Pamela Potzer, MT-BC is the owner and founder of Mountain Melodies Music Therapy Services.
Pamela graduated Colorado State University with her Bachelors of Music with a Concentration in Music Therapy August of 2021. She earned her music therapy board certification November of 2021. Six days later she started Mountain Melodies Music Therapy Services.
Pamela will be attending Adam’s State University’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling program Fall of 2026 to begin the journey of becoming a licensed professional counselor. Since her earning her bachelor’s, Pamela has been following her heart down ski slopes and rivers! Below is a description of her journey thus far.
Stroke Camp
Pamela first became interested in the profession of music therapy when she was 15 during the summer of 2012 at Retreat and Refresh Stroke Camp. While volunteering, she met a number of incredible stroke survivors, caregivers, and various health care professionals. One of those professionals was Nancy Bell, a board-certified music therapist. Pamela watched in awe as Nancy brought the group together through drumming, song writing, and facilitated group discussions surrounding songs that reflected each individual’s experience with stroke. One of the most impactful moments for Pamela was watching Nancy interact with a man that could only say the words “yes” and “no” due to his aphasia. Through the incredible interaction music has with neural connections and homologous structures, this man sang every word to the song Nancy was playing with him. That moment made Pamela wonder at what music could do in a therapeutic setting, and ever since then, she had her sights set on becoming a music therapist.
Pamela continued volunteering with Stroke Camp throughout college. To this day she is thankful to the many health professionals, caregivers, and especially stroke survivors that mentored her as she grew into a professional music therapist.
Colorado State University’s music therapy concentration
While attending Colorado State University’s music therapy program, Pamela volunteered her time to numerous extracurricular activities, including being an officer for CSU’s Music Therapy Student Association (MTSA) for three years, and one year for CSU’s Health Profession Student Association (HPSA)
Pamela found that she loved talking to other students who were working towards physical and occupational therapy about her chosen profession of music therapy. Planning to go on to get her doctorate in occupational therapy, Pamela took extra classes, including introduction to occupational therapy and human anatomy. This anatomy course gave her the opportunity to study up to 20 human cadavers. But more importantly, Pamela got to study alongside pre-occupational therapy and pre-physical therapy students. This sparked one of Pamela’s newest passions – interprofessional work as students. Pamela began advocating to her music therapy cohorts the amazing opportunities for advocacy and collaboration when students prioritized working with other healthcare professional students.
In fact, Pamela believed so strongly in interprofessional collaboration, she even put together a presentation for American Music Therapy Association Student‘s event called Passages, where she got to share her passion for this mission. She also advocated for more collaboration between MTSA and HPSA before she finished her coursework May of 2020.
Volunteering in Adaptive Outdoor Recreation
Aside from being an officer in multiple student associations, Pamela’s interest in outdoor recreation drew her to various adaptive programs in Colorado. Pamela found herself spending a few weeks in 2016 and 2017 as a student volunteer at the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center and Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado camp working with individuals who experienced a traumatic brain injury, and at Adam’s Camp working with children with Autism. These programs utilized adaptive outdoor recreation to serve multiple individuals ranging from cognitive, physical, and emotional disabilities. Pamela loved to see how outdoor recreation, something she loved to do in her spare time, could be adapted so that outdoor recreation was accessible to all individuals.
After seeing the therapeutic benefits of outdoor recreation, Pamela decided to work as a professional river guide the summer of 2018. Since the Cache La Poudre river was only 10 minutes away from her university, Pamela had no hesitations when she signed up for guide school at Rocky Mountain Adventures. In the years to come, Pamela would earn her Swiftwater Rescue certification and her Wilderness First Responder certification. After working three years on the Cache La Poudre river, Pamela expanded her expertise by working on the Bighorn Sheep’s Canyon and Royal Gorge with Echo Canyon River Expeditions, eventually becoming a class V guide and trip leader.
