Dr. Carolyn Phillips

Biography

Carolyn Phillips is a nurse scientist and educator whose work integrates expressive arts and music-based interventions with healthcare research to enhance emotional communication, resilience, and well-being among patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals. With decades of experience as an oncology nurse and nurse practitioner, she has received advanced postdoctoral training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School and is recognized as a distinguished expert in applying innovative research methods to develop and evaluate arts-based interventions. Her pioneering work at the intersection of arts and health is reshaping psychosocial interventions designed for clinical and community settings. Carolyn's research portfolio features the integration of music and storytelling therapeutic strategies. Notably, she has developed and evaluated Storytelling Music interventions tailored for diverse populations, including bereaved parents coping with the loss of a child to cancer and healthcare professionals facing emotional challenges in high-stress environments. Additionally, she leads the Music-4-MS Optimization Study, exploring a 12-week music-based cognitive rehabilitation intervention aimed at improving cognitive outcomes in individuals with multiple sclerosis. Her work, published in leading nursing and healthcare journals, underscores her commitment to enhancing the well-being of individuals coping with chronic illness and loss while advancing arts-based approaches as catalysts for healing and transformative change in healthcare.

Research Interests

Experience