Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Fonseca.
Hi Laura, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I always imagined that whatever I did as a career would be music-centric. Music has always been a part of my life, and making music always felt intuitive and reflexive. Through making music, I connected with other people, expressed myself, and found my inner voice. So, I applied to Berklee College of Music, not entirely sure what path I would choose but knowing that a college that was all music all the time was the place for me. I learned about several different majors while there and connected with a lot of them. I was having a really difficulty time deciding what I wanted to do “forever”. Then I took an Intro to Music Therapy course, and I had a moment of clarity.
Everything about what music therapists do and the skills they acquire felt exciting to me. I’ve honestly carried that enthusiasm with me for most of my career. I worked with some really great music therapy companies in California for several years. One day, the ideas I had about the type of spaces I wanted to practice in and the type of clinician I wanted to be stopped aligning with the job I had. I decided to create what I wanted for myself and started my own Music Therapy company, Stepping Tones. It was really scary at first because I went from being employed full-time to seeing a handful of clients. But then something really amazing happened. People in my community resonated with what I was doing, and word-of-mouth referrals started coming in from all over Los Angeles. It was incredible. Today, Stepping Tones has a small team of clinicians and teachers that provide music therapy services and music classes all around Los Angeles and beyond.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
When I decided to run Stepping Tones full-time, I only had 2 groups going and 6 months of funding. I hoped that within that time frame, I would be able to get enough clients to keep things going. Eventually, client numbers increased, but there have been seasons of low client census, and I crossed fingers! The ebb and flow of clients is a common struggle for professionals that provide direct support services. The hope is that we will work ourselves out of a job with every client we see. We exist to be a temporary support. That means there are times when 1 client concludes services within a 6-month period and other times when 5 clients graduate within the same month. The volatility of that is a struggle on the business side, but on the personal side, those are moments of pride because it means I’ve done my job well. I’m grateful to have mentors and people in my corner who want to be a part of what Stepping Tones is doing and want to help it flourish. Each time an obstacle has come up that has me questioning if I’d made the right choice to start my own company, the community has shown up and shared what we do enthusiastically!
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about Stepping Tones?
Stepping Tones primarily provides individual and group music therapy services, child development-informed music classes for families and music resources to promote overall development. Our free resources and tiered payment options for services set us apart from other music companies in Los Angeles. One of the reasons Stepping Tones was founded was because I noticed there were regions in LA that didn’t even have “baby and me” type classes and kids that lived in my own neighborhood couldn’t afford music therapy long term. That knowledge has been the driving force behind how Stepping Tones operates.
Our community knows us for our music resources and the individualized and respectful approach we take when working with kids and families. The music resources are most often original songs with examples about how to use them to promote child development at various levels. We have songs to promote attention, communication, emotional expression, positive connection to self, and more! Our free resources include social media content, free community groups with partner organizations, or even digital downloads we offer at community events. We’re working to expand them even further in the next few years. So, we release original songs that are intentionally created to promote development as well as tips so parents, caregivers, clinicians, and teachers can use our music and all music to promote developmental skills for the kids in their lives.
The original songs are actually one of the things that I am most proud of because I get to combine my love of songwriting with my clinical knowledge. I love that our original songs resonate with parents who want their kids to grow up confident, connected, and conscious. We have song releases scheduled later this year – so keep an ear out!
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
That’s a hard one to answer! I have had so many ideas of what success means. Currently, I think I’d define success as creating a space where I can thrive doing the work I want to do the way that makes sense to me without it taking over my entire life or exploiting people who work for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://steppingtonesinc.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stepping.tones/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/steppingtonesinc
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/_steppingtones
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@steppingtonesmusic
Image Credits
Willowcrest School
