In music therapy, music therapists and clients make music together. By tuning into each client’s individual responses, the therapist creates a platform for connection and self-expression. The impact on wellbeing and development – physical, social, mental and emotional – can be transformative.

Music therapy provides a way for people to express and process emotions without the need for words. It boosts confidence and helps find connections and meaning, positively impacting on mental health. It can also aid cognitive function, coordination, speech and physical development.

The Nordoff and Robbins approach is ‘music-centred’ – our sole aim is to reap the many rewards of musical participation. The music making is collaborative, and these collaborations are led by our clients. It is an approach shaped by research and shared through our education and training programmes.

Our approach is underpinned by academic research, built up over several decades. Together with delivery and education, research remains one of the three central pillars of our work. It allows us to examine our practice, highlight new opportunities and train our students more effectively.

Paul Nordoff was an American musician, Clive Robbins a British teacher. In 1959, they pioneered a new approach to collaborative music-making to engage vulnerable and isolated children. In the 1970s, our charity was formed to develop and deliver their highly impactful form of music therapy.

Our music therapy services can be accessed through one of two routes: either directly from Nordoff and Robbins or through one of the dozens of education, health and social care organisations we partner with around the country.

Our services are truly nationwide. Our music therapists work across the whole of England, Scotland and Wales through a network of eight regional hubs. Some of our services are delivered directly from our premises, most are delivered in collaboration with our partners.

You can apply by filling in a paper or online form. This referral can be made directly by you, or by a parent, carer or professional. We also provide access to other forms of musical collaboration, in-person or online: Community Choirs, Adult Afternoon Group and Accessible Music Learning.

Some of our services are free and others, like Accessible Music Learning, may require payment. You can find out more about each of our services on our website. If you’re looking to partner with us to bring music therapy to your organisation, please get in touch and we can talk through options.

Music therapy offers an opportunity for connection with others. It helps unlock memories and retain personal identity. It can also mitigate other worries and losses associated with older age, such as physical health and mobility problems, bereavement, and the awareness of approaching death.

Everyone’s abilities are unique, and music therapy can help celebrate these abilities. For someone with autism, it can unlock potential, support communication and social interaction, and build awareness. Through active music making, we can cultivate self-esteem and confidence.

For people of all ages, music therapy can support cognitive, communicative, physical and social skills, as well as offering opportunities for emotional expression and enjoyment. It can also help children with learning disabilities reach towards developmental milestones.

Music therapy allows them to experience their own potential for creativity. It helps them build fulfilling relationships with others. It reduces isolation and encourages social interaction. In doing so, it can improve mood, confidence and self-esteem.

Music therapy can support communication and offer opportunities for interaction. If a person is experiencing life-changing circumstances through an acquired brain injury, music therapy can, in tandem with other professionals, help support the journey of adjustment and rehabilitation.

Music therapy can play an important role in recovery from serious illness, but where recovery is not possible it can help maintain quality of life. It offers an emotional outlet and a sense of comfort and enjoyment, allowing people to be playful, interactive and adventurous when they need it most.

Music therapy creates opportunities for bonding and collaboration. It helps build resilience. Where experiences are hard to talk about, music allows people to express the inexpressible. Carefully chosen music can bring back happy memories and help with the processing of difficult thoughts.

Our events range from big awards ceremonies to intimate quiz nights. They help us raise money, spread awareness and bring people together in a vibrant, celebratory atmosphere. Because music is part of our DNA, many events are tied in with the music industry, but others are open to the public.

Our events page is updated regularly. Many of our events are also announced on our social media channels – our Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram. Our monthly newsletter also spotlights many of our upcoming events. To sign up to our mailing list, click here.

Ticketing arrangement vary from event to event. Details are provided in the event descriptions on our events page.

Through our corporate partnerships, we develop relationships with businesses of all sizes that want to give something back to society, including sponsorship of our events. There is no set template for this – we work closely with our partners to create a model that fits with their mission.

Try to think of an event or activity that makes the most of your interests and abilities. This might be a sponsored athletic challenge, a sale or a ticketed concert. If you email [email protected], we’ll be able to help you with advice, support and supplies.

We recommend setting up a fundraising page on Enthuse – an alternative to JustGiving, catered to charities. This the quickest and safest way to get funds to us.

