bob Teague
Pearl Simmons
Gary B

Thank you .songfest

06/06/2025

Therapeutic songwriting is back for its third year in a row! Free and open to the public, all welcome, into a space for expression and insight into using songwriting techniques to share your story and lived experience.

Through 4 cumulative workshops in downtown Pensacola everyone joining will be able to write at least one song all their own with guidance from an MT-BC (me!) and each other by October with an opportunity to celebrate and share songs at a festival showcase.

Once a month on the last Saturday at 12pm from June to September

🌊 1st workshop & 2nd workshop - Saturdays June 28 & July 26 @ the Earl Bowden Bldg, Classroom 1

🎶 3rd & 4th workshops - Saturdays August 30 & September 27 @ the Voices of Pensacola 117 E. Government St.

🎙️ Showcase - October 11 @ 6pm during the Pensacola Beach Songwriters Festival in the Voices of Pensacola building

Thank you .songfest for sponsoring another amazing music therapy series!
Thank you to the talented and intuitive for this incredible flyer! 🧜‍♀️

04/21/2025

Spring Recital Success! Lots of songs and smiles all around.
& Then improvisational music group the next day for Earth Day! Both were for all ages, instruments, and abilities! 🎶🌈🧠♾️

04/14/2025

If other allied health professionals were treated like music therapists...
*Respiratory therapist informed, thanks mom!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIb6XtNxkmm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==