Pegasus Post: January 28, 2021

PEGASUS POST Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Thursday January 28 2021 7
KIWIBANK LOCAL HERO AWARDS
Work with music therapy earns Wade medal
• By Ella Somers
KIMBERLEY WADE, founder
and director of Southern Music
Therapy, thought it was a hoax
when she found out she had
been made a Kiwibank Local
Hero medallist for her work as
a registered neurologic music
therapist.
However, she said it was “really
lovely to be valued by someone
other than my husband and my
mum. Someone investigated
and appreciated what I’ve done
and thought it was cool, so that’s
pretty special.”
Wade grew up in Hawkes
Bay in a musical family and
studied psychology and classical
singing at Victoria University.
She considered becoming a
clinical psychologist but
“wanted to add the music in
there somewhere.”
After meeting a music therapist
and learning about music therapy,
Wade realised it was a career she
wanted to pursue. She auditioned
and got into Victoria University’s
master of music therapy
programme and, after graduating,
moved to Christchurch.
Wade describes musical therapy
as a tool to help with a nonmusical
goal, like finger dexterity
or helping with emotional
expression.
“We’re also working on
communication, physical
VALUED: Providing musical therapy for people with
disabilities has earned Kimberley Wade a Kiwibank Local
Hero medal for 2021.
rehabilitation, cognitive,
emotional and social goals,” she
said.
Music therapy is in “quite
a medical field,” Wade said,
something she wishes people
were more aware of.
“As musical therapists, we’re
providing opportunities and we
think outside the box as to how
music can be accessible to people
with disabilities.
“I love music because
it’s a non-verbal way of
communicating with people. It
bypasses everything and gets right
into your soul and provides this
universal connection to people.”
Wade has more than14 years
experience as a neurologic
music therapist and works
primarily with people who have
rehabilitation and neurological
conditions.
Said Wade: “I founded
Southern Music Therapy
because I liked working with
people with neurological
conditions. I wanted to work with
stroke clients which was quite
unheard of in New Zealand, not
just Christchurch.”
Southern Music Therapy
provides a range of therapy
services for people with
disabilities from group work
to individual sessions and
now works within all the
big neurological facilities in
Christchurch such as Equitas, St
John of God, Laura Fergusson