Music can be extremely beneficial to people recovering from mental illness or those having experienced severe trauma. Just as with all of us in fact, it provides an outlet for anxiety and stress and positively helps to lift our natural mood.
Probably unknown to many of us, there is an NHS mental health facility in Bath which is an NHS Trust and part of the Royal United Hospital. It is known as the Sycamore Ward.
Believe it or not, many of its users having a need for treatment, are very musical, music students or those who have a keen interest in music. So important is it that the Ward actually engages a Music Psychotherapist, Paco.
To support him in his day to day endeavours, it was our pleasure shortly before Christmas to donate a small portable Kawai digital piano complete with stool for the benefit of all. Sweet music indeed!
It will allow Paco to run sessions using a brand new high quality instrument which can but greatly encourage the whole effort. This can include music making and improvisation, song writing and meditation, sometimes with live performances! It can even easily motivate people for the first time ever!
The new surprise Christmas present, once unwrapped, fitted so neatly into a therapy room which people can often access and use at any time, particularly in the evenings and weekends when the room is even more available.
Players of various standards are bound to love the feel of a real high quality piano which also has the option of being played with headphones.
It’s a donation to the Sycamore Ward which certainly isn’t just for Christmas but hopefully will serve for some years to come. Another practical means of support to the local Community provided by The Piano Shop in Bath