Benefits of music therapy
“… music and art can inspire people, give them hope, confidence and skills to start to get their lives back on track and help them to connect with their own resilience and emotional well-being.”
Jon Hall
Music therapy can help to:
Raise self belief and confidence
Build a sense of well-being and improve mood
Reflect on, and gain new insight into, psychological, emotional, cognitive, physical, communicative and social needs
Reduce anxieties about social interaction and develop a sense of inclusion, being part of a community through collaboration
Find a voice that is going to be heard and express the almost inexpressible
Feel recognised, appreciated and valued
Release tension and express emotions through creativity
Creative music helps to develop self-confidence and self-belief and then utilises this creative outlet further through performance and exhibition to peer support, recognition and appreciation.
Participants gradually work towards a final event which is co-developed and co-designed with the participants.
One of the most significant parts of this work is the change in perception or ‘shift in gaze’ experienced by professionals, clinicians, staff and the public, who are able to see the artists and performers as people. They can see their hidden talents their assets (during our performances) rather than seeing them through the lens of their clinical diagnosis or their deficits.
Music Therapy Advances in Neuroscience-disability Conference
Jon Hall was able to showcase the fruits of a unique one-off four day music project at the Music Therapy Advances in Neuro-disability Conference in June 2015. The music therapy project was a partnership between the charities Headway and Nordoff -Robbins. Clients were taught to play instruments, sing together as a group, perform and narrate their own personal recovery stories. All vocals, instruments and sounds were created and performed by the group and two supporting music therapists. The project lead to a re-recorded cover version of ‘All you need is love’ by the Beatles, and a DVD which was shown at an event at Abbey Rd studios to celebrate the achievement of a group of people with brain injury.
In this work Jon drew on his combined skills as a record producer and music therapist to give participants an experience of being in a band, making a record and a DVD to watch together.
This innovative music project combined different platforms, linking together music therapy, studio style recording and video production and promotional concepts more typical in the music industry than the therapeutic world. Through this fusion participants are afforded a ‘musical mirror’ through which they could observe their well-functioning selves, and being in social and cultural connection to the wider world. Theoretically this work aligns with the recent psycho-socio-cultural perspectives of Community Music Therapy and ‘music and health’ programmes for recovery in various clinical areas.
A short film of this work can be found below.
All You Need Is Love
International Association for Youth Mental Health 2017 Conference: Arts & Minds Project
This film 'Arts and minds' arose as a creative response to some of the questions raised around future proofing young peoples' mental health at the International Association for Youth Mental Health Conference 2017.
During an arts and minds creative music therapy workshop attendees and delegates offered their creative responses in the form of music, spoken word, singing, drumming and singing together as a choir, to some of the questions posed. These responses were recorded and edited and produced into a small film by myself which was played back over the conference big screen presentation for attendees and delegates to watch, during morning and afternoon breaks. For the people who took part they said it was exciting, inspiring and also scary for them listening and watching themselves back.
