Dr. Grant Drake is a retired clinical psychiatrist and the President of the Lost Voices Board of Directors. For years he has provided steady leadership, along with invaluable clinical insights as we have continued to grow and refine our process. We thought you should get acquainted with Dr. Drake in his own words.
I grew up in the Northeast and came to the University of Michigan for my psychiatric training and stayed in Ann Arbor for my career and to raise our three kids. Because my psychiatric training began in the early 1970s, there was more emphasis on psychotherapy techniques rather than on medications, so my practice also focused more on that.
Before I fully retired in 2019, most of my work was private practice in Ann Arbor, but in my last 10 years I worked halftime at the Women’s HuronValley State Prison in Ypsilanti. Those years helped me understand how childhood trauma, abuse, or neglect so often create a pathway to prison unless the kids receive sufficient interventions to alter that path. The Lost Voices songwriting process can offer a powerful intervention by fostering self-esteem and a strong connection to the creative process and to fellow participants.
I have been on the Lost Voices board since about 2014 and served as board president for the past 6 years. I reconnected with Mike, who had been my son‘s favorite hockey coach many years before, at an Ark volunteer party and quickly joined the board. I was immediately impressed by his deep devotion to make a difference in the lives of troubled kids and by his unique and powerfully healing songwriting process. In addition to Mike’s many musical and songwriting talents, he has a special gift of being able to gain the trust of troubled kids and foster a safe, playful, and inspiring environment where they can freely explore their feelings and creativity with songwriting.
My number one biggest joy and satisfaction with Lost Voices is at our end-of-week concert where the kids are so brimming over with pride and accomplishment after they get an enthusiastic applause for their songs. Many of our kids may never have had any applause or affirmation, or at least not enough to stabilize their self-esteem.
My number two biggest joy is to witness at the concerts the strong bonding between the kids themselves, and between the kids and our facilitators, that occurs during the songwriting process.
My number three joy is to be able to listen to the audio recording as I read the lyrics of our best songs from the kids. You can access these fantastic songs by going to the News tab and then to the Blog tab on our Website – lostvoices.org.