Social media can be a great way to spread the word when fundraising. If you tag us in, we might be able to increase your reach. It is also possible to raise money for Nordoff and Robbins through the ‘charity fundraiser’ function in Facebook.

You can donate any money raised for Nordoff and Robbins through our donate page.

We employee people in a wide range of roles, from fundraising and events to research and education. To view current vacancies, visit our careers page. If none of our listings are a good fit, email your CV to [email protected] and we’ll alert you if anything suitable comes up.

We foster an atmosphere of openness and transparency, courage and honesty. Our culture is highly inclusive. We’re also committed to professional development and personal wellbeing. This is a place where people can stretch their talents and grow their skills.

First you need a talent for music, an interest in people. Then you need a lot of education and training. By law, every practicing music therapist must have a masters-level qualification from an approved programme. These include the Nordoff and Robbins Master of Music Therapy.

We have three teaching bases, in London, Manchester and Newcastle. Students are expected to attend for two consecutive days each week. To help those who don’t live close to a base, we try to organise the timetable to make it feasible to travel on the first day and return at the end of the second.

Yes. Our primary concern is that you should be a well-rounded musician with a real capacity for communication. You don’t have to be an experienced improviser, but we do want to see evidence of your flexibility, responsiveness and generosity as a musician. You will also need functional harmony skills (on any instrument), so that you can accompany someone singing a song, for example.

You don’t need to be able to read music or to have done any traditional music examinations or ‘grades’ to thrive on this programme and then to do great work as a music therapist. We don’t see distinction at Grade 8 as necessarily equipping you with the kind of skills that will enable you to do great musical work with people. Instead, we are looking for people who have a good ear and strong musical competences, in particular a clear ability to be musically flexible, responsive, and therefore companionable for people for whom companionship is often particularly hard to achieve or experience. We also want you to be musically imaginative so that you can, where appropriate, lead people into new and meaningful musical experiences. This means not being restricted to just one way of playing or thinking musically, but rather being able to be changed by other people’s musics and by new situations. In particular, you need to be able to hear the potential music in all sorts of apparently non-musical situations and to play a part in enabling this music to be experienced. However, we are often asked for a benchmark by prospective students who are used to thinking in terms of grades. In response to this we usually say that your primary instrument should be at what might be considered Grade 8 or above. If this isn’t a harmony instrument, you will also need to demonstrate harmony skills that could be considered at Grade 6 or above. As explained above though, we care much more about your musicianship, your musical flexibility and your musical imagination than about any grade exam results you may have achieved. That’s why we invite shortlisted applicants to play and sing with us (rather than just to us) at audition.

It is £10,000 for the full two-year training programme (paid in 5 instalments: September, January, May, September, January). Unfortunately, our students cannot access the postgraduate loan offered by Student Finance England, but this is something we are continuing to work on. We try to offer various bursary opportunities throughout the training programme, but these may vary year to year. If you have any questions about funding, please do get in touch with us at [email protected].

There are additional costs to be aware of whilst undertaking the MMT training – please see the question below for more information.

No. Some of our students have a music degree or have been to music college, but we are also keen to recruit students whose musical training is from a different tradition or is less formalised.

No, but you do need a good ear and the ability to pick up musical ideas quickly and effectively. We don’t mind what kind of terminology you use, but you do need to be able to communicate with precision about what you’re doing and what you’re experiencing musically.

We would encourage you to test your personal capacity for this kind of work by gaining some professional, voluntary or familial experience of working with people who have particular needs, as this can be both physically and emotionally demanding.

Absolutely not. We positively welcome applications from people with life experience. Many people apply to the programme having accrued considerable professional experience in related areas, including teaching, nursing and community music.

We actively seek to recruit diverse cohorts. Ultimately, we would like our student cohorts to reflect the diversity of the people we serve. That isn’t yet the case, but we are working towards it.

No. Our foundation module teaches you the fundamentals of the Nordoff and Robbins approach, and you won’t have got this from other training.

No, but we have designed the programme to be as manageable as possible for people who need to continue working while training. You will be required to spend two days a week at the teaching base and one on placement. You will also have the equivalent of a day’s private study to do each week.

This isn’t necessarily an obstacle, but you will need to demonstrate to us that you’re capable of working at masters level. If you would like some guidance on how best to do this, please contact us on [email protected].

