MUSic Therapy In Complex Specialist Neurorehabilitation

Music Therapy will comprise individual and group sessions 20-45 minutes. Participants usually have 1-2 individual sessions, and 1 group session/week. Group sessions include 2-6 participants. On average, participants receive an average 1 hour 30 minutes Music Therapy/week, timetabled when they would not otherwise be undergoing any therapy sessions. The Music Therapist will use the Nordoff Robbins approach and work flexibly as a musician. Techniques include (but are not limited to) empathic listening, musically matching, turn taking and sequencing, call and response. Sessions may also involve songwriting, singing familiar songs, listening to, sharing and discussing music, developing specific musical skills of interest to the participant, structured musical games and activities, joint working with other members of the therapy team in sessions focused on functional development and communication skills.

Control Therapy sessions will be carried out by a member of the clinical team, matched in duration and number to Music Therapy sessions as closely as possible. Participants will usually have 1-2 individual sessions and 1 group session/week. Group sessions include 2-6 participants. The Control Therapy intervention will continue throughout participant's rehabilitation program until participants have completed a total of 15 hours intervention, which will usually take 10 weeks to complete. The content of sessions is designed to reflect 'usual care' however control therapy sessions will not include access to specific specialist equipment such as MOTOmed, therabike or neuro-muscular electrical stimulation, to ensure the control group does not get additional specialist intervention beyond usual care. Content of control therapy sessions will therefore be restricted to the following five domains: gaming, education, mindfulness, current affairs discussions, and passive and dynamic stretching.