KC Music Mentoring

Key Changes uses music mentoring to help people whose lives are affected by mental health issues. Music mentoring combines creative coaching and personal development to bring about positive life changes.

Our group music workshops develop song-writing, composition, musicianship, singing and performance skills. One-to-one mentoring can help to identify personal goals which in turn can be worked into a development plan.

This can aid recovery and open up pathways to new opportunities in further education, training, volunteering or employment.

The process of developing new skills, creating original musical work, and performing it in mainstream venues to appreciative audiences, is empowering for participants. It rekindles self confidence and self esteem and can facilitate the exploration of personal aspirations.

Key Changes music workshops are led by specially trained music professionals from a variety of backgrounds in producing, performing or promoting music. Our approach draws on techniques developed in clinical therapeutic settings which encourage listening to and making music to develop active participation and expression.

Supportive relationships form both collectively between the members of the group and individually between mentor and mentee. They are shaped by a shared understanding of mental health issues and respect for the aims, boundaries and confidentiality of the mentoring relationship.

Evidence from our work indicates that specialist music mentoring for people using mental health services can have a very positive long-term impact on wellbeing and life opportunities.