Professor Denise Grocke
AO, PhD, RMT, RGIMT, FAMI, L.Mus.A.
Director of Avalon GIM Training (Australia)
Denise Grocke is a qualified music therapist and a Fellow and Primary Trainer with the Association for Music and Imagery in the US. She studied level 1 GIM with Linda Keiser Mardis and Alison Short, and Level 2 and 3 with Madeleine Ventre at the Creative Arts Institute, New York, becoming a GIM Fellow in 1993, and a Primary Trainer in 1995. She brings 30 years experience as a GIM practitioner and researcher to her teaching. Her philosophy of the Bonny Method of GIM is grounded in the psycho-therapeutic framework, based on Rogerian principles of client-centered therapy, and coupled with an emphasis on music as the primary catalyst for a multitude of experiences in the Bonny Method of GIM.
Denise has witnessed the profound effect that the Bonny Method of GIM can have on people who seek personal growth and change, healing from wounds of childhood and adulthood, as well as applications in the medical field, in palliative care, mental health, and other areas. Denise completed a PhD dissertation on the topic of Pivotal Moments in GIM, analyzing the interview transcripts of clients and therapists as they described memorable experiences and the impact on their lives, and she analysed the music that underpinned that change.
Denise is Professor Emerita (Music Therapy) at the University of Melbourne where she established the music therapy program (1980), the National Music Therapy Research Unit (1999), and the International Consortium of Music Therapy Research Universities (2002). She has published widely in both music therapy and GIM, and is editor of Guided Imagery and Music: The Bonny Method and Beyond, 2nd edition, 2019, co-editor of Music Imagery and Guided Imagery and Music for Individual and Group Therapy, and co-author of Receptive Methods of Music Therapy.
She co-founded the Australian Music Therapy Association and the Music and Imagery Association of Australia. From 1999-2002 she was President of the World Federations of Music Therapy, and in 2016 she was made an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) for her services to music therapy and professional organisations.
Anja Tanhane
Associate Trainer
MMus, Grad Cert Family Therapy, RMT, RGIMT
Anja first began to explore GIM in the early 1990s and completed the Level 1 training with Madelaine Ventre during this time. She is an experienced music therapist who uses a strength-based approach in supporting clients to draw on their inner resources for growth and healing. As a registered music therapist, she has worked in a wide range of areas including acquired brain injury, Aboriginal health, aged care, young families, and carer support, as well as in private practice. She is a trained and experienced Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) facilitator with over thirty years of meditation experience, and offers regular mindfulness courses, workplace training, workshops and nature mindfulness retreats. Recently, Anja has completed a Masters by research at the University of Melbourne exploring the use of mindfulness in music therapy in her thesis. She has also completed the two-year professional training course in Buddhism and Psychotherapy through AABCAP, and has lectured in mindfulness, GIM and music therapy at the University of Melbourne.
Anja is a Tai Chi instructor, senior Zen student, and a published writer, and writes a regular mindfulness blog at https://mindfulnessmeditation.net.au/blogs/. She is actively involved in interfaith networks, and loves to connect to our beautiful natural environment through bushwalking and gardening.
In her GIM work, Anja combines the therapeutic benefits of mindfulness and music-centred psychotherapy to support clients exploring issues such as trauma, life transitions, anxiety, depression, and chronic ill health, as well as exploring spiritual growth and inner resilience.
Cherie Baxter
Associate Trainer
RMT, RGIMT
Cherie was first introduced to music and imagery in 1988 at the Australian Music Therapy Association conference and has been intrigued and exploring this modality ever since. She completed Level 1 and 2 training with Madelaine Ventre in 1992 and 1998 and a Graduate Diploma in Guided Imagery and Music at the University of Melbourne in 2004. She is a past President of the Music and Imagery Association of Australia.
Cherie relishes engagement in the Guided Imagery and Music process due to its profoundly integrating effect, with particular regard for the power of music listening for enabling deep support, emotional access and creativity. As required, Cherie uses the modalities within GIM as therapeutic means with groups and individuals. Special areas of interest include inner exploration and discovery, anxiety, trauma recovery, grief, loss, and bereavement, existential issues and life fulfillment.
Cherie is a Registered Music Therapist with experience and is currently employed at Palliative Care South East (community palliative care) and in private practice. Cherie completed a Graduate Certificate of Specialist Palliative Care and is currently undertaking Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training.
Cherie takes a holistic, person-centred, strengths based, trauma-informed approach to her therapy practice. She is informed by integral theory and practices that address shadow, types, worldviews, states, social and cultural context and inner experience.
Cherie enjoys facilitating embodied experiences of presence and discovery for individuals and groups.