A day in the life of... Amelia Clapham, Yo-Yo Music Therapist

I work part-time as a music therapist as part of the Yo-Yo Project supporting bereaved children. My role involves supporting children who have experienced a bereavement through therapy sessions either in school or at Farleigh Hospice.

Music therapy is a psychological therapy which involves using music to work towards therapeutic aims. For children, particularly those with additional needs, music can be an extremely useful tool supporting them to express their emotions non-verbally. My day begins at 9am and, after a day representing Farleigh and the Yo-Yo team at the ‘Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) in East of England Conference’ at Chelmsford Racecourse yesterday, this morning I am working from home catching up on emails and making sure all my visits are scheduled in for next week.

My first session this morning is a child with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at a special school in Chelmsford. Sessions are child-led, so no session is the same! We sometimes talk about the week and friendships at school. Other sessions are more creative using the musical instruments or art materials as a means of self-expression. We have recently been working on making a memory box – painting it and making clay sculptures for it. We have also written a song about the experience of bereavement and identity, which has been a key focus of our sessions. When I go to sessions, I carry around a large ‘tool kit’ which includes various musical instruments and art materials. Creativity gives children the opportunity to express themselves in a different way and also opens the door to talking about and processing the bereavement.

After the session, I book in next week’s session with the school receptionist and off I come back home to write my notes. I then have time to prepare for my supervision session later today. Supervision is an integral part of any therapist’s work – it is our safe space to reflect with another therapist on our caseload and talk through any challenges and process our emotional responses to our client. The Yo-Yo team are lucky to have both internal (management) supervision and external supervision. My supervision session this afternoon is with an external supervisor, another music therapist, and we have the session online. Next it’s lunchtime, a quick sandwich for me and a break away from the laptop (super important when working from home).

After lunch it’s back to work and now to prepare for our bereavement team away day next week where we have to each give a presentation. After supervision, I am straight into another session with a child – this time online. It’s different today as normally I see this young person in person but, due to timings and schedules, online worked best so that’s what we are doing. I shut myself away in a room where I won’t be distracted and we begin. The session finishes and it’s time to write up my notes and finish off any emails before my working week has finished. Now it’s time to go and collect my three-year-old son from nursery.