On this page, music therapist Emmeline McCracken has created videos to help you to transport and transform yourself through music. They are also intended to be useful in other moments in your life, when you are no longer listening.
We all use music almost every day to transport ourselves to other realms. Perhaps we listen to our favourite music and imagine we are a guitarist in an arena, dancing in the crowd or maybe a ballerina on a stage.
There are three videos here for you to listen to:
- The Sunny Meadow
- The City
- The Dandelion
Each is accompanied by a visual stimulus and an explanation. The musical soundscape will be played on the violin.
The Sunny Meadow
Please find a comfortable seat and relax, preferably sitting up. Take a look at the picture then close your eyes. Take deep breaths and bring awareness to your body.
As the music progresses can you feel the sun beams shining to you. It is warm and bright. The beams start by shining on your feet and gradually move upwards, and you can feel the warmth radiate throughout your body. The warmth is taking away your worries, it is alleviating pain and it is holding you.
The City
Please find a comfortable seat and relax, preferably sitting up. Take a look at the picture or imagine your own city and close your eyes. Take deep breaths and bring awareness to your body.
A city can be a very busy place, it can make your heart beat faster and make you move more quickly. The music you will hear will recreate this feeling. Can you imagine, however, that you are the calm point in the middle of this city? Perhaps you are sitting still on a bench or are a tree in the picture. There is a multisensory experience all around you; noise, movement, images moving and smells but you stay still. You can find your inner calm and bring your attention back to your breathing. There will also be moments in the music to remind you of this inner calm where it is easy to become caught up in the chaos.
The Dandelion
Please find a comfortable seat and relax, preferably sitting up. Take a look at the picture, or imagine your own dandelion and close your eyes. Take deep breaths and bring awareness to your body.
A dandelion means many different things to different people. This soundscape aims to accompany you in your thoughts about the dandelion.
Are you one of the seeds travelling through the air? Or are you taking deep and long breaths to blow the seeds from the dandelion? Are you making a wish on the dandelion? As you breathe deeply, think about your wishes and your intentions.
Remind yourself of the long breaths you require to blow all of the seeds from the dandelion, or to be blown into the air yourself.
Meet Emmeline
Emmeline McCracken works as a music therapist in Aberdeen, Scotland as ELM Music Therapy. She primarily works with children with additional support needs, with challenging behaviour and with terminal diagnoses. This work mainly takes place within local PMLD schools and ASN provisions and within the Royal Aberdeen Children’s hospital. She also works with adults with complex needs and with some mental health patients.
Emmeline enjoys working in a variety of settings and is always looking to broaden her outlook and understanding of music therapy in new contexts, particularly in the field of community music therapy.
Emmeline is also a trustee on the Scottish Music Therapy Board and a member of the British Association and World Federation of Music Therapy.