Combatting Depression, Anxiety With High-Energy Drumming
When the subject of helping special needs children is discussed, Mike Veny knows better than anyone the challenges and pain associated with trying to overcome personal hurdles.
From a young age, Veny, a Long Island native, suffered from depression, anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. His severe behavioral problems got him expelled from three schools and landed him for several stints in psychiatric hospitals. At 10 years old, he attempted suicide.
Although Veny had counseling and medication, there was something else he believes made the biggest difference in his life: drumming.
“I naturally gravitated toward the drums and that really turned my life around, in a sense, that it actually gave me a method of expressing myself that was healthy and didn’t get me in trouble, and for whatever reason, people liked it,” said Veny, who attended a performing arts high school and became a professional drummer after graduation.
As a musician he was approached to give private music lessons, which led him to some students with disabilities and mental health issues.
Over the past 15 years, Veny has become one of the most sought after mental health speakers in the United States, combining educational and entertaining speaking and his high-energy drumming in group sessions.
On Saturday, Veny will return to the Select Human Services’ Judy Voron Life Skills Studio in Pleasantville for two 90-minute sessions for teenagers and young adults. The first session is for 13- to 17-year-olds from 10 to 11:30 a.m. followed by a second session from 1 to 2:30 p.m. for 18- to 25-year-olds. They are open to about 12 people per session.
Pleasantville resident Tara Klein, the outreach coordinator at the Life Skills Studios, said many of the parents of children who use services provided by Select Human Services, asked for more age-specific and gender-specific programming.
She said Veny had made a previous appearance at the facility for a different population and proved to be popular.
“Everybody at first thought that he had so much to offer that they opened the session to people with intellectual disabilities,” Klein said. “People still talk about it, so when we had the opportunity, we brought him back.”
Although Veny said that many of the groups that he visits have a wide range of disabilities, he provides many team-building sessions for all types of businesses. In fact, it is common for successful adults to have more difficulty getting along with each other than young children.
“Adults have a hard time playing together in the sandbox,” said Veny, who now lives in New York City. “When I was struggling as a kid, I also struggled with friendship and a lot of people that I see are struggling with anxiety and behavior, they also struggle with friendship. So by giving people the tool of drumming it’s really kind of killing two birds with one stone.”
Veny brings along several African drums but the type of instrument is irrelevant. He could use pots and pans and have the same results, he said.
Veny explained drumming was something that was physical and was an important release. It also provided him with camaraderie.
“The thing with the arts is you have to work with other people, whether it be musical theater or being in a band, and something about drumming taught me to be healthy in my communication with other people,” he said. “I just didn’t have to get angry when I wasn’t getting my way.”
Despite his success, which sees Veny on the road about half of each month, it’s still important for him to visit his counselor regularly. But he has seen the difference drumming has made in his own life and many others.
“That’s all you need to do is let go and just be you,” he said.
For more information about Mike Veny, visit www.transformingstigma.com. To learn more about Select Human Services and any potential availability for this weekend’s drumming sessions, visit www.selecthumanservices.org.
The Judy Voron Life Skills Studio is located at 17-19 Marble Ave. in Pleasantville.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
