Suzanne Makary, a board-certified music therapist at St. Luke’s Penn Foundation, has coauthored a new book that demonstrates how music can help children develop essential emotional and social skills. Makary works with an interdisciplinary team in the partial hospitalization program and is a passionate advocate for music therapy.

The 224-page book, “Creative DBT Activities for Children Using Music Therapy,” published in November 2025 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, is designed for teachers and therapists working with children in kindergarten through fifth grade. It offers practical, skills-based activities that integrate music into lessons on emotional regulation, decision-making, impulse control and interpersonal communication. Each chapter includes session plans, suggested adaptations and links to supporting resources.

“We designed these activities for folks who have limited to no musical skills,” Makary explained, making the book accessible to educators and caregivers alike.

The idea for the book emerged about two years ago when Makary and colleagues in a DBT certification program recognized the growing need for emotional skill-building among younger children.

“We realized teachers needed tools to introduce these concepts early,” Makary said. “That need turned into creating a lesson-plan stylebook focused on elementary-age children.”

Makary collaborated with four other therapists to develop interventions for the book and continues to teach in the DBT certification program three nights a month.

This is Makary’s second publication with Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Her first book, titled “Creative DBT Activities Using Music: Interventions for Enhancing Engagement and Effectiveness in Therapy,” was released in March 2020.