ABOUT US
Motoko Hayata and John Strange have been colleagues since 2004 when Motoko joined John at Soundscape, at Newham Music Trust. We offered a service to the whole borough of Newham and neighbouring areas where there were many people with special needs, both children and adults, who struggled to find appropriate support. The service was directed first by John and then by Motoko, and worked with nursery, infant, primary, secondary schools and sixth form colleges, adult day centres, residential homes for adults including the elderly, the Child and Family Consultation Service, SureStart, Newham General Hospital (acute paediatric ward), and Royal London Hospital (NICU, neonatal & children's orthopedic wards). Soundscape eventually developed into a team of 5 music therapists. We were actively involved in the MA music therapy training at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, providing and supervising placements in local mainstream and special schools and adult day centre settings. We also created one term voluntary contracts for people considering training as music therapists.
In 2019, Motoko and John launched U Understand Me Music and Imagery & Music Therapy Services as a sister project to MC Singing Fats drum and bass record label. The music imagery and music therapy and related parts of the service are provided by Motoko and John as freelance practitioners. Please contact us via uume@uume.info with your enquiries. Any contracts will be made directly with the freelance therapists.
MOTOKO HAYATA
MANAGER
MUSIC THERAPIST
MUSIC IMAGERY THERAPIST
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B.Mus (Hons) PostDip.MT PostDip.MI
HCPC, BAMT & AMI registered
Motoko Hayata has practised as a Music Therapist since 1999, and qualified as a Music & Imagery Therapist in 2018. She is currently completing the training in Guided Imagery and Music (GIM Postgraduate Advanced Diploma) & Music Breathing (MB Postgraduate Advanced Certificate). She supervised MA students for Music Therapy training, and her work has been presented at conferences in many countries. She has co-authored a chapter with John Strange in the book, Collaboration and Assistance in Music Therapy Practice: Roles, Relationships, Challenges (2017).
DR. JOHN STRANGE
MUSIC THERAPIST
CONSULTANT
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BA (Hons)(Cantab) ARCO ARCM PostDipMT PhD
HCPC & BAMT registered
John Strange worked as a music therapist from 1986 until 2018 in schools and learning disability services, before founding Soundscape (see below) in 2003. He supervised both student and qualified music therapists and was a visiting lecturer at the Guildhall School and Anglia Ruskin University and visiting examiner at Aalborg University, Denmark. From 1995 he developed a practice as expert witness on music therapy in High Court medical negligence cases. In 2014 he obtained a PhD from Anglia Ruskin University and was subsequently the lead editor and chapter commissioner for a music therapy text which has become recommended reading on several professional training courses. John has presented at many international conferences and was Chair of the Association of Professional Music Therapists from 1995 to 1998.