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In this episode of ‘How Music Heals’, psychotherapist and author Philippa Perry visits a school in Hampshire rated outstanding for its education and care of young people between the ages of 5-25 with complex physical and learning disabilities. Cressida Lindsay heads the music therapy department there, and Philippa is allowed to listen in to some of her therapy sessions with young people.

Music is part of life at Treloars – but the difference between music lessons they have as part of the curriculum and individual music therapy lessons is the ability to have a skilled therapist working with them. Lindsay helps individuals articulate and process difficult emotions using specially adapted instruments and creative communication. In this boarding school where 98% of the young people are wheelchair users, music therapy is the one time in their week when they have a profound experience of control, of exerting their own agency with a therapist who listens and responds to help them establish a sense of identity and independence without the need for speech or spoken communication.