About
Music Therapy
Polly completed her Masters in Music Therapy at Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2011. She went on to work with older people with Dementia in the care home setting with Methodist Homes (MHA) for over 5 years. Currently she is Head of Arts Therapies (Beds & Luton) for the East London NHS Foundation Trust in adult mental health and adult learning disability services.
Polly was a Trustee for the British Association for Music Therapy (BAMT) from 2015-2020. She coordinated the BAMT freelance network from 2018-2020 and was passionate about this work for the professional body.
Additional Training/Experience
Academia
Polly has written and presented papers at music therapy conferences including the Dementia and Music Therapy conference held at Anglia Ruskin University in 2016. Her conference report was published in Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy 13 (2) 2021. She co-wrote a book review in the British Journal of Music Therapy 36 (1) pg 60-64 of the book - The Arts Therapies:A Revolution in Healthcare by Phil Jones.
Performing
Polly has played 'cello, sax and has sung in a wide range of music groups including folk collective Tribe of Tinkers, and 90’s cover band, The Cardigan Pimps. She plays with the Bedfordshire Symphony Orchestra, Bedford Sinfonia and has led choir and folk music workshops in schools and at festivals. When the pandemic began she took up DJing and her mixes can be found here.
Teaching/Lecturing
Polly lectured to post-graduate students at the Royal College of Music in January 2019. The lecture was an introduction to music therapy as part of their Arts in Health elective.
She provided a CPD morning for the Bedford Counselling & Training and other Bedfordshire therapists in February 2019.
Polly has been involved in coaching and running music courses since the age of 18 when she joined her mother in coaching at Benslow Music Trust. This year (2018) she returned to Benslow to run their first introduction to music therapy course. The course will run again in July 2019. Check the Music Therapy and Teaching pages for further information.
- Clore Social Leadership - Leading Beyond Lockdown
- IHI Quality Improvement (QI) Coaching Programme as part of her role at ELFT making her a Quality Improvement Project Coach
- ICAPT 2 day Mentalization in the Arts Therapies training
- Receptive Methods in music therapy.
Academia
Polly has written and presented papers at music therapy conferences including the Dementia and Music Therapy conference held at Anglia Ruskin University in 2016. Her conference report was published in Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy 13 (2) 2021. She co-wrote a book review in the British Journal of Music Therapy 36 (1) pg 60-64 of the book - The Arts Therapies:A Revolution in Healthcare by Phil Jones.
Performing
Polly has played 'cello, sax and has sung in a wide range of music groups including folk collective Tribe of Tinkers, and 90’s cover band, The Cardigan Pimps. She plays with the Bedfordshire Symphony Orchestra, Bedford Sinfonia and has led choir and folk music workshops in schools and at festivals. When the pandemic began she took up DJing and her mixes can be found here.
Teaching/Lecturing
Polly lectured to post-graduate students at the Royal College of Music in January 2019. The lecture was an introduction to music therapy as part of their Arts in Health elective.
She provided a CPD morning for the Bedford Counselling & Training and other Bedfordshire therapists in February 2019.
Polly has been involved in coaching and running music courses since the age of 18 when she joined her mother in coaching at Benslow Music Trust. This year (2018) she returned to Benslow to run their first introduction to music therapy course. The course will run again in July 2019. Check the Music Therapy and Teaching pages for further information.