Sarah Steenson - BA (Hons) Creative Expressive Therapies
You have to think very carefully about the sort of music being performed because you want it to be uplifting and therapeutic
”Sarah Steenson who studies our BA (Hons) Creative Expressive Therapies degree, has been given the job of organising a series of concerts and performances for patients at the Royal Derby Hospital.
Volunteering at the hospital
Sarah Steenson has been volunteering at the hospital as an arts co-ordinator since last September, while studying our BA (Hons) Creative Expressive Therapies course, specialising in the music pathway.
She has now helped put together the hospital's spring music season, called Nightingale, which featured classical music, wandering minstrels and a folk singer, and will be run by the hospital's arts team, Air.
Performances
Sarah said she hoped the music would be uplifting for patients. She said: "It can always be a challenging time for people in the hospital, whether they are patients or staff. But I've always been interested in music and I know that it can help people.
Sarahs other work
Sarah was also part of a group of students asked to work with staff here at the university where they facilitated a team building workshop with our international team.
The session was split into three separate workshops in which these groups experimented with various musical instruments. There was a percussion workshop, encouraging the group to create their own version of stomp, there was also a hand chimes workshop, where the group was provided with a graphic score to learn and there was also a vocal workshop in which the group were required to write their own lyrics to the Ben. E. King Song "Stand by me". All of the groups were required to perform their musical pieces at the end of the workshop.
The outcome of these workshops was very successful with feedback from the participants saying "I enjoyed it immensely and had a sense of elation immediately after the session" and "The workshop was really good fun, it was a great, positive way to end the day."
The course
There are four pathways to the creative expressive therapies course; art, dance, drama and music. The course aims are to unlock the potential of creativity and the arts to promote well being and their therapeutic application in various settings such as the community, voluntary, health, education and the corporate sector.
The music pathway students felt like they had achieved this in their workshop and they also enjoyed delivering and facilitating the workshops saying "This is valuable experience and it allowed us to put the skills we have acquired from the creative expressive therapies degree in to practice. It was also fantastic fun working with the international office, they were very friendly."
