Sound, Schools and Creating Space for Young People

There are moments in my work as a Sound Therapist when I find myself thinking, this is exactly why I wanted to do this. 

Working with young people in schools is one of them.Before establishing Ambient Sound Therapy, I spent more than 20 years working in secondary education, including seven years in senior leadership.

I taught thousands of young people, supported them pastorally, worked alongside families and teachers, and saw first-hand just how complex growing up can be.That experience hasn't been left behind as I've moved into sound therapy. In many ways, it has become one of the most important parts of the work I now do. 

Young people need opportunities to pause!

Schools are wonderfully busy places. They are full of learning, friendships, conversations, creativity and opportunity. But for young people, they can also be intense. A school day asks children to continually process information, navigate relationships, move between different environments, meet expectations and manage their own emotions- all while learning about themselves and the world around them.

Sometimes there is real value in creating a space where they aren't being asked to achieve something. A space where they can simply pause, listen and notice.

This is one of the things I love about bringing sound into schools. 

Using instruments including buffalo drums, quartz crystal bowls, Himalayan singing bowls and wind gongs, young people can experience sound in a way that is very different from much of their normal school day. 

• They can listen. 

• Feel vibration. 

• Notice their breathing. 

• Become curious about how different sounds affect them.

And importantly, there doesn't need to be a "right" response. One young person might find a particular sound calming. Another might find it energising. Someone else may simply become fascinated by the physical sensation of vibration. 

Giving young people permission to notice those differences can itself be valuable. 

Focusing on Wellbeing IS also focusing on learning:

One of the things my teaching background has taught me is that meaningful learning often happens when young people are given something tangible to explore. Sound is brilliant for this. It can begin with a simple question: what can you hear? From there, it can become science. 

Children can explore how vibrations create sound, investigate pitch and volume, feel vibrations through a drum or watch water move inside a singing bowl. 

Sound becomes something they can hear, see and physically experience rather than simply read about. But those same activities can open another conversation.

• What did you notice?

• Where did you feel the vibration?

• Did your breathing change?

• Did one sound feel different from another?

Listening and sensory activities can encourage young people to focus their attention on the present moment and begin noticing their physical and emotional responses. They can also create opportunities to explore how sound might influence mood, focus or relaxation, and to recognise that everybody's experience can be different. 

I love that intersection.

It doesn't have to be science or wellbeing. It can be curiosity, science, sensory exploration and emotional awareness existing alongside one another.

Bringing my experience as a teacher into the room, I'm particularly proud that I can bring more than my sound therapy qualification into these sessions. I bring my years as a teacher with me. I understand classrooms. I understand that a group of children rarely responds uniformly to anything. I understand that the child who doesn't appear to be engaging may actually be taking everything in. I understand the importance of language, pacing, relationships, safeguarding and knowing when to adapt what you had planned. 

Most importantly, I understand that young people aren't simply smaller adults.

Sessions need to be designed for them. My work therefore brings together my understanding of pedagogy and school environments with my training in sound therapy and the science of sound.

It feels like a genuine meeting point between two chapters of my professional life rather than one replacing the other.

When I left full-time education, I didn't stop being a teacher. 

The skills, experiences and relationships built over more than 20 years in schools inevitably shaped what came next. Now, when I'm sitting in a school surrounded by young people listening to the resonance of a gong, feeling the vibration of a drum or simply having a few moments where nothing is being demanded of them, there is a lovely sense that those two parts of my professional life have come together. Sound therapy isn't counselling, nor is it a replacement for the specialist mental-health and pastoral support that schools provide. I work within clear professional and safeguarding boundaries. Instead, I see this work as another way of giving young people opportunities to develop curiosity, awareness and a greater understanding of themselves. And there is something particularly special about being able to return to school environments - not in the role I occupied for more than two decades, but with something new to share. Something that still draws heavily on everything those years taught me. Creating spaces where young people can pause, explore and simply be is a part of Ambient Sound Therapy that I feel incredibly proud of.

Pause. Breathe. Reset.