Mental Health Champions: “Making music helps me to address my anxiety, my goal setting, and my ability to self-assess” With jazz musician Adam Cole

… I make music — both privately and with other people. Studying music contains all the lessons I need to address my anxiety, my goal setting, and my ability to self-assess. This is the aspect of music I want to share with my students the most.

As a part of my series about “Mental Health Champions” helping to normalize the focus on mental wellness, I had the pleasure to interview Adam Cole. He is a jazz musician who writes books. As the Co-Director of the Grant Park Academy of the Arts in Atlanta, GA, he oversees an approach to teaching music which emphasizes mental, physical and emotional wellness. He is featured in Reader’s Digest, Psychology Today, and NBC.com.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to this specific career path?

I’ve been teaching music for twenty years, first privately, and then in public school. I’ve had the opportunity to witness first hand how important the arts are to the sanity and well-being of the kids in school…