Pamela’s interest in adaptive outdoor recreation lead her to accept a position as an adaptive ski instructor and program coordinator with the National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) in Winter Park, CO starting in 2021. She had the opportunity to serve as the program supervisor and trainer in the 2023-2024 season where she designed a revised training program that was utilized in the reconstruction of the adaptive ski training at the NSCD.
Pamela received multiple scholarships to earn her Adaptive Level 2 ski instructor certification through the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA). Through on hill training and at home study, Pamela passed her all the seven required modules with Level 2 scores. This certification recognizes Pamela’s expert ability to teach ski students with visual impairments, cognitive disabilities, and physical disabilities requiring both stand and sit ski equipment.
One of the highlights of Pamela’s work experience was finding innovative ways to implement music therapy techniques into her adaptive ski lessons. Through her knowledge of the fundamentals and skills concept in ski instruction and her training as a music therapist, Pamela was able to utilize the modality of music to help her students learn the necessary skills for success in their skiing goals. Pamela attempted her theories when she took her Children’s Specialist 1 examination with the PSIA on March 29, 2023, and she was thrilled with the outcome!
This inspired Pam to see what else she could do to implement a music therapist’s scope of practice on the ski hill. On January 3, 2024, Pamela became the first known documented music therapist to bring a guitar on the ski slopes of Winter Park. Pamela continued to utilize her scope of practice as a music therapist in the skills concept and five fundamentals of ski instruction in accordance to the PSIA. She loved to see how many of her students with cognitive disabilities would respond to the various tunes she would compose to teach them the basics of skiing.
Winter Park Ski Patrol and Responder Alliance
For various reasons, in 2024, Pamela made the decision to pivot careers in the skiing industry and joined the Winter Park Ski Patrol team. She is forever grateful to the many tenured patrollers at Winter Park who have taken/are taking the time the time to mentor her to be successful in this job with a multitude of skillsets. Pamela learned first hand how important, and challenging, this job can be and supports any efforts to give patrollers the tools and resources to be happy and healthy.
While in patrol training, Pamela learned about the Responder Alliance, and their mission to provide first responders and outdoor professionals the evidence-based mental health tools they need to personally and professionally thrive. Pamela is currently working on completing all four of the trainings Responder Alliance offers. In her first year as a patroller, Pamela would set up meetings after work with various other patrol resiliency teams. She also attended Responder Alliance’s annual Summit Conference in March of 2025 where she got to meet like-minded patrollers that wanted to promote resiliency practices on their teams.
At the same time she was collaborating with the Responder Alliance, Pamela formed a relationship with the Redside Foundation. She fell in love with their mission of “supporting the health and strength of the outdoor guiding community.” This lead Pamela to volunteer her time advocating for the Redside foundation at the 2025 FIBARK festival, speaking with her fellow river guides about the services they received, and speaking with outfitters about the importance of supporting Redside. Later that fall, Pamela and her husband, Alfredo (river guide of 15 years at the time) attended the Colorado River Outfitters Association (CROA) convention as representatives of Redside to speak with leaders in the Colorado river tourism industry about Redside.
Pamela is thrilled to accept her offer to Adam State University’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling graduate program! She could not be more excited that its online format will continue to allow her to work in the ski industry and on the river while she works towards becoming a clinical mental health counselor!
Throughout her life, Pamela’s passion for music, her passion for the beauty and thrill of outdoor recreation, and her passion for authentic relationships with diverse individuals has guided her steps throughout her professional journey. Pamela hopes that as her therapeutic practice grows she can provide more resources to individuals to not only receive quality therapeutic services, but also be empowered to thrive in the beautiful outdoor world of Colorado that she has called home her entire life.
“I envision a practice where every activity is accessible to all, that every person is given the personalized tools they need to thrive, and that innovation and creativity are used to push therapeutic boundaries.”
-Pamela Potzer, MT-BC
mountainmelodiestherapy.com 