Blissfully Asleep

     Nils de Mol van Otterloo is a musician and photographer studying for his MSW at the University of Southern California, with a concentration in social work in health settings. Nils became interested in social work following his work teaching kids music at McClean Hospital in Massachusetts, and with at-risk youth in Los Angeles through Sound Art LA.

     Following a traumatic brain injury in 2003, Nils began using music as a modality to affect mood, rehabilitation, and improve neuroplasticity. This work was done on an intuitive basis, although Nils found a great deal of empirical evidence to support his ideas, and he experienced an impressive recovery from his injury. Nils has had an interest in operationalizing the music and physical therapy tools he developed for his own neuro-therapy. Nils has an interest in working with clients who are suffering from a variety of neurologically-based deficits. Such practice includes helping clients with Traumatic Brain Injury, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (including work with children, domestic violence survivors, and veterans), dementia (including patients in hospitals and hospice settings), and persons with autism or other neurological disorders.

     Nils will be graduating from USC in 2015. He is looking forward to all the possibilities an MSW will give him in the years ahead.