Stephanie Choong

Registered Music Therapist
Bay of Plenty Regional Centre

Stephanie is originally from Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. Stephanie grew up in a musical family so music has been a big part of her life. She learned music at a young age as her mum is a pianist who also owns a music school. Stephanie graduated with a bachelor's degree in music composition from the University of Waikato in 2017. She discovered a passion for psychology while working as a residential assistant where her role was to support the wellbeing of first-year university students. This inspired and led her to study music therapy.

Stephanie is working towards becoming a registered music therapist and has recently finished her Master of Music Therapy through the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University, Wellington. During her studies, Stephanie worked with various clients, including teenagers at a health school, older adults at a rest home, as well as neurodiverse children. Stephanie spent a year abroad exploring and teaching English in Japan before pursuing her master's degree in music therapy. She often draws on the numerous transferrable life skills she acquired from her multifaceted experience as an EFL teacher in her work today as a music therapist.

Stephanie loves electronic music, music production instruments, and music technology in music therapy. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, playing board games, practicing martial arts, and catching up over coffee with friends.