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Music brings people together, creates memories, builds atmosphere and can lead you on a trip down memory lane. But there’s also a small group of people using music as therapy to help vulnerable people across Cheshire in an amazing and inspiring way. Emma Gaffney writes. Photography: Copyright Nordoff Robbins
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Thank You M usic therapy has become an important part of many people’s lives. From schools to care homes, hospitals to prisons, therapists bring music making to the most isolated and sometimes unlikely cases. “We’ve been trained to use music to help all kinds of people in all kinds of places,” explains Felicity North, a music therapist based in Macclesfield at the specialist school Park Lane. “We believe that everyone responds to music and has the right to listen to it and have it helping them in their lives.” Felicity became a music therapist twenty-four years ago when an elbow injury meant she couldn’t pursue her dreams of becoming an orchestral viola player. Since then she’s been working with the charity Nordoff Robbins to try and change people’s lives with music. People with learning difficulties, mental health problems and physical problems are just some of the people that are benefiting from this expressive therapy. But
the huge scale of different people that music therapy helps means that it’s constantly changing. “We encourage people to use music in a way that’s right for them, so each session is very much an individualised session,” explains Felicity. “I do group sessions or individual sessions and sometimes family members and carers join in too. “A music therapy session usually involves playing different instruments, often percussion instruments and things you don’t have to learn how to play because having to think about how to play gets in the way of using music. “We might listen to music, move to music, improvise pieces or even play existing songs that the
therapist thinks might be helpful for working with somebody.” The magical thing about music therapy is not only the huge range of people it can help but also the huge range of ways it helps people. It can help build physical skills and confidence or even give people a way to express themselves. Elderly people suffering from dementia can reconnect through music therapy, it can support children and adults with severe autism or learning difficulties who find it difficult, if not impossible, to communicate otherwise. “Just because people don’t have language doesn’t mean they can’t communicate. People can experience communication within the musical format. It can really
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For The Music... help give someone a sense of self. “We’re constantly thinking of what kind of musical effect can we find that will support them or help them do something they find difficult.” And physically the rewards can be astounding too. Felicity says: “I’ve seen children begin to use the hold they use for holding a drum beater in other areas of their life and it’s even lead them help to feeding themselves independently.” For others music can also mean recording who they are. “For people with life threatening illnesses it’s that sense of recording who they are, where they’ve been and perhaps leaving a song for their families. There are so many different ways people can use music to help themselves.” says Felicity. Recently music therapy is being use to help more and more people with less typical conditions. One of the more recent ways music therapy has started to help people is through dealing with depression. These days modern living can be stressful for many people and as a result there’s been
a huge rise in cases of depression and anxiety. Despite this rise there’s been a lot of debate about over medicating and the result has been a huge increase in the popularity of complementary practices. “Traditionally music therapy began with helping people with learning difficulties and mental health problems as an alternative to counselling,” explains Felicity. “With depression, there’s the condition itself that you have to cope with but there’s also the effect it has on someone’s life in general, such as the effect it can have on relationships. Music can help with these aspects. “Music can connect people with feelings that are difficult to deal with. If you try and push
certain feelings away it’s difficult to try and learn to cope with them. Because music by its very nature is emotional it means you can experience these emotions without having to put labels on them. “It might sound high faluting but it’s not. In music you can express yourself with great vigour, playing music extremely loudly. Doing that is both creative and an acceptable way within society to explore strong feelings.” Although music therapy can help a huge range of people, therapists are a scarce resource. In Cheshire Nordoff Robbins only has a handful of music therapists working across the county in places such as Park Lane School
and Adlington Manor Care Home. But because they are often spread so thin it frequently means only some of the most vulnerable are benefiting. “At Park Lane School I work with children who have learning disabilities,” explains Felicity. “But because I’m a relatively scarce resource the school have asked me to prioritise the children with profound and multiple learning disabilities and autism as those are the two groups of children that find it hardest to access the curriculum.” For those that benefit from the therapy it can be very powerful. If someone is using their body and mind to make music they are not necessarily aware that it’s therapeutic, for many they think of it just as fun. Over the years this fun music making has changed people’s lives; it’s improved people’s physical health, boosted people’s confidence and provided a form of communication. So it must be rewarding job. “After 24 years?” laughs Felicity. “Yes, it’s a very rewarding job.” n www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk