This project explores the therapeutic potential of classical songs for people living with stroke and aphasia.
Music has the power to lift and shape mood and identity: this project takes a collaborative stance, engaging with people living with aphasia, musicians and researchers to co-design an arts experience that is both accessible and meaningful.
Through a series of workshops we are exploring a social prescribing programme called ‘song surgery’, developed by an opera singer, Bibi Heal. The song surgery experience works on four levels: visceral reaction to the live voice and beauty of the music; targeted subject matter or mood requested by the listener; engagement with the poetry as story-telling; physical movement so that the listener participates in the song. Song surgery has been used with people with physical health conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease and spinal injury; this project is exploring the potential of song surgery to bolster post-stroke identity and promote wellbeing for people with aphasia. The study will end with a live concert showcasing an aphasia-accessible version of song surgery: funds raised will be donated to the aphasia charity Aphasia ReConnect.
Investigators: Sarah Northcott, Bibi Heal, Abi Roper, Sally McVicker, Katie Strong, Tony Woods, John Smejka.
