Qualifications
Advanced Level Practitioner Diploma in Sound Therapy and Holistic Voice Therapy (Distinction), awarded by the British Academy of Sound Therapy (BAST)
PhD in Ethnomusicology (Cardiff University) focusing on the relationship between music, emotion, and identity
MMus in Performance Studies (SOAS, University of London)
Over ten years of experience as a musician (clarinet, tenor sax) performing on the London world music scene
Over twenty years of experience with a variety of healing methods on my own personal healing journey: meditation, yoga, conscious breathwork, brain retraining, shamanic healing, sound therapy and many more.
Sound has always held therapeutic and healing influences over me. As a child, music went straight to my core. It helped me to access and understand my inner world, and seemed to tap into my need to express my emotions and experiences. Growing up, I learnt to play the clarinet and I went on to study this instrument at university, exploring classical, jazz, and Balkan folk music styles.
In 2011, when I was in my early twenties, I first visited the village of Parakalamos in North-West Greece, and it was here that I really learnt how profoundly transformative the effects of sound can be. Here, I studied the traditional music of the village which is known for its lamenting aesthetic. I learnt to ‘cry’ through my clarinet, and began to get in touch with feelings and emotions from my childhood and teenage years that had been frozen deep in my body. The trance-inducing melodies and repeating harmonic patterns of this music had a deeply soothing and healing effect on me and I wanted to understand more about it. Between 2014 and 2019, I studied for a PhD in ethnomusicology, looking at the music of Parakalamos and focusing on how musical practices, emotional experiences, and a sense of identity and place are fundamentally connected (read it here).
For me, this study was particularly significant as it clearly showed me how music affects our emotional worlds and our sense of identity.
The trance-like music of Parakalamos introduced me to the benefits of focusing and stilling the mind, and I became a committed meditator from 2020 onward. I had tried various forms of meditation before, but it wasn’t until I received my personalised bija mantra that my practice seemed to click into place. Again, I was shown the transformative and healing power that sound possesses. I wanted to share and apply my discoveries in real world contexts and I became intent on leveraging the power of sound and music to heal myself and others. I decided to study for an advanced diploma in Sound Therapy and Holistic Voice Therapy with the British Academy of Sound Therapy (BAST).
I believe that we all contain the necessary wisdom for self-healing. However, socio-cultural conditioning, trauma and emotional wounding, ancestral patterns, and many other issues, can get in the way of, or completely block this self-healing mechanism. The BAST method of sound therapy uses a process of self-reflection called the 7Rs which focuses on enabling you to reflect and find the answers that will best serve you. I will provide a safe space that can allow you to delve deep into your inner world, and I will guide you through techniques and processes that are designed to help you uncover your true sense of self that lies at your core.