About Therapy
“Start now be perfect later” - Robert Moore
What is Psychotherapy?
According to the NHS Psychotherapy usually involves talking to a therapist, but sometimes other methods may be used for example; music, art, drama and movement. It can help you discuss feelings you have about yourself and other people, particularly family and those close to you. It allows you to look deeper into your problems and worries, and deal with a wide range of mental health issues, such as depression, and anxiety.
What is Music Therapy?
According to the British Association for Music Therapy (BAMT); music therapy is a psychological clinical therapy, delivered by HCPC registered music therapists to help people with their mental health, through supporting their psychological, emotional, cognitive, physical, communicative and social needs.
A therapeutic relationship is established through the engagement of live musical interaction and play between therapist and client. This could be anything from improvising music, listening to music, moving to music or writing music together.
During the time spent together both the therapist and client will embark on a psychological journey through the medium of music to try to meet the needs of the client.
You don't have to be good at music or play an instrument that's my job! Music Therapy provides you with a different outlet than just talking. We might make playlists together of music that really resonates with you. We might reflect on music that we both share within sessions or we could write songs together. Instruments will always be available for you to try out and explore. It's not about learning how to play an instrument, you might find that you learn how to express yourself through sound just as we all try to with words.
What can you expect in the beginning?
I provide free phone consultations before therapy sessions begin. The consultation gives me the opportunity to understand what your current difficulties are and to take some background information. This will give me an insight to your past experiences along with your current situation which will help both of us determine what you want out of therapy. This also gives you the opportunity to talk to me before we meet in person or online and get a feeling if you would be happy to work with me on your therapeutic journey.
Our first session will be about us getting to know each other. We may talk about why you have decided to embark on therapy, and what you want to get out of your sessions. This may be a time of just exploration or a space to offload for the first time. The choice is yours!
I like to leave 10 minutes at the end of every session to bring us back into the present moment, this time can be used to maybe reflect on what we have done together in the session and prepare you for coming out of the session. I find these 10 minutes can be very useful because it helps to have a summary of what we have just done and it can be quite jarring going back into the outside world after being in a therapy session. My priority is always to keep you safe.