Chroma delivers new therapeutic music initiative to North Devon School

As music therapists, we have started delivering pilot therapeutic music group sessions at Marland School in North Devon to support students with their social, emotional and mental health needs...

Working across all four Marland School sites, Chroma is offering therapeutic music group sessions (and some 1:1 sessions where individual student need dictates) one day a week at each site, over the course of this academic year to see how the students benefit.

Focused on drumming, these activities use a model of music therapy, building on the work of Andreas Wolfi and his DrumPower approach, their purpose is to affect regulation and to develop conflict and resolution skills through teamwork and encouraging social interactions, as well as greater verbal and non-verbal communication.

The sessions aim to reduce anxieties and to further develop healthy relationships within the class groups, whilst providing them with opportunities to explore and create a cohesive network between themselves.

Using djembe drums, we use a variety of structured activities that focus on establishing group beats and collaboration such as passing individual rhythms, maintaining a group pulse, increasing and decreasing volume and tempo of play, all to instill a sense of belonging, coherence and value in the group.

Students work proactively during the sessions, agreeing guidelines to determine how they want to work together. While we suggest activities, the students can bring their own ideas to the sessions.

And, to create a sense of empowerment, at the end of the school year, the students will have opportunities to showcase their progress, demonstrating their group and individual achievements to an audience of their choice.

Teaching staff are encouraged to participate, as it provides them with a valuable opportunity to see the students in a different context and additional opportunities for them to connect positively with students outside of the classroom environment.

Drumming creates positive connections within the school, that serve to boost the students’ mental wellbeing.

The fundamental principles of this way of working help to maximise peer interactions, and as the djembe drums are played using the hands, it can be accessed by all, which is especially beneficial for the mental wellbeing of those students who may have a fear of failure or low self-worth.

Drumming can also be motivational for students as they tend to find it hard to resist playing them and by nature, both drumming and rhythm have self-regulating properties, as noted by child psychologist Bruce Perry.

He suggests patterned, repetitive rhythmic activity elicits a sensation of safety, and this idea is what helps students move from a highly anxious state to a calmer, more stable state.

Chroma’s approach is suitable for students aged between 8-16 years, and can work to help them manage issues some may at times struggle with, such as emotional expression or regulation and impulse control.

It also provides a safe space to work to resolve conflicts, not to mention, to have a positive experience of themselves and help further develop feelings of self-worth.

Some students at Marland may experience difficulties when working collaboratively, and this can lead to an increased anxious state; particularly in an unfamiliar context like drumming.

The group sessions aim to address these challenges by developing cohesion through familiarisation and gradual reduction in anxiety; through increased attendance, participation and engagement levels. They also provide opportunities to experience and develop regulation through those processes.

As the sessions continue, group attendance is becoming more stable and there has been a marked increase in active participation in the majority of the sessions.

The students are beginning to lead activities (that have been introduced in previous sessions), and are now suggesting and creating new activities within their groups; all of which contribute to fostering self-confidence and self-esteem further.