Songwriting for Healing — Mentoring & Outreach (Program Overview)

Trauma‑informed creative mentoring for RHY / NYC nonprofits serving teens/young adults—grounding, affect labeling, safety planning, lyric journaling, and performance‑aware expression in a safeguarded setting.

Program Overview

Songwriting for Healing is a 6–8 week, trauma‑informed group that uses grounding, affect labeling, lyric journaling, and collaborative songcraft to help young people build voice, agency, and connection. Sessions are paced, consent‑based, and align with host‑organization safeguarding and referral pathways. Educational/mentoring scope; not a substitute for therapy.

Who it’s for

  • Teens and young adults (18–24) in RHY programs, shelters, drop‑ins, and school partners
  • Adaptable for 16–17 with org consent and safeguarding

Core outcomes

  • Regulation skills
  • Orienting, breath, and body‑based grounding
  • Calm skills: a short quiet‑mind/meditation practice participant can use anytime (optional).
  • Embodied expression: gentle movement and sound to release and express feelings.
  • Emotional literacy: naming feelings and intensity; shared language for needs

  • Self‑efficacy: creative risk‑taking in a safe, structured format

  • Connection: prosocial peer engagement and respectful sharing

  • Expression: original lyrics; optional performance or recording showcase

Sample session arc (60-75 min)

• Arrival + grounding (5–8 min): orienting, paced breath, name/need check‑in

• Skill: Emotional awareness: affect labeling (name feeling + intensity; word lists, intensity scales, examples (8–10 min):

• Calm practice (2–3 min) — optional quiet‑mind/breathing

• Lyric journaling (10–12 min): prompt rooted in lived experience and strengths

• Songcraft (15–20 min): shaping lines into verse/chorus; rhythm and voice

• Movement + sound (5–8 min) — gentle stretch/sway, humming/rhythm; opt‑in

• Share with consent (10–15 min): peer feedback using “I hear/I feel/I notice”

• Close + personal safety/calming plan check (5 min): what helps now/tonight; staff handoff as needed

*Scope & safety note: All calm/meditation, movement, and sound activities are optional with seated/no‑movement alternatives; we follow your organization’s safeguarding and accessibility policies.

Format & logistics

• Duration: 6–8 weeks; 60–75 minutes per session; 1 session/week

• Group size: 8–12 participants; 1 facilitator (plus staff present per policy)

• Setting: quiet space with chairs in a circle; whiteboard or flip chart

• Materials: notebooks/pens provided; simple audio playback; no instruments required

• Accessibility: low‑stim options, opt‑out policies, plain‑language prompts; translation/ASL coordinated with host

Data Evalulations

  • Data/Eval (optional): Opportunity for participant to express needs from counselor or group experience in writing that participant may be holding silent *pre/post 3‑item self‑check (calm, connection, confidence)
  • Data/Eval (protocols per facilitating not-for-profit): Group notes/eval on group/individual progress *pre/post 

Safeguarding & scope

  • Follows host policies on consent, privacy, mandated reporting, and crisis response
  • Harm‑reduction stance; opt‑in participation; no triggering content required
  • Clear referral pathway to on‑site clinicians or community providers
  • Education/mentoring program; not psychotherapy unless separately established

Facilitator

  • Maggie Moor — Licensed Psychoanalyst (NY); author of I AM and Skinless (Second Edition, 2025); ASCAP singer‑songwriter with three EPs and performances alongside NYC jazz soloists. Experience includes:
  • Rikers Island (Women’s Groups), 2013–2015 — sobriety and trauma‑education circles
  • The Treatment Service, 2016–2019 — sliding‑scale clinical outreach
  • I AM Circle, 2020 — daily 12‑week virtual support groups during COVID

Partnership options

• Pilot cohort (6 weeks) with staff training add‑on (60–90 min)

• Single‑session workshop (60–90 min) for drop‑ins/after‑school

• Youth arts showcase or reading/performance tied to program completion

What the host provides

• Space, staff presence, safeguarding guidance, and translation if needed

What I provide

• Curriculum, facilitation, notebooks/pens, handouts, and simple playback

Contact

• Maggie Moor | Licensed Psychoanalyst (NY) • Author • ASCAP Singer‑Songwriter

• Email: MaggieMoorWriter@gmail.com | Web: https://www.maggiemoor.com/humanitarian-outreach/mentoring/

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/maggiemoor

• Download this one‑pager:  | Program inquiry: Email to Book a Call

Songwriting for Healing is an educational/mentoring program. It does not provide emergency or clinical services. If someone is at risk of harm, call 988 (US Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or 911; text HOME to 741741 for Crisis Text Line. Programs align with host‑organization policies and mandated reporting requirements.