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Explore music therapy in your organisation
Growing musical communities together in collaborative, creative group work
❋ Musical experience is a primary agent of development and mental health
Whether we think ourselves as ‘musicians’ or not, we all have a relationship to music and the arts - at different stages in our life, we draw on music as a resource for our health, personality development, social engagement with the world. As we face challenges in life, our ability to make use of this rich and essential resource can be compromised. My job, therefore, is to help people reconnect with - or develop unexpected new connections to - their musical life. This process takes place in the context of social relationships and cuts across a range of domains - physical, cognitive and emotional health, our sense of personal history and ongoing story, our connection to place and to our body.
As a music therapy practitioner trained in the Nordoff-Robbins tradition, I work with groups of individuals, inviting and supporting them into a range of musical experiences, developing an understanding of resources, interests and challenges faced. As we build relationships through this work we develop meaningful, genuinely collaborative musical activities and experiences. I use my musical skills and my ability to listen very deeply into the potential and challenges that others face, in order to chart a path to deeper engagement using the endlessly flexible medium of live music-making. Once in the flow of music, people can make use of this for their wellbeing and in support of flourishing.
Chris has helped break down communication barriers and supported pupils to regulate their emotions successfully within a large group setting — something that can be particularly challenging in an SEN environment.
The progress we have seen in confidence, engagement, interaction, and shared enjoyment through music has been incredible, and the positive impact he has had cannot be overstated.
Class Teacher, SEND specialist school
The improvisation sessions have played a huge role in revitalising my own musicality. It can be difficult to find safe spaces to explore your own creative work; these sessions have provided just that, as well as the opportunity to attune and be challenged by other musicians.
This has provided me with the confidence to re-discover and expand my musicality, in many forms, including improvisation and experimenting with my previous boundaries. This in turn has been so beneficial to my own music teaching.
I would greatly recommend these sessions to anyone looking to improve their musical wellbeing, through a fantastic form of creative respite.
Creative repair workshop member
❋ Collaborative, Flexible approach
I work with circumstantial communities, using a range of approaches to support people toward genuine participation. For different groups, this might look very different - examples might be: supporting parents and carers in building confidence to use music to support their children’s development; a group learning to improvise together on instruments; a band emerging and working toward a performance; songwriting groups; exploring music technology; or combined work including other art forms. I have accompanied ‘instant musicals’ , worked with young people to develop sci-fi musical odysseys with dance and elaborate cardboard stage sets, run inspired performances with residents in mental health care settings, arranged collaborative concerts in a hospice, facilitated wildly creative large scale improvisation, and developed all kinds of recording projects.
If you are interested in developing this kind of work in your organisation, whether on a sessional basis or as part of broader social value/community support project, then reach out through the contact link below.
❋ Expert Facilitation
For ten years I have facilitated and developed music therapy groups in residential care settings, hospital wards, SEND schools, alcohol+substance recovery programmes, hospices and other places in which people face a range of challenges to their health and creative development. I have worked within many organisations to understand the personal and structural issues that compromise people’s access to music’s help, and am a passionate advocate for the power of music to change life for the better, whatever the challenges.