Elizabeth Eggerding

Liz Eggerding, PhD, MT-BC, has more than 20 years of clinical experience as a music therapist, internship director, and educator. She has created part- and full-time music therapy positions at skilled nursing facilities in New York and Virginia. Liz worked for ten years at Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, VA, serving adults with severe and chronic mental illnesses. She established their first music therapy internship program and expanded music therapy services in the civil admissions program (including crisis stabilization), forensic program (including adults admitted for competency restoration and Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity), and the gero-psychiatry program. Before coming to Converse, she taught at Mississippi University for Women (MUW) in Columbus, MS, where she helped establish the MUW Music Therapy Clinic.

Liz received a dual Bachelor of Science in Music Therapy and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia in Fredonia, NY, a Master of Science in Music Therapy from Radford University in Radford, VA, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Expressive Therapies from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. Her dissertation is titled “Therapeutic Presence in Music Therapy Education: An Arts-Based Phenomenological Inquiry.”

Originally from Stormville, New York, Liz moved to Boiling Springs from Columbus, Mississippi in July 2020 with her daughter Erin and their cat Midnight. She is a lifelong New York Mets fan and enjoys comedy TV/movies, reading, swimming, and crocheting for relaxation.

Scholarly & Research Activity

Liz has been active in state, regional, and national music therapy organizations in every state she has lived in. She is a former president of the Virginia Music Therapy Association and has been a member or co-chairperson of state task forces for recognition of the music therapy profession in Virginia, Mississippi, and now South Carolina. She has presented at multiple local, regional, national, and international conferences about her clinical experience, including the use of song discussion techniques to promote psychiatric symptom management, building resume and interview skills for music therapy students and professionals, and her current research on therapeutic presence in music therapy. Liz is currently the President-Elect for the Southeastern Region-American Music Therapy Association (SER-AMTA) for 2023-25 and was the Secretary in 2021-23.

Selected Publications & Presentations

Therapeutic Presence in Music Therapy Education: An Arts-Based Phenomenological Inquiry. Eggerding, E. (2023) Therapeutic Presence in Music Therapy Education: An Arts-Based Phenomenological Inquiry (Order No. 30487526). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (2809285156).