Saul Hudacin is a Washington state-licensed, board-certified music therapist, specializing in music therapy for all seniors, including those with memory care needs, neurodigenerative disorders, and those in hospice environments. He is also licensed in Canada. Informed by neuroscience, but motivated by a love of music and an unconditional compassion for humanity, Saul offers one-on-one music therapy sessions, group singalongs and need-based specialized programs for seniors and others. Saul also offers music-based memory support workshops for people with a variety of memory impairment concerns.
A Note from Saul: “My job as a music therapist is to provide therapy that works within a framework of achieving therapeutic goals through the making/listening/discussing/ and interacting with music. I have been a board-certified music therapist since September 2021. I worked in assisted living settings exclusively until about 2025 when I opened my own business. Most of my clinical time has been spent in memory-care settings. Currently, I am in private practice with contracts throughout the Seattle area.”
Saul’s Philosophy: Saul’s approach to all music therapy interactions is informed by unconditional compassion and a celebration of humanity in all people. He uses his expertise in music therapy to meet people where they are with appropriate and rewarding interactions. Saul’s philosophy of love and acceptance makes music an inclusive experience that is not done to clients but shared with them as cared for and respected individuals.
Background
Saul is originally from Northwest Indiana and lived in Indianapolis and Houston before making his home in Seattle in 2014. His interest in music began with playing clarinet and he added tenor saxophone soon after. Having played both instruments in many different bands, youth orchestras, and local pit orchestras, he decided to study music in college, graduating from Jordan College of Fine Arts at Butler University with a degree in music theory and composition in 2002.
Interested in many diverse areas, Saul moved to Houston and started a career in healthcare by becoming a pharmacy technician. While still doing music on the side, he climbed the ranks to become a senior pharmacy technician, working in an HIV-specialty pharmacy for about seven years. Overseeing many programs at this pharmacy, he started to hone in on patient care. Eventually this led to his wanting to merge his musical and healthcare skills.
After moving to Seattle, Saul was fortunate to work for Harborview Medical Center in outpatient and inpatients pharmacies. This gave him a different perspective and new appreciation for what patients in hospital and clinical settings go through. He took Intro to Music Therapy 101 at Seattle Pacific University (SPU) in the fall of 2018 and realized he wanted to focus his energy in music therapy.
After graduating from SPU in 2020, Saul did his internship at Aegis Living of Queen Anne on Galer St., which is an assisted living and memory care facility. Kaylee Allen, MT-BC was his supervisor. At Aegis, he developed clinical skills by creating and leading music groups in their memory care and assisted living units.
Among many other musical activities, Saul led sundowning groups in the evenings for memory care and performed dinner music for the assisted living dining room while residents ate. He tracked and fostered relationships with residents loved ones to communicate observations and times spent with the residents. He also worked on an interdisciplinary team with the Health Services Director and CN Services Director to bring residents tailored, one-on-one interactions.
The “Classical Music Lover’s Club” program Saul created at Galer (which brought residents together to enjoy and discuss different pieces of classical music) was so successful that he later launched it at Mercer Island Aegis Living where it was an even bigger success.
He recently underwent a training to become a Neurologic Music Therapist, so that he could provide more individual-centered care from a neurological framework for both his group clients and my individual clients. Neurological Music Therapy (NMT), like all music therapy, has the ability to help and assist all peoples, including those with different neurodegenerative states including dementias, Parkinson’s Disease, and neurodiverse states such as Autism, ADHD, OCD, and different brain injurious states such as comas, TBI’s, strokes, visual neglect, and many more.
Per the NMT website, NMT™ is standardized evidence-based clinical treatment system of 20 techniques that is driven by advances is applied auditory music neuroscience and the clinical understanding of music perception, production, and cognition.