Ep 13: Building Connections Between Mind and Body with Kelly Mollnow Wilson
about Kelly
Kelly Mollnow Wilson is a licensed member of Andover Educators, Inc., a consortium of music educators dedicated to preserving and enhancing the careers of musicians through accurate anatomical information and somatic awareness as applied to music-making. Through a unique and powerful tool called Body Mapping, Ms. Wilson helps students in all disciplines avoid injury and become better musicians. She has presented Body Mapping workshops for students and faculty at Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, University of Akron, Case Western Reserve University, the International Flute Symposium at West Virginia University, members of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and at the National Flute Associations Conventions in 2014, 2012, and 2006. She teaches a semester long class, Body Mapping for Musicians, at Oberlin Conservatory. As a Neurokinetic Therapy (NKT) Practitioner and Licensed Massage Therapist, she uses manual therapy and movement education to help musicians with pain and discomfort.
Ms. Wilson holds a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance from The Ohio State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Baldwin-Wallace College. Her teachers include Katherine Borst Jones, Mary Kay Fink and Liisa Ruoho. Ms. Wilson has nine years of teaching experience in the instrumental music department of the Wooster City Schools in Wooster, OH. While at Wooster her responsibilities included directing the Freshman Band, assisting with High School Marching Band, teaching fifth and sixth grade woodwinds, and coaching middle school girls basketball and volleyball.
Ms. Wilson currently sees clients in her manual therapy practice (Precision Performance and Therapy), teaches privately and is a freelance musician in Northeast Ohio. She is a founding member of the Aella Flute Duo (www.aellafluteduo.com) and has performed at NFA Conventions in 2016, 2012 and 2011. She is the lead author/flute author of Teaching Woodwinds: A Guide for Students and Teachers (http://teachingww.com/), published in 2014. See www.precisionperformanceandtherapy.com
in this episode
I really enjoyed talked to Kelly! She so clearly articulates concepts that are complex and often counter-intuitive. In this conversation, we cover:
Kelly’s background as a musician
How Kelly became interested in movement and bodywork
Why it is not always helpful to assume that as long as things sound fine, your movement must be efficient and sustainable
What Kelly learned about the body from working on cadavers as part of her massage therapy education
Compensation patterns: what they are, how they form, and how to address them
How Kelly became interested — and ultimately trained — in Neurokinetic Therapy (NKT)
How NKT works and its usefulness for musicians
Why just “releasing” a muscle or muscle group that is over-working is often not a complete solution
The difference between muscle testing for timing and muscle testing for strength
Kelly’s experience with a fairly catastrophic injury (partly playing-related) and what she learned through the rehabilitation process, including the limits of scope of practice for health professionals such as physical therapists and hand therapists and what musicians need to do to regain full musical use of an injured body part
How injuries often cause us to lose awareness of our body as a whole
Why modifying your instrument to “fit” your body better can be helpful for both injury prevention and recovery
learn more
Kelly’s website
Andover Educators (Body Mapping) website
Movement modalities Kelly mentions: Nutritious Movement, Stop Chasing Pain, Original Strength, GMB, Animal Flow, MovNat
