Rehabilitation journeys are increasingly being guided by the rhythmic interventions of music therapists but challenges in opening up access remain; as Chroma’s Daniel Thomas explains.
Daniel Thomas, managing director of art therapies provider Chroma, developed an interest in music at a young age. However, he’s concerned that young people today aren’t exposed to enough music education, and that this will have a knock- on effect on music therapy, which can help a range of people, including those with a brain injury.
“There have been massive cutbacks, a killing off of music in schools,” Thomas says, “Which has had a huge effect over many years as that side of school life has been systematically eked away and cut back.
“If people aren’t exposed or brought into music education early in their lives, it probably won’t happen later on in a way that’ll lead to them considering music therapy as a profession.”
“I’d be delighted if Boris Johnson and the education secretary saw the significant social value and healthcare value of having music in the education curriculum. It’s almost criminal to strip it out in the way it has been stripped out by Labour and Conservatives, and it needs to go back in as matter of national urgency.”
Chroma is a trailblazer for the government’s new arts therapy apprenticeship scheme, however, which is giving Thomas hope that more people will enter the profession in the future.
“I’m hoping a much more diverse range of candidates applying to be arts therapists will come in, but it will take ten years to see the results of that.”
There’s also a need for the NHS to spend more money on arts therapy, which also includes drama and art, he argues.
“The NHS used to be the biggest employer of arts therapy, but with various cutbacks, those jobs have gone.
“I think there are huge untapped resources within arts therapy professions, but that takes significant amounts of education.”
Thomas, however, generally feels very positive about the strides music therapy has taken in recent years.
There is a growing recognition of the power of arts therapies, he says, and in recent years, a growing body of research on how music therapy can help many groups of people with many injuries and conditions.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced professionals in arts therapy, including the roughly 70 therapists who work for Chroma, to work together, and
move online.
“Covid has spurred on the profession and ourselves to open up our minds to other ways of working, while at the same time, holding onto core clinical ethics as therapists: are we doing no harm, and are we supporting that person to work towards the goals they feel are important?”
This could have cost benefits.
Conversations around this are easier today, because the profession is only now starting to talk more openly about the financial side of their work.
“For years, the economics side of the profession, how much you charge, was a bit taboo, therapists felt uncomfortable thinking about the financial aspect of what we do,” Thomas says.
“But the profession is catching up to itself around this, and learning from other sectors.”
Music therapy, as well as art and drama therapy, are regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council, and arts therapists are allied health professionals (AHPs), which means they’re on the same level as speech therapists, physiotherapists and many more.
Music therapists, including Chroma therapists, work within the NHS, and in private clinical practices.
Thomas says music therapists work as key components in multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) helping the recovering of patients with brain injury. “We’re very collaborative – we want to follow MDT goals.
Because music stimulates a diverse range of brain areas and networks, it has an impact on speech and language, on the sensory motor system, cognitive function and the emotional wellbeing of the client.”
“Music therapy connects across a hugely diverse range of areas in the brain and there’s research from neuroscience around the way in which when the brain is stimulated by music new neural pathways are created.”
“It’s not necessarily fixing the part of the brain damaged in an accident, but going round those areas and reconnecting parts of the brain, that’s why people should feel really confidence in using music therapy and using music therapists as highly skilled professionals.”
Music therapy contributes to the expertise of numerous disciplines, Thomas says. Some patients will prefer to work towards their goals when music is the context through which that treatment is delivered, and there are many ways music can be used in their therapy.
For example, for a client who has issues walking, the rhythm of a song could be used to help them walk, or using the melody of a song to enable a sequence of steps to carry out a particular task, such as making a cup of tea.
A patient’s engagement with therapy can be improved by playing music they know – which is why, Thomas says, music therapy can be bespoke and person-centred.
A familiar song can be used by therapists, for example, to help connect a patient with their life before their brain injury and who they are now, bridging the gap between the two.
Slow music can also be used to help control anxiety by slowing down the heart rate. When a client shows signs of calming down to a particular piece of music, the therapist can share this with the MDT so it can be applied across the patient’s care.
“If their heartrate and breathing goes through the roof during personal care episodes, we can help work with the staff team to say that, from music therapy sessions, we can see that the client’s breathing slows and their heart rate reduces with this particular music.”
In this case, the piece of music could be played before and during personal care so that it can be reframed within the context of the music. Overall, Thomas is hopeful for the future of music therapists; for the apprenticeship scheme that will hopefully boost awareness of the profession, and for the research that continues to bolster
the sector.
“It’s an interesting time to be in the arts therapies, and a great time to be a music therapist.”