Salah’s story - Nordoff and Robbins

Music therapy gives Salah* purposeful activity and meaningful ways to connect.

Salah, a young adult from a Middle Eastern country, arrived in the UK with his family last year. In his home country, he attended mainstream school. Now, Salah spends a lot of time at home with his parents as he is not currently accessing any language classes or college courses.

Salah’s sister, who has lived in the UK for some time, brought him and his parents to ICN (International Care Network) seeking support with learning English. It is here that Salah met our music therapist Anna, who asked if he might like to try music therapy. Salah liked music and would often sing along to Arabic songs at home. However, his sister explained that he was very shy and may struggle to take part in music sessions.

At first, Salah attended music therapy with his father, who was able to share with Anna some of his favourite pop music. First beginning with the snare drum and cymbal, Salah later went on to try the piano. In his first session, he appeared quite overwhelmed as though he might cry. Although he could understand some English, Salah lacked confidence and would look to his father to translate what Anna was saying.

After a few sessions, Salah communicated that he didn’t enjoy the loudness of the drums. On the piano, however, he was able to improvise extended melodic phrases reminiscent of the music he enjoyed listening to. He was also responsive to the guitar and the violin, especially when Anna would play in a Middle Eastern scale.

A real breakthrough for Salah came when Anna suggested that they sit next to each other and share the piano. He was able to copy some of Anna’s hand shapes and immediately hear when she played the same notes as him. Salah began to gain confidence in playing different notes and phrases simultaneously with each hand. He discovered the different voices on the keyboard and told his father that he really like the organ sound, as well as piano.

Salah always listens very carefully and there is a real sense of co-creation in our musical improvisations.
Anna, Salah’s music therapist

Now, Salah has begun to improvise on the guitar using alternative guitar tuning to create sounds he is familiar with. Through music therapy sessions, Salah has learned new music-related words in English and will occasionally say something to Anna in English. Anna has also noticed a huge improvement in the amount of eye contact and interaction between Salah and her during sessions. His father has spoken of Salah’s motivation to attend the music therapy sessions, which are the only activity he attends outside of the house.