Paul's story
"The quickest hour of the week"
That’s my description of the time I spend each Friday with music therapist Jon Hall in the recording studio. I’ve been given the freedom to let out my creativity.
Over the course of the project I have done something that I have only ever dreamed of, I have written a song! And surprisingly it sounds like a song. I’m not sure that what I do in front of the microphone could be called singing but without doubt I have felt more fulfilled by this project than in any other course I have been involved with.
It has been a great help with my auditory hallucinations. While I’m working on the song they recede into the background. I’ve tried loads and loads of things over the years to get that effect and it’s never worked before with anything.
Hear Paul talk about his experience of music therapy in this clip from a BBC World feature at Outsider Gallery, an enterprise co-founded by Jon Hall
Ultimately the effect upon my mental health has been extremely positive.
After living with treatment resistant Paranoid Schizophrenia for 3 decades, my general confidence is knocked and sometimes believe that the perceptions of others are that I’m not worthwhile as a person, because I don’t fit into neat categories they like to put you in.
That is why working with Jon Hall has been so therapeutic. It has given me a new found confidence in my creative abilities and I am thankful to all those involved.