Lauren’s story

For Lauren, an adult with cerebral palsy who’s been coping with bereavement, music therapy offered a space to process complex emotions while cultivating resilience and hopefulness.

Lauren is a student with UpMo, a Nordoff and Robbins partner organisation that offers support and creative educational opportunities for adults with learning disabilities and autism. As a complement to ongoing group workshops, of which music is already a significant part, we began working with UpMo on a six-month pilot project focussed on one-to-one music therapy.

Through these sessions, individual students were given the opportunity to reflect upon their personal experiences through a developing musical relationship. One of those students was Lauren.

Lauren, who has cerebral palsy, has recently been coping with family bereavement, which has understandably affected her mood and motivation. We discovered that she has a particular affinity for music, being a member of a choir and having taken some guitar lessons, and it was felt that music therapy could give her relevant additional support.

Music therapy offers time and space to process complex emotions while also cultivating resilience and hopefulness through creativity and self-expression in shared music-making. Working with Finlay, one of our music therapists, Lauren has explored a wide range of musical expression – playing guitar, singing and creating a composition using software on the iPad, utilising her voice, acoustic and software instruments.

Music therapy has offered Lauren an opportunity to sustain and develop her existing relationship with music in an acknowledged therapeutic space.

This has given Lauren the time and space to reflect upon a wide range of personal experiences, foster resilience and find opportunities for self-expression and self-affirmation.

“That’s alright, eh?” she will say. “I didn’t know I could do that.”

From the outset, Lauren has continued to develop self-confidence and motivation through shared reflection in and about the music, building her capacity to realise creative choices. She has also developed her musical skills through the process of recording and through playing spontaneously in each session. 

It releases how you feel, helps with stuff that’s going on.

Lauren