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Music and addiction recovery share a connection that goes deeper than most people realize.
Michael Jones, MA, LCDC, a Program Counselor at Positive Recovery Centers, never planned to work in addiction recovery. In fact, during graduate school, when a professor asked what area of counseling he wanted to pursue, he answered without hesitation: he would do anything, but he would never work in addiction.
However, life had other plans.
Sharing the Hope that Lasting Change is Possible
Not long after earning his master’s degree in Marriage and Family Counseling, Michael unknowingly began his own journey into addiction. What started as curiosity became a habit, and what became a habit became alcoholism, then drug addiction. For a while, he managed to keep it hidden behind his career and the appearance of a successful life. However, addiction, as Michael puts it, eventually exposes everything. It cost him his career, his home, his freedom, and ultimately led to a prison sentence.
“Leading up to my incarceration and for the first few years of my sentence, my motivation for recovery came from external circumstances,” Michael reflects. “I wanted to avoid prison. Then I wanted parole. But after those hopes came and went, something changed inside me. My motivation shifted from trying to get something to becoming someone.”
That became his turning point.
Over six years of incarceration, Michael found something most people would not expect to find in that setting: purpose, joy, and freedom. He began mentoring other men who were struggling with addiction, and it was there that he realized the very field he once swore off was exactly where he was called to be. He pursued licensure as a Chemical Dependency Counselor and, in January 2025, joined Positive Recovery Centers.
“Looking back, I realize that what once felt like the greatest failure of my life became the very thing that prepared me for my life’s calling,” he says. “Today I don’t simply work in recovery. I have the privilege of living it and sharing the hope that lasting change is possible.”
The “Have To” Life vs. the “Get To” Life
One of the most powerful frameworks Michael brings to his work is the distinction between “I have to” and “I get to”.
In addiction, he describes living the “I have to” life. Individuals feel like they have to get high. They have to find the money. They have to hide their addiction. They have to carry the shame, guilt, fear, and hopelessness that follow every decision.
However, something he learned in his own recovery is the opposite: living the “I get to” life.
“Today I get to wake up with purpose. I get to help people. I get to be present for others. I get to live with integrity and hope. I get to build the life I want to live, and I get to live it to the fullest. Recovery didn’t just save my life. It gave me a life worth living.”
That shift, from obligation to opportunity, from survival to meaning, is at the core of how Michael shows up for every individual he works with at PRC.
Is Music Medicine?
Michael was born into a musical family. His father was a recording artist and music minister. His sister became a recording artist. Singing together was simply part of everyday life. And while music surrounded him from the beginning, it was the guitar that captured something deeper.
“My guitar has been one of the greatest companions of my life, both before addiction and throughout my recovery,” he says. “During my addiction, music almost disappeared. That’s what addiction does. It slowly steals the things you love most.”
He describes addiction as a jealous, toxic relationship. It wants every part of you. It consumes your time, your attention, your identity, and eventually your passions. Music was one of the casualties. But one of the greatest gifts of recovery, he says, was rediscovering it.
Even during his undergraduate studies, Michael was curious about music’s place in healing. He once asked a professor, Joe Simpson (Jessica Simpson’s father), whether music could be a tool for reaching adolescents in counseling. The answer stayed with him long after the conversation ended: music can reach people emotionally in ways words often cannot.
Over the years, he has found countless ways to bring music into his therapeutic work. Sometimes a song opens the door to a difficult topic, such as regret, guilt, or forgiveness. Sometimes it is a lyric that gives someone the words they have been searching for but could not find on their own.
One of his favorite techniques involves two guitars tuned differently. He hands a client a guitar tuned to a minor chord and asks them to strum it. Then he asks what they feel. Then he hands them a guitar tuned to a major chord and asks the same question. What the individual does not realize is that they are already talking about their emotions before the conversation has formally begun. That’s the power of music and addiction recovery.
“Music has a remarkable way of bypassing the defenses that words alone often cannot reach,” Michael explains. “Before long, clients are putting words to emotions they have struggled to express, sometimes for years.”
A Powerful Story about Healing, Music and Addiction Recovery
As we spoke with Michael about the healing power of music, he recalled a moment that brought every part of his story together in a way he could not have scripted.
An individual he had been working with in residential treatment reached a breaking point and made it clear they intended to leave. Although every compassionate warning was offered, trying to reach something beneath the surface of addiction, nothing seemed to work.
Until one day, when the individual left Michael’s office convinced they were leaving treatment, describing it later as “the beast of addiction” having taken complete control. The urge to use had arrived out of nowhere, bringing with it a flood of justifications and rationalizations.
About an hour later, Michael went to check on them and asked if they would come back to his office for one more conversation. When they sat down, the individual questioned, “What? Is this round two? What else do you have to say? My mind is already made up.”
So Michael reached for his guitar and began playing, starting with “Stairway to Heaven” and then moving into “Simple Man.” As he played, something shifted that he could not have produced with another conversation. The individual’s body relaxed, their breathing slowed, and the urgency that had consumed them began to loosen its grip. By the second song, their eyes had closed, and tears were falling as they felt the healing properties only music could offer.
When the third song ended, the individual looked up and said quietly: “I think I’ll stay and give it another try tomorrow.”
The next morning, Michael walked in to find a smile, immense gratitude, and relief at still being sober and still being at Positive Recovery.
“That was one of the clearest reminders that healing doesn’t always come through another clinical intervention,” Michael reflects. “Sometimes it comes through a melody, a lyric, or a moment of stillness that allows someone to reconnect with themselves.”
That afternoon became one of the clearest examples Michael has witnessed of how music and addiction recovery intersect in ways that no treatment manual fully captures.
“It was one of the few times in my career when I felt like I wasn’t using music to support therapy. Music was the therapy. And I have never been more grateful that recovery gave me back the gift of music so that, in moments like that one, I can offer it to someone else when words are no longer enough.“
What Healing Can Look Like
Michael believes music has always been one of humanity’s oldest forms of healing. Long before psychological theories or evidence-based interventions, there was music. People used it to celebrate, grieve, worship, connect, and make sense of life’s most difficult experiences.
“In many ways, I think music was the grandfather of therapy,” he says.
For him, the privilege of combining counseling and music, two things that recovery gave back to him, is not lost. Every time he picks up a guitar during a session, he draws on his own journey as much as on his clinical training. His story, from personal experiences to helping clients, shows that music and addiction recovery have a beautiful relationship.
And his message to anyone who wonders whether recovery is truly possible is the same one he carried out of a prison cell and into a counselor’s office: transformation is real, purpose is waiting, and the life you want to live is still within reach.
“Recovery didn’t just save my life,” Michael says. “It gave me a life worth living.”
His story is proof that the connection between music and addiction recovery is a real, deep human connection. And with the right support, it can be the difference between someone walking out the door and someone choosing to stay.
If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, reach out to our team today by calling 877-476-2743 or visit our website to learn more about our addiction treatment services, location, and positive recovery approach.