why this work exists

Hi, my name is JennyRebecca...

Most people who know me through my music, podcast, or workshops have heard me say that songwriting saved my life. I don't say that lightly.

In my early twenties, I moved from New York City to Berlin, Germany, to pursue a career as an opera singer after graduating from conservatory. At the same time, I was grieving the loss of my first husband. I found myself carrying a level of sadness and depression that I didn't know how to navigate.

Then something unexpected happened.

I started writing songs.
One after another.

By the end of that first year, I had written more than 400 songs, creating a music video for each one as a kind of living song diary. Looking back, I can honestly say that creative expression became one of the most healing experiences of my life. For the first time, I wasn't simply surviving my grief—I was giving it a voice.

Around that time, I encountered a quote from Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Dr. Edith Eger that gave words to what I had experienced:

"The opposite of depression is expression."

That sentence has stayed with me ever since.

As songwriting transformed my own life, I found myself wanting to share that experience with others. I began teaching songwriting workshops and eventually founded Artists Rising Co., a community dedicated to helping people discover greater freedom, healing, courage, and authentic self-expression through music.

At first, I thought the transformation came from writing songs.

Later, I realized it went even deeper. As my own healing journey continued, I became deeply curious about why songwriting had been so transformative. That curiosity led me to immerse myself in trauma-informed approaches, neuroscience, self-compassion, nervous system regulation, and the Compassion Method™. I wasn't looking to create a new methodology—I was simply trying to understand why creative expression had changed my own life so profoundly.

Eventually, my work began to expand beyond songwriting into community-building through music. One of the most formative experiences was directing a theater project for Middle Eastern refugees in Berlin.

When I first walked into the room, I was surrounded by people from seven different countries—including Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Libya, and Lebanon. They spoke Arabic, Farsi, Persian, Kurdish, and other languages, while I spoke only English and German. We had almost no shared spoken language.

So we began somewhere deeper.

Music Became a Common Language

We played improvisation games. We made sounds together. We sang. We laughed. We moved. We created music before we could create conversation.

Over the next two years, something extraordinary happened.

People who had arrived as strangers, carrying unimaginable stories of loss and displacement, gradually became a community. Together, we wrote and performed an original musical that we all wrote together—in German!

A language that almost none of us spoke when we first met.

That experience fundamentally changed my understanding of music. I realized that the human voice is more than an instrument for performance—it is a bridge. Before we could understand one another with words, we had already learned to connect through sound.

Where We're Going Next

Over the past several years, my husband Drew and I have spent roughly half of each year touring throughout the United States while continuing to make Berlin our home base. Along the way, I've had the opportunity to facilitate workshops for students and faculty at Dartmouth College, Purdue University, New York University, DePauw University, and Seattle Pacific University, in addition to community choirs, artist coaching, and refugee initiatives across Europe.

Now we're entering a new season.

As we relocate permanently now to the greater Seattle area, I feel called to dedicate the next chapter of my life to expanding this work into communities throughout the United States and beyond.

Although my work with Middle Eastern refugees in Europe profoundly shaped both my life and the vision behind The Resonance Initiative, I believe these tools belong everywhere. In schools. Hospitals. Universities. Community centers. Workplaces. Faith communities. Wherever people are carrying stress, grief, anxiety, loneliness, burnout, or simply longing for deeper connection.