About

Dr. Michelle Cooper earned her Bachelor of Music degree in 1995 from the University of Dayton, her Master of Music Therapy from Temple University in 1999, and her Ph.D. in Music Therapy from Temple University in 2012. As a music psychotherapist, Dr. Cooper worked with adults, adolescents, and children in private practice in a variety of medical and psychiatric settings. During her doctoral work, she received post-graduate certifications in two advanced models of clinical improvisation, Analytical Music Therapy and Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy, in New York City. Her qualitative research study entitled Clinical-Musical Responses of Nordoff- Robbins Music Therapists: The Process of Clinical Improvisation, was published by Barcelona Publishers.

Dr. Cooper was certified as a Jungian Analyst through the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts (IRSJA) in 2024 and is an associate member of the International Association of Analytical Psychology (IAAP). She is currently a faculty member of the Memphis-Atlanta Jungian Seminar (MAJS), an affiliate seminar of the IRSJA. She also serves as a co-editor for the Clinical Commentaries and Film and Culture sections for the Journal of Analytical Psychology. Her book reviews on the topics of Aesthetic Music Therapy and poetry have been published through Music Therapy Perspectives and the Journal of Analytical Psychology.  Since 2021, she has been a Licensed Professional Counselor in Tennessee. She maintains a private practice in Memphis, TN.

"Individuation means becoming an 'in-dividual,' and, in so far as 'individuality' embraces our innermost,
last, and incomparable uniqueness, it also implies becoming one’s own self.  We could therefore translate individuation as
'coming to selfhood' or 'self-realization'...it is a process by which [one] becomes the definite, unique being [that one] in fact is.”
​C. G. Jung, Vol. 7, 266-268