Expertise
Dena Register is a seasoned music therapy clinician, educator and program development specialist. She is pleased to support the FGCU music therapy program as an adjunct professor.
Prior to joining the Bower School of Music in this capacity, she designed and implemented the music therapy program at West Virginia University, serving as the director of music therapy from 2015-2018, and was an Associate Professor in the music therapy program at the University of Kansas from 2003-2015. Additionally, she served as the Director of Faculty Programs in the Office of International Programs and a Faculty Fellow in the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Kansas.
Dr. Register earned B.M., M.M., and Ph.D. degrees in music therapy from the Florida State University. Prior to her teaching career, she worked as a private practice music therapist in Tallahassee and Tampa, Florida providing services to early intervention programs, students with special education needs, bereaved children and adolescents and battered women and children. She also provided internship supervision and coordinated the music therapy program at Big Bend Hospice in Tallahassee, FL.
In 2009, Register was awarded a Council for International Exchange of Scholars-Fulbright Scholar award to teach and conduct research at Mahidol University, College of Music in Thailand. She developed the “Therapeutic Uses of Music” training to build awareness and appreciation of music therapy as a discipline among medical and education personnel. To date, she has trained more than one hundred professionals, initiated numerous clinical services sites and offerings and consulted on research projects across Thailand. She developed and launched the first music therapy Masters degree program in Southeast Asia at Mahidol University in 2013 and continues her work there as a consultant, teacher and researcher.
Her consulting work in the US is primarily centered on the recognition of music therapy by state governments and the recognition of the MT-BC credential as the required credential for all practicing professionals. Register has served as the Regulatory Affairs Advisor for the Certification Board for Music Therapists since 2006, where she works with music therapists across the country on obtaining this professional recognition. She delivers training to students and professionals alike on the importance of advocacy for the profession.