Meet Our Team - Joshua Frisch
Joshua Frisch
Position at the Hallowell Todaro ADHD Center:
Music Therapist, ADHD and Executive Functioning Coach
How long have you been working at Hallowell Todaro ADHD?
About two months
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in a small town called Spencerport, just West of Rochester, NY.
What are your favorite books / TV shows / movies?
Books: Harry Potter, The Hobbit, Any Dean Koontz, anything involving physics/astronomy, nature books, and Desert Solitaire/Monkey Wrench Gang
TV Shows: Letterkenny, Arrested Development, Stranger Things
Movies: Office Space
What is your favorite sport and/or sports team?
I can’t pick one.
Baseball- New York Yankees
Basketball- Utah Jazz
Football- Buffalo Bills
Complete the following sentences:
When I’m not at work, you can find me...
involved in one of my many hobbies.
When I want to de-stress, I...
play music or find time alone.
My favorite time of year is...
Autumn/Winter with actual snow!
My favorite thing to cook is...
pancakes (recently made strawberry rhubarb with white chocolate chip pancakes).
The best gift I ever received was…
my bass trombone and euphonium. Although neither was considered a “gift,” my grandma bought them for me for college, and I wouldn’t be where I am or who I am without receiving those.
If I could travel anywhere in the world, I’d go to...
I’d go to Sweden. My family is mostly Swedish and this is the most important and recognized heritage of the mixture we are. Sweden also has the northern lights and cooler temperatures
What led you to pursue a career helping others?
Well, I didn’t know what I wanted to do for college but I liked music so I went for music education. In undergrad, I learned about music therapy and kept it on the back burner. Teaching music didn’t pan out and I needed a master’s degree to get my professional certificate for teaching in New York. I started a master’s program in music therapy and swiftly forgot about teaching. Music therapy combines my love for music and my love for helping others, so, what can beat that?
What education, skills, and expertise do you bring to your role?
For one, music (feels like cheating in therapy sometimes). I have been told I have a great sense of humor and I am not afraid to use it with clients. I also have experience working with children through young adults in their upper 90s, as well as working in a variety of settings and with a variety of diagnoses.
Who/what inspires you?
Honestly, seeing resiliency in anything. It can be with plants that are seemingly dead, that spring back with the right amount of light. It can be the saplings that grow from a tree that has been uprooted. It can be the animals that adapt to thrive despite changing environmental conditions or injuries. It can be the child who has experienced immense trauma that finds a way to get to college and graduate. The baseball player who had to flee their country at a young age, and work hard to become a professional so they can move the rest of their family over to be safe. Really, it’s anything that can make me cry because it’s so touching, and the youtube algorithm has me figured out.
What’s your personal philosophy/approach toward the work you do?
I use a humanistic approach. I see and tend to the person in front of me during that moment. Not who they were a day, a week, a month or years ago. I try to think, “what can I do right now for this person? What do they need right now to be successful later?”
What is one small thing people can do to improve their lives and increase their happiness?
Remembering that it is difficult to be the best at something, except you can always be the best at being yourself, and nobody can take that away from you.
We provide a range of support for people with ADHD.