We don’t expect you to have read everything about music therapy, but you will need to show us that your wish to train is an informed one. When we interview you, we will explore your reasons for applying and what you have learned from your reading.

Because of the MMT’s international reputation, the quality of our graduates, and their success in gaining and generating work after training, we do get a lot of applications each year. Don’t let this deter you, though: if you have the right musical skills and personal qualities, we want you to apply.

Due to UK visa restrictions and the effects of Brexit, we can only accept applications from people who already have the right to live and study in the UK. It is not possible to apply for a Tier 4 UK student visa in order to undertake the MMT programme.

We hold regular open events in London, Newcastle and Manchester, as well as online, where you can meet staff and students and get a feel for what it would be like to be an MMT student. Check our website or contact us at [email protected] to find out more about upcoming open days. You can also email us at the above address or call 020 7267 4496 if you have any other questions about the MMT.

The programme is open to anyone of any nationality with the appropriate training and experience. Students from EU countries do not need a visa. Non-UK nationals can apply for visas for occasional study visits to the UK, to fulfil the programme requirements. Goldsmiths, University of London can assist with this.

We have designed the programme for candidates intending to work towards full PhD status, so it’s not normally possible to do just the MPhil stage. However, if your final thesis is not considered PhD standard, you may be offered an MPhil as the final award.

If you don’t have a masters-level qualification, or if it’s in a different academic area, you will need to provide convincing evidence of your capabilities. This could be evidence of designing and carrying out an informal pilot project, contributions to peer-reviewed journals or books, or a recommendation from an academic supervisor or co-professional.

The programme is ‘practice-orientated’ rather than a purely academic track. It usually takes at least five years of practical experience to find confidence as a practitioner and locate a research area that you are genuinely interested in and committed to.

The programme is primarily designed for people who have already developed some level of competence in research, either through a masters-level course or professional experience. However, in certain circumstances it may be possible to build up this competence through the PhD programme.

No. The programme requires that you develop a new research project. This may build on your past practical, theoretical and research achievements, but no formal credit will be given for previous publications or completed research projects.

The parameters of those research areas are determined by the practical, theoretical and methodological expertise of the current supervisory staff. These supervisors cover a wide range of practical, theoretical and research interests in the music therapy / health / society field.

In most cases, it is likely that one of our supervisors will be able to help you. If we cannot provide the necessary level of expertise or research equipment, we will advise on alternative programmes that may be more suited to your needs.

No. Only the supervisors listed in our prospectus are approved by Goldsmiths to supervise students on the Nordoff and Robbins programme. However, it may be possible to discuss with your primary supervisor the use of additional research advisors for specialist areas of your research.

Although in principle the programme can be undertaken either full-time or part-time, we encourage you to take the part-time track in order to combine research with your ongoing clinical work.

This will vary throughout the programme, but part-time students normally need to spend one to two days per week on private study, as well as attending two-day research seminars four times a year and individual supervisions four to six times a year. Full-time candidates are expected to devote five days a week for 48 weeks a year.

Yes. If you are living in another country, you must demonstrate that your plan to study on the programme is realistic and that you will be available to attend the required seminars and supervisions in the UK.

No. Nordoff and Robbins has no specific funding for doctoral students. Sometimes students obtain assistance from charitable trusts or are sponsored by their employers. Limited financial assistance may be available for conference attendance or research-based travel.

As part of the application process, you will need to demonstrate your ability to pursue the programme in English – both written and spoken. If English is not your first language, we can help you need to get the most from the programme, but cannot address more basic language problems.

Nordoff and Robbins is a validated institution of Goldsmiths but not a faculty of the university, so only the resources that we have negotiated for use in the programme will be available to students. This includes full electronic library resources that can be accessed anywhere.

We strongly advise that you talk to the Programme Convenor before planning your research in any practical way. The application process is primarily designed for you to show your suitability for the programme rather than to show that you already have a fully developed research project, which is usually worked out during the first year of study.

Goldsmiths requires that we take no more than six candidates onto this programme at a time. This means that applications are necessarily competitive. We are committed to ensuring that the selection process will be as fair and transparent as possible.

Registered music therapists have access to either route, depending on their research subject area. For students without a music therapy entry qualification, only the PhD in Music, Health, Society is available.