About Chroma

We met Patricia following a stroke. She was very unsteady on her feet, walked with a pronounced lean to her left and required two people either side of her to ensure she didn't fall over. Our music therapist used an intervention called Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation - essentially using an external strong simple rhythm on the guitar - to enable Patricia's brain to latch onto the beat, giving her brain the information it needed in terms of her stride pattern, and when to move her legs and feet.

In a single session, Patricia was able to walk faster, more upright and with much more of a natural flow. While she still needed some support, her pronounced lean has disappeared and her fall risk was much reduced. We used the 10metre walk test to measure her progress, and before our intervention, it took Patricia 52 seconds to walk 10m, whereas after the intervention, this only took 32 seconds.

We recommended that Patricia continue to use an external rhythm to help her to walk over the next few weeks while with us at the stroke unit, and we continued to see good improvements. Our data showed that patients who accessed neurologic music therapy post stroke were discharged from hospital on average 5 days earlier than had been predicted on admission.

Pete had a TBI following a serious assault and after spending time in acute care he moved to a specialist residence to continue his rehab. With the physio, the music therapist devised a programme of movement exercises based on music that Pete liked. She was able to build a rapport with Pete through talking about music, sharing instruments and playing songs. Using Pattern Sensory Enhancement, Pete was able to develop his core strength and practise both weight transfer and his gait cycle whilst seated. His movements become more fluent and controlled when he had the support of the rhythm, but the therapist found the exercises were optimised when she sang songs that Pete could join in with; his enjoyment and the fun of the session allowed him to gain enough confidence to try more movements.

We monitored the cadence of Pete’s walk following each session and set him targets concerning his speed and the amount of time he walked for, which increased as directed by the physio. Pete’s housemates encouraged him when he practised walking each day and began to sing songs along with him, and the music therapist gave staff strategies for them so support by ensuring the music was at the correct tempo. We also used a simple ‘mood monitor’ to help Pete communicate how he was feeling before and after the session and the physio also adopted this as a strategy to help reduce Pete’s anxiety when exercising.

Matt sustained a traumatic brain injury during a road traffic collision. He was hospitalised for several months before moving to supported living. Matt had significant general cognitive decline and experienced frequent verbal outbursts of anger. We encouraged Matt to participate in music-making where we played simple chords patterns on guitar or repetitive rhythms on a drum to provide him with a clear and steady musical structure.

Matt practised rapping lyrics that he had previously written and we adjusted my tempo to match the speed of his verbal production. As sessions progressed we were able to gradually increase tempo. In later sessions Matt began to freestyle, sometimes creating lyrics about his current situation which led to discussions about the trauma and loss he had experienced. We facilitated song-writing with Matt to work on his executive functions such as planning, attention, prioritisation, and prospective memory skills, and to encourage emotional expression.

We monitored Matt’s song-writing abilities in terms of his cognitive and executive functions and reported improvements to his multi-disciplinary team. In terms of Matt’s psychological well-being, he provided verbal feedback each session regarding his mood. I also tracked the number and frequency of his verbal angry outbursts during sessions – an increase in playing music directly correlated with a decrease in outbursts.