Dr. Minton has a joint Ph.D. in developmental psychology (research) and child clinical psychology from the University of Denver. She has developed several innovative programs in Alaska, including a wraparound initiative for severely emotionally disturbed children and their families, a program to increase the cultural adequacy of mental health services for Alaska Natives, and a suicide prevention program in Alaska villages. In Idaho, she has worked with school districts to create better educational options for gifted and highly gifted children. She is currently in clinical practice doing neuroscience-informed mental health interventions such as neurofeedback, audio-visual entrainment, and other neuromodulation techniques. She is especially interested in harnessing the power of music within the healing process because of its accessibility and general appeal to people of all ages and cultures.
Christine Fuller is a board-certified neurofeedback technician who works with clients to implement neuroscience-based interventions designed by Dr. Minton. She has a bachelor’s degree in Gender Studies and Psychology from Boise State University. She brings a calm, compassionate, dedicated approach to each client.
Dr. Minton’s current project is on music, the brain, and healing. It starts with understanding music’s powerful impact on physiological and psychological states. Studies reveal music’s diverse health benefits, including promoting weight gain in NICU babies, alleviating depression, enhancing reading comprehension in individuals with ADHD, accelerating recovery in stroke patients, and influencing a wider range of conditions. Using EEG and other psychophysiological indicators, dimensions within musical compositions related to these positive outcomes are starting to be documented. She has partnered with Calum Graham, a world-class guitarist, to compose music to create specific brain states related to improved functioning. Using an understanding of EEG and its relationship to tempo, musical frequencies, and tonality, they have finished a set of songs designed to enhance certain brain frequencies (e.g., alpha, beta, delta). They are currently completing a case series in which they are playing this music to participants while collecting EEG data to demonstrate the capability of this music to increase the targeted brain states. The ultimate goal is to augment the healing process with an easy-to-implement, inexpensive musical intervention that can be used in almost any setting.
