Yeggi Kaela Watts. Photo courtesy of Watts.
Four years ago, Yeggi Kaela Watts dusted off her guitar for the first time in years. At 28, she saw her five-year marriage reduced to a divorce—her daughter Lily was just a year old. She had always considered herself a poet who sometimes dabbled with music, but at this new breaking point, she felt compelled to express herself in song.
“During this crazy life change I wrote a lot of new songs, learned some new chords and started to see the therapeutic effect of playing out and expressing myself,” Watts, now 32, said. “When I didn’t have custody of her I just went to any open mic I could and practiced the five chords I knew and wrote a lot of songs in A minor.”
Watts, a 15-year professional working in therapy with children with special needs, watched the impact of the divorce on Lily, whose nights were sleepless and fueled with anxiety. So she sang her songs.
“And she’d go right back to bed,” she recalled. “Same thing with art—she had this desire to color all the time.”
It’s no secret that music is a tool with legitimate therapeutic effects for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. Music therapy interventions have been proven to enhance social, communicative, sensory and cognitive functioning from veterans with PTSD to children with autism. Yet, such holistic resources remain scarce.
Watts is spearheading efforts to open the first comprehensive development center in the region that will serve children with autism, ADHD and other learning or behavioral difficulties. Instead of hammering in the principles of Applied Behavioral Analysis as standard in public and private school systems, she wants to use music, art, yoga, dance and sensory integration to address the child from a holistic perspective.
Armed with a master’s degree in Education and a B.S. in Child Development, the songstress currently works full-time as a behavioral therapist at a school district. Every day, she witnesses the shortcomings of what she describes as a “robotic and reactive” approach to dealing with special needs children.
“I basically reached the top of the pay scale and saw a lot of ethical issues,” she said, explaining that because the children were viewed logistically, lasting progress was limited.
Watts reached a breaking point a few months ago when an 8-year-old client unleashed a violent tantrum, leaving her with a series of bruises all over her body. The incident lit a fire under her to help these children more effectively.
Since returning to Long Beach from Temecula last fall, she has hit the ground running with her creative pursuits. She’s gone from frequenting open mics to performing at her own acoustic gigs at wine bars around town. She credits the supportive local music community she discovered along the way to her blossoming as an artist.
She hopes to involve these local musicians in the new venture by training them to teach music lessons to children on the spectrum. With enough startup funds, she is looking to sublet a cozy commercial nook on Broadway that she envisions can double as an art gallery for her dearest friends.
“In other people’s minds I have a great job with a great salary and full benefits and I’d be a fool to leave that,” she said. “So a part of me is like, OK I’m gonna prove that wrong. But it does scare me a little bit.”
To learn more or contribute to Watts’ project, visit her gofundme page. Or support the cause at her fundraiser show at The Red Barrel this Saturday at 7:00PM and at The Wine Bar on Dec. 23.