Ep 91 - Crystal Luk-Worrall
Music Therapy Conversations
In episode 91, Davina speaks to Crystal Luk-Worrall about EMDR and music therapy. Crystal Luk-Worrall is a music therapist and EMDR therapist working with the adoption community in London through her private practice Clap and Toot, as well as working with bereaved families through her work at Shooting Star Children’s Hospices. She enjoys exploring multi-modality practice and systemic practice. Crystal also supports fellow freelance therapists and newly qualified therapists through her role as BAMT’s freelance network coordinator.
info_outline
Ep 90 Helen Wallace-Bell
Music Therapy Conversations
In this podcast, Martin Lawes talks to Helen Wallace-Bell about SMI and RMI which are part of the contemporary spectrum of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) and Music and Imagery (MI) methods Helen explains what these approaches are and how the recorded music used is chosen collaboratively to help the client develop their inner resources or work on issues. Helen is involved in MI training which also gets discussed. In addition, Helen talks about her work with clients who have PTSD and about online groupwork with carers. She discusses various music used in this work...
info_outline
Ep 89 Emi Booth
Music Therapy Conversations
Emi talks with Davina about their recent debut at the BAMT Conference in May 2024 where they spoke about their experiences of being a deaf music therapist. Here are Emi's words of introduction: My name’s Emi and my pronouns are they/them. I’m a deaf music therapist who currently works in older people’s mental health in the NHS. I graduated from the University of Derby in 2022 with my master’s in music therapy, where I became passionate about making music therapy more accessible to deaf people. Ever since, I’ve been working on publishing my independent scholarship on how my experience...
info_outline
Ep 88 BAMT Conference 2024 Roundtable Discussion
Music Therapy Conversations
This is the recording of the live discussion from the BAMT conference at the Curve Theatre Leicester on 18 May 2024. The conference panel was Luke Annesley, Rachel Darnley-Smith, Tilly Mutter and Davina Vencatasamy. Surprise special guests were Wendy Magee and Joy Gravestock, who happened to be in the audience, and excerpts were included from previous episodes from Wendy and Joy, along with Denise Wong and Mercedes Pavlicevic. The episode includes discussion about the genesis of the podcast, the processes of interviewing and being interviewed, and closer examination of excerpts from episodes...
info_outline
Ep 87 Karen Goodman
Music Therapy Conversations
Karen D. Goodman, PhD., Professor Emerita of Music, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey, USA., has been the primary figure in designing and developing both the former undergraduate and graduate music therapy programs at Montclair over forty years. Professor Goodman’s research-based clinical work, at ten clinical settings, includes music therapy practice in child and adult psychiatry and developmental disabilities at New York Hospital- Cornell Medical Center, Creative Arts Rehabilitation Center-NYC and educational programs in the Greater New York area. Currently an Associate...
info_outline
Ep 86 Holly Shirra
Music Therapy Conversations
Holly Shirra is a qualified music therapist who holds her focus on helping people connect in community and express themselves creatively and authentically. With classical piano training from a young age, Holly discovered a passion for free improvisation while studying music therapy, which she completed in 2020. To help her understand further how people spontaneously create in groups, Holly founded 'Cambridge Music Improv' - a community project that gathers people from diverse backgrounds in public spaces to improvise music together. This supportive environment allows participants to tap into...
info_outline
Ep 85 Jessica Leza
Music Therapy Conversations
Jessica Leza is a board-certified music therapist, author, and multimedia artist. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Music Composition from the University of North Texas and a Master of Arts in Music Therapy from Texas Woman’s University. Leza’s music therapy scholarship and advocacy centers around neurodiversity, disability justice, culture, and LGBTQ+ liberation and includes publications in The Neurodiversity Reader, Sociocultural Identities in Music Therapy, and The Oxford Handbook of Queer and Trans Music Therapy, as well as the solo-authored An Introduction...
info_outline
Ep 84 Den Vecchio
Music Therapy Conversations
Luke talks to Den Vecchio, a play therapist living and working in Bristol, UK. They discuss the principles of play therapy, why play therapy has become more available in mainstream schools in recent years, and overlaps with music therapy practice. Also - why every play therapist should have snakes, spiders and crocodiles in their collection! Den is a thoughtful practitioner and was a very entertaining and engaging podcast guest. As a music therapist, you're perhaps unlikely to have come across her, but don't let this discourage you from listening to this fascinating episode. There's lots of...
info_outline
Ep 83 Evelyn Mason
Music Therapy Conversations
Evelyn Mason is an experienced music therapist and Vice-Chancellor’s PhD Student at the Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in Cambridge. Chroma Therapies and the Independent Neurorehabilitation Providers Alliance (INPA) are collaborating with ARU on this study which focuses on music therapy to address the emotional challenges of family caregivers of people with Huntington’s disease. As a practising clinician, she has specialisms in brain injury rehabilitation, adoption, dementia, learning disability and hospice care. Having completed her MA...
info_outline
Ep 82 Elaine Streeter
Music Therapy Conversations
Elaine is a BAMT registered clinical supervisor, and consultant lead visitor for the HCPC. She studied piano and composition at GSMD, and trained as a music therapist with Dr Paul Nordoff and Dr Clive Robbins in London. After running the music therapy service at the CDC, Charing Cross Hospital for several years, and completing an MA research thesis in music therapy at the University of York, Elaine was appointed Senior Lecturer at the Roehampton Institute where she developed a new post-graduate course in Music Therapy. Her music therapy practice with children, young people, and adults...
info_outlineThis episode is Luke's conversation with Giorgos Tsiris, with a focus on spirituality and music therapy.
Born and raised in Athens, Greece, Giorgos moved to London in 2007 for his music therapy training. For the past 14 years, he has worked as a music therapist in diverse palliative care contexts for adults with incurable illnesses, their families and their local communities. He has developed collaborative community and intergenerational projects disrupting societal assumptions about death and dying, and his work has received national awards and informed similar arts initiatives internationally. Alongside his practice, Giorgos has a multifaceted research portfolio with extensive experience in issues pertaining to service evaluation and professionalisation in music therapy and within the wider field of arts and health, and in 2014 he co-authored two books on service evaluation and research ethics respectively. His doctorate focused on spirituality and its place in music therapy. Through an ethnographic lens, his research has brought to the fore the ‘doing’ of spirituality, its messiness and its performance within everyday music therapy contexts. Giorgos is the founding editor of Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy, and in 2022 he co-chaired the 12th European Music Therapy Conference. He currently serves as Senior Lecturer in Music Therapy at Queen Margaret University and the Arts Lead at St Columba’s Hospice Care, Edinburgh, Scotland.
References:
Bucar, L. (2022). Stealing my religion: Not just any cultural appropriation. Harvard University Press.
MacKian, S. (2012). Everyday spirituality: Social and spatial worlds of enchantment. Palgrave Macmillan.
Tsiris, G. (2017). Music therapy and spirituality: An international survey of music therapists’ perceptions. Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 26(4), 293-319.
Tsiris, G. (2018). Performing spirituality in music therapy: Towards action, context and the everyday (Doctoral dissertation, Goldsmiths, University of London). https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/23037/
Tsiris, G. (2021). Tracing spirituality in everyday music therapy contexts: Methodological reflections. In K. Hendricks & J. Boyce-Tillman & (Eds.), Authentic connection: Music, spirituality and wellbeing (Chapter 10). Peter Lang.
Tsiris, G., & Ansdell, G. (2019). Exploring the spiritual in music. Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy, 11(1), 3-8. https://approaches.gr/tsiris-e20191124/