Our Music Therapists work with Children and Young People across Hertfordshire in Schools, Residential Homes and within the family home. Some of the specialist client groups and additional services we offer are:
Early Years
Emma (Music Therapist) worked with a 3 year old boy for a block of six sessions and was assessing his communication and attention skills, his ability to fantasy play and his cognitive skills. After writing a detailed report, the boy's mother used the report to have her son assessed for Autistic Spectrum Disorder and he was diagnosed soon after. By the end of the therapy sessions, this boy was able to sustain his attention for longer periods of time and was also interacting with the therapist more frequently.
Music Therapists are trained in early development as part of the Music Therapy Masters Degree. Children who are referred receive an initial assessment to establish therapeutic goals (these can be the same as the child's nursery or school goals). Some examples of therapeutic goals with early years children are:
- Developing social interaction
- Speech development
- Increasing attention
- Promoting choice making
- Improving confidence
Learning Disabilities
Herts Music Therapy have been working with Children with Learning Disabilities from mild-severe for almost a decade in both Mainstream and Special Needs Schools. Some examples of therapeutic goals when working with children with special needs are:
- Developing social interaction
- Enhancing communication skills (this can be verbally or non-verbally and encourages the use of other forms of communication like PECs & Maketon)
- Increasing attention
- Promoting choice making
- Promoting sensory integration for people who experience sensory differences
- Promoting emotional well-being
Emma (Music Therapist) worked with client A for 4 years. Firstly on an individual basis which then progressed into a group. He has shown progress in his choice making skills by using a communication board to select his song choice and participated in vocal phrase completion where he was able to make a sound Emma left a gap in the music. This has developed his communicative use of voice.
Young People and Mental Health
Emma works with a 14 year old boy who was finding it difficult to express his emotions in a healthy way. He uses his music therapy sessions as a creative outlet to express his emotions through song writing and has called the experience 'cathartic'. The therapist writes his song lyrics down and sings the songs back to him. This helps to acknowledge and validate his feelings.
Some examples of therapeutic goals with Young People with a specific focus on mental health are:
- Improving confidence
- Decreasing anxiety
- Developing emotional insight
- Provide a space for emotional expression
- To build trusting relationships
Workshops
Herts Music Therapy offers one off workshops at Schools for larger groups with a focus on live music making and musical interaction. Emma has delivered these workshops in Special Need Schools and Mainstream schools for all age groups and tailors these accordingly. Recently Emma has done workshops at a Mainstream school in Hertfordshire during Well Being Week focusing on creating a sense of unity and connection. Other examples of workshop goals are:
- exploring how to use music as a tool for emotional regulation and develop emotional insight by drawing on tools from other disciplines like the 'Zones of Regulation' (a social/emotional learning framework to foster self-regulation and emotional control).
- introducing how to use music as a tool for communication with songs developed by both Music Therapists and Speech and Language Therapists collaboratively.
