Putting People at the Heart of Music Therapy
Creating meaningful change through connection, creativity, and care.
How did it start?
Chiltern Music Therapy began with a simple but powerful idea: that music therapy should meet people where they are. What started with one referral grew into a vision for care shaped around people, families, and communities.
Our story begins
In 2010, the referral of a young man aged 18 with a catastrophic brain injury began the story of Chiltern Music Therapy.
As one of Rosie’s first clients at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, the connection she formed with him and his family sparked a desire to offer music therapy in a different way.
The vision sparks
As therapists, we are taught to 'meet the clients, wherever they may be' in emotional understanding.
Rosie began to ask what this could mean in a broader context: could music therapy happen at home, in the community, and in ways shaped around each person’s needs?
Building a new model of care
The vision grew into a new model of care, offering different approaches to music therapy alongside community music provision.
The aim was to create a service that could grow and adapt around the people and communities it was created for.
Growth through word of mouth
In 2011, Chiltern’s grassroots began with care, connection, and a need to do things differently.
From Rosie’s back room, the team grew by sharing the impact they witnessed, learning from evidence, and working closely with the people and communities they served.
Today, we work across health, education and community settings, building partnerships, developing new services and inspiring more people to discover the transformative power of music therapy.
Our Promise, Passion and Values
We strive for a caring world where music therapy is the transformative thread in everyday life.
“Together we harness the power of music, inspire through human story, and fascinate through science, to light up a network of champions.”
Care
We care equally and inclusively for everyone who comes our way.
Listen
We listen to every voice with an open heart and mind.
Share
We share the stories of our work and give voice to our clients.
Dare
We dare to reach further and redefine boundaries.
Deepen
We deepen our learning and champion best practice in our work.
How we work
At Chiltern Music Therapy, we believe that the way we work is just as important as the work we do.
Over the years we have been inspired by organisations that put people, relationships and purpose at the heart of decision-making. We've explored ideas from self-management, sociocracy, Teal organisations and deliberately developmental organisations, learning from each while developing an approach that feels authentic to Chiltern. Rather than following one model, we continue to evolve. We value shared leadership, distributed decision-making, openness, reflection and continuous learning, while recognising the importance of clear accountability and good governance.
The circles shown below represent the different communities that make up Chiltern. Each has a distinct role, but none exists in isolation. Together they create the conditions for us to listen, challenge, learn and grow. They are the seedbeds where ideas emerge, relationships develop and the future of Chiltern continues to evolve.
Being a social enterprise is also central to who we are. We exist to create social impact, not to maximise profit. Income generated through our services is reinvested into widening access to music therapy and community music, and developing new ideas that respond to unmet need across health, education and social care, while fundraising enables us to go further. Through our bursary fund and innovative pilot projects, we work alongside communities and partners to bring music therapy and community music to people and places where it would otherwise be unavailable. In doing so, we hope not only to provide services today, but to influence traditional health and education systems, inspire others and help create a more caring world where music takes centre stage.
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Support our Work
Your contributions enable us to provide music therapy to the most vulnerable and isolated members of our society.