Integrative Psychotherapy and Process-Based Music Therapy
Your experiences are unique; your therapy should be too.
Trauma is complex and rarely has one set “best-treatment.” That’s why we offer integrative therapy and process-based music therapy; so that we can find what works best for you as we discover it together. Whilst everything we do is integrative, there are two main routes for help - and you can move between them session-by-session, as we go.
Integrative Psychotherapy - The “Talking Space”
Integrative Psychotherapy is a common term these days, and simply means therapy that draws on lots of theories and practices. This is great news for somebody who has maybe tried ‘therapy’ before and felt it didn’t work; integrative working has so many options to try, and these therapists are skilled in utilising a vast toolbox of approaches.
This is a great space to understand the “why” of what happened, and process history linguistically. We can untangle the narrative, whilst also beginning to separate the past from the future, and set new horizons for you.
The work in integrative psychotherapy is under the remit of the National Council of Integrative Psychotherapists, and their Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct.
Process-Based Music Therapy - The “Creative Space”
Music Therapy is a form of psychotherapy, primarily non-lingsuitic, which is a powerful space to explore feelings when words might fail or escape us. The ‘process-based’ part means that we aren’t just going session-by-session, we are exploring your wider network of relating to yourself and others, mapping it out together, and then working to target some of the links in that map.
This is a great space to begin to embody new experiences, develop new forms of relating to your trauma, and trial revolutionary defusion and psychological flexibility exercises.
Music Therapy is a HCPC-registered profession, meaning that only state-registered individuals can practice it, with their own Code of Ethics and Conduct applying here.
How we work together:
Your safety is the priority. We will always agree on which therapeutic approach we are using for our session before we begin. While you have the freedom to move between talking therapy and music therapy as your needs change, we keep the boundaries clear so you always know exactly how we are working and what framework is supporting you.
Relational Frame Theory
Our clinical interventions are rigorously underpinned by Relational Frame Theory (RFT). RFT is the behavioural theory of human language and cognition that forms the scientific foundation of ACT. It demonstrates how our minds naturally link concepts, words, and experiences, and how these relational frameworks can sometimes trap us in rigid, unhelpful patterns of thinking and avoidance.
Music is a powerful, highly relational, and often pre-verbal medium. By bringing RFT into the music therapy space, we can bypass the limitations of traditional talking therapies. We use musical interaction to safely challenge and reshape rigid mental frameworks, allowing clients to develop new, healthier ways of relating to their own thoughts, to others, and to the world around them.
Building psychological flexibility through ACT
Central to our clinical framework is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is a radically different approach to well-being; it does not aim to eliminate difficult feelings, but rather to fundamentally change our relationship to them.
In the music therapy space, we translate the core processes of ACT into active, musical interventions. Through clinical improvisation, structured songwriting, and active listening, we work with clients to build psychological flexibility. This involves:
Present Moment Awareness: Using musical engagement to anchor clients in the “here and now.”
Cognitive Defusion: Utilising sound and lyric to externalise and untangle from unhelpful thoughts and self-narratives.
Values and Committed Action: Exploring musical identity and expression to help clients discover what truly maters to them, empowering them to take meaningful steps forward in their lives.