Claire has extensive experience offering parent-infant music therapy groups in the community, clinics and in private practice and is especially interested in the role that music plays in facilitating a baby’s development and supporting the parent-baby bond.
Music therapy sessions can help mothers who may be feeling isolated, anxious or depressed, who may be struggling to bond with their baby or have experienced a trauma (during the birth of the baby or before or after the baby is born).
Mother and baby – a musical relationship
A baby’s first interactions with the world are musical. Mothers and babies tune in to each other through the sounds of their voices and through their bodies. The sounds they share together have all the common elements of music — pitch, melody, rhythm and tempo.
Music is a wonderful medium for helping mothers and babies to strengthen their bond and form a deeper attachment. Music therapy can help to make those connections where it has been difficult for the bonding between mother and baby to happen naturally.
Through talking, familiar songs and activities in individual or small groups, music therapy sessions for mothers and babies can:
- Provide a safe place where mothers can share their experiences
- Offer mothers the opportunity to engage in creative play with their baby
- Provide an opportunity for mothers to become more confident in relating with their baby
- Develop the baby’s listening and social awareness
- Provide an opportunity for shared play/enjoyment for interaction
Claire also offers pre-natal sessions to help mothers connect with their babies before they are born.
Sessions are offered from Claire’s private practice in North London or alternatively home visits possible.