Building Belonging by Drumming for more Regulated Students & Stronger Communities.
26 years of clinical drumming programs for youth, schools, and communities who need more than talk therapy can offer.
Grounded in West African tradition. Backed by neuroscience.
26+
Years of Clinical Practice
150+
Hours Certified wtih Tam Tam Mandingue
20+
Years Serving Youth Villages
The drum reaches where words can't.
TDI isn't recreational drumming. It's a trauma-informed clinical program built on 26 years of practice, peer-reviewed research, and centuries of West African healing tradition. When we say therapeutic, we mean measurable outcomes: reduced referrals, reduced trauma markers, youth who become leaders.
Alpha brainwave increases. GSR normalization. Beta-endorphin release. Brain-mapping at Youth Villages Inner Harbour showed reduced trauma markers after TDI participation. This is neuroscience and ancestral wisdom working together.
Three steps to transformation
THE PROCESS
01
Book a Discovery Call
We talk about who you serve, what you've tried, and where you're stuck. No pressure — just an honest assessment of fit. Useful regardless of outcome.
02
Design Your Program
Whether it's a 10-week school program, a community healing series, or CTDI certification training, we build something specific to your context.
03
Watch Your Community Change
Youth who wouldn't make eye contact start leading. Groups that came in fragmented begin to move together. Real, documented, lasting transformation.
Built for the populations other programs miss.
Your students are carrying things no curriculum was built to hold. Behavioral dysregulation, disengagement, trauma that lives in the body — TDI creates the conditions for something to shift.
Schools & Youth Programs
You serve people who have every reason not to trust another program. TDI doesn't require trust to begin — the drum creates it. For nonprofits, reentry programs, and treatment centers.
Community Organizations
No music background required. Whether you're called to personal healing or want to become a certified TDI facilitator, the path starts with the drum and what it teaches.
Individuals & Practitioners
"The students who participated showed measurable improvement in emotional regulation and school belonging — populations we hadn't been able to reach through any other intervention. This work is different."
— Dr. Tabathia Baldy
Superintendent, Colquitt County School DistrictThe drum found Tom when he needed it most.
ABOUT TOM HARRIS
In 1995, Tom Harris sustained a spinal cord injury that changed everything. Facing a road no one had mapped for him, he found the djembe. "It spoke to a deeply wounded part of me," he says. "Not as therapy — as truth."
That encounter became 26 years of building Therapeutic Drumming Interventions — training under the illustrious Mamady Keïta and Mohamed Diaby, earning 150-hour Tam Tam Mandingue certification, and developing a program that has served thousands of young people across schools, residential treatment centers, juvenile justice facilities, and community organizations.
Tom doesn't describe himself as a healer. He describes himself as someone who discovered that our greatest gifts often live inside our deepest wounding — and who built a career helping others find the same.
Colquitt County Schools
26+ Years Clinical Practice
Youth Villages Inner Harbour
Tam Tam Mandingue Certified
Four Ways to Work with TDI
PROGRAMS
Community Healing Program
For nonprofits, community health organizations, reentry programs, and treatment centers working with populations for whom standard approaches have been insufficient.
Group cohesion from day one
Trauma processing through rhythm
Culturally responsive facilitation
Flexible format and schedule
CTDI Certification Training
A 9–12 month training program equipping practitioners with djembe technique, traditional rhythm knowledge, and clinical facilitation skills. No prior music experience required.
150+ hours of comprehensive training
Live group practice included
Graduates serve complex populations independently
Rooted in Malinke tradition
Every program is designed for the real populations TDI has served for 26 years — not idealized versions of them.
School & District Implementation
Structured 10-week programs for schools and districts serving students with behavioral, emotional, or trauma-related challenges. MTSS Tier 2/3 compatible, alternative-to-suspension ready.
Reduced disciplinary referrals
Improved emotional regulation
Marginalized students become leaders
District-wide scale available
Conference & Community Presentations
Tom brings TDI to conferences, summits, and community events — demonstrating how therapeutic drumming works, why it works, and how organizations can implement it.
Lincoln Center performances
DJJ conference keynotes
Administrator education sessions
Live drumming demonstrations
This work is waiting for you.
READY TO BEGIN —
Support our Mission
TDI operates with a clear mission: that therapeutic drumming should be available to the young people and communities that need it most — regardless of whether their school or organization has the budget to pay for it.
Your donation supports that directly. It funds TDI sessions in Title I schools that cannot otherwise afford programming. It helps put drums in the hands of youth in residential treatment who have never had access to high-quality instruments. It allows TDI to say yes to the communities that need this work most.