Creative Journeys - Discover and Enjoy Your Full Potential

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Creative Journeys include:

Simple vocal toning exercises which connect you with your inner strength

Playing percussion instruments and tuning into your own rhythm

Easy-to-follow, guided visualisation techniques for you to access your feelings

Intuitive painting to allow you to freely express your inner self

Everyone needs to be heard and
to listen to others…

Music and art making are wonderful ways
to encourage this process.

Music and its healing effect "Music affects the heartbeat, pulse rate, and blood pressure. The human heartbeat is particularly attuned to sound and music. Music affects respiration. Breathing is rhythmic. Music reduces muscle tension and improves body movement and coordination. Through the autonomic nervous system, the auditory nerve connects the inner ear with all muscles in the body. Consequently, muscle strength, flexibility and tone are influenced by sound and vibration." (The Mozart Effect, Don Campbell) In a Creative Journey session, participants who are challenged in their ability to communicate, come together in a creative process to produce sounds through which they can hear themselves and others, and experience instant awareness and connection with other participants. For people with an impaired capacity to communicate and relate to others, for example, those living with dementia or other similar conditions, participation in an improvisational music therapy group encourages: • self-expression • engaging in the moment • self-awareness and the awareness of others • feeling the joy of making music with a group Vocal toning and healing "Did you know Mozart hummed when he composed? "One of the simplest ways to calm your mind, stabilize the rhythms in your body and improve your voice is through toning or humming."(The Mozart Effect, Don Campbell) The human voice is the most accessible of all instruments and it is also the easiest instrument through which you can focus your intention and channel it to create a feeling you want Jonathan Goldman, author, and director of the Sound Healing Association, created a formula to explain the importance of intention within the use of sound: FREQUENCY + INTENTION = HEALING We've all experienced hearing someone's tone of voice and the effect it's had upon us, whether positive or negative. Sometimes the tone of your voice is more relevant than the words you speak as it carries the uncensored truth within it. Spending time each day, toning your voice, creates a deep and strong connection to your inner self and produces an instant and profound change in your vibration, resulting in a transformational shift for the better, in your personal experience. Art and healing Connecting with your own creativity is essential to every person, whether you are living with special needs or not. Each person has unique challenges and strengths, and through your involvement in creative experiences, life can open up for you in ways that are unimaginable. Creating art relies on your natural ability to relate to colour and form. People suffering from a wide range of illnesses benefit from visual expression and learning. Sometimes a lack of ability to communicate verbally can be overcome through an expression through shape and colour. We encourage people to talk about their art work. Art stimulates the memories of past experiences and assists in the release of long held emotional complexes, helping to integrate experiences that may have been previously impossible to face up to.

			Above: Paintings from a Creative Journey session in Greece 2006

			Above: Robert working with a client who suffers from Dementia, London 2006

			Above: Participants in an intuitive painting session, Moscow 2005

			Above: Percussion session during a Creative Journey session in Greece 2006

			Emerging - Helen Allen Acrylic/ canvas 2004

Music therapy for dementia

Testimonial from Judith Maizels (PhD) : "Robert has known my mother and my father who died in May 2006, for many years, sharing his love of playing the piano with Joan on his weekly visits. Over the years, he has formed a particularly close relationship with my mother, and has remained a loyal, loving and inspiring friend to her on her journey through dementia.

Robert is a gentle, non-threatening and open-hearted presence, who naturally inspires and encourages those around him to reach into, and give expression to, their own creative spirit.

As Joan has gradually lost her intellectual ability to play the piano by reading music, she has been in danger of losing not only her self-confidence in playing, but also in losing a major vehicle for expressing her innermost feelings. However, Robert has ensured that these dangers have been avoided, because he has helped her discover her natural ability for intuitive, spontaneous and co-operative playing, showing her that she can still play beautifully without actually needing to read music anymore. So, it is thanks to Robert’s innate skills in encouraging Joan to play naturally, and to love sharing the moments of creating music together, that she has retained her love of playing and her confidence in her ability to play.

Robert has encouraged Joan to have real pleasure in what she is still able to do, rather than mourn the abilities she knows (at some level) she has lost. He has helped her in her transition from an accomplished pianist who relies on reading her music, to a lively, intuitive and tender musician who can let her true feelings and natural creativity shine through. The music they play together delights her and absorbs her, as she is able to live fully in the moment through their shared creativity.

Robert has also used a number of other instruments with Joan, as well as the piano, and he is himself a superb intuitive pianist and a stunning drummer. He has given a number of concerts on the national and international stage, and is widely acclaimed. I cannot find the words to thank him enough for the truly inspirational relationship he has shared with my mother as she travels these last years of her own remarkable and inspiring life."

Improvisational music used as a therapy for
the mentally or physically challenged

Improvisational music enables participants to find their individual way into a musical experience, where they discover how to use music to express themselves and possibly, to relate to each other.

In our Creative Journey sessions, participant's use percussion and melodic instruments such as drums, shakers, bells, marimbas (African style xylophone) and their voices to spontaneously create music with facilitators Robert Norton and Helen Allen.

At the piano, Robert supports, enhances, responds, and integrates the participant's music. The participant's musical ideas and impulses determine the aesthetic character of the music, resulting in human contact and co-operation enhancing the participant's personal experience.

Our approach is person-centered as well as music-centered. Each person’s musical contribution is regarded as vital and becomes part of a whole. Whatever the degree of impairment or psychological difficulty, every participant has the innate capacity to be part of the creative process. The facilitator works to render music-making accessible to the participant, through musical and practical considerations, and always through an open presence and regard toward the group.

Through the music, the facilitator works to foster group cohesion, guiding and supporting each participant’s self-expression in relationship to the group. Individual experiences in music are recognized by the group through music’s universal properties which resonate with all human experience. In group work, contrasting musical expressions can co-exist and interact simultaneously, and create the ever-shifting forms and qualities of the music.

Creative Journeys are fun and dynamic sessions which include working with your voice, percussion, guided visualisation,
intuitive painting, colour and sound healing.

You are given a safe space to explore your creativity - you are guided to your feelings and encouraged to express them without judgement

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