Crystal spoke to Sarah Hodkinson in advance of their participation in the Roundtable Keynote discussion , entitled 'Navigating the Music Therapy Landscape: Considering the challenges and opportunities facing the profession in the UK', which will be part of the forthcoming BAMT online conference in November - Music Therapy in a Changing Landscape.

Sarah is a clinical academic, music therapist and EMDR therapist with more than 20 years' experience in paediatric palliative care. She is Head of Psychosocial Services at Shooting Star Children's Hospices, leading a thriving multidisciplinary team of arts therapists and family support workers providing holistic, family-centred care across London and Surrey.

Sarah continues to work clinically alongside her leadership role, giving therapy to children with life-limiting conditions, their siblings and parents, families experiencing bereavement and those living with the impact of traumatic experiences. She designed and leads an award-winning Specialist Bereavement Service and is passionate about addressing inequalities in paediatric palliative care through research, knowledge exchange, co-creation, creativity and systems thinking.

Sarah is a Principal Teaching Fellow and Associate Professor at the University of Southampton, where her academic work focuses on music in healthcare and education. Her research includes publicly funded projects exploring music and rehabilitation for adults with cochlear implants, and research into inequalities in specialist bereavement care following child death. She has also developed international work combining music therapy and speech and language therapy in Moldova, where Commusicating is now embedded across six regions. Her work is presented nationally and internationally.

Sarah particularly values the opportunity to inhabit both the clinical and academic worlds, where research informs practice and the experiences of children and families shape research and how future generations learn. Music remains an important part of her life: she plays many instruments, most often Celtic harp, guitar, piano and flute, and is Deputy Conductor of a 50-strong vocal ensemble that tours across Europe.

At the heart of Sarah's work is a belief in learning from people with lived experience, creating models of care that are meaningful, compassionate and achieve excellent clinical outcomes.

In this episode, Crystal Luk-Worrall talks to Sally Bouwman. This is the first time that a senior member of staff from a school has been on the podcast, so this episode will be of special interest to any music therapists working in schools.

Sally is an assistant head and SENCO with over 30 years' experience as a teacher working in primary and secondary settings. She has always had an interest in children who may find the classroom and playground experience and school based learning challenging at times.

Luke spoke to Naviella Dowds about her journey to music therapy. This includes some discussion of her challenging experiences during training, which she initally discussed in a public forum at the most recent BAMT conference in Leicester, in 2024, as part of a keynote.

Naviella Dowds is an HCPC-registered music therapist, PhD researcher at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and Founder and CEO of Lyrical Minds, a pioneering organisation specialising in rap, Hip-Hop and DJ-informed creative practice within music therapy and wellbeing.

Naviella's journey into this work is deeply personal. During her own cancer recovery, she discovered rap and songwriting as powerful tools for processing emotions, finding her voice and supporting her mental wellbeing. This experience, alongside her academic and professional journey, led her to explore how rap, Hip-Hop and DJ culture can be meaningfully and ethically integrated into music therapy.

Her PhD research, "Finding Voice: Exploring Rap-Informed Creative Practice as a Culturally Responsive Approach Within Music Therapy and Wellbeing," explores creative expression, identity, culture and wellbeing, while questioning how the profession can become more culturally responsive and inclusive.

Through Lyrical Minds, Naviella delivers training, CPD, workshops, keynote presentations and creative programmes for professionals and communities. She is also a Board Member of BAMT, where she hopes to contribute to the future development of the profession.

Looking ahead, Naviella is passionate about expanding opportunities for rap and Hip-Hop-informed practice, supporting greater cultural understanding within music therapy, developing international partnerships and taking Lyrical Minds around the world through training, research and collaboration.

Her ultimate goal is to help create a music therapy profession where everyone can find their voice, their culture is respected, and there is space for different ways of making, experiencing and understanding music.

Links:

LinkedIn post of a video of Nav's performance at age 15, in tribute to her close friends who were tragically killed.

Nav's post about the tragic death of Jason Arday

Lyrical Minds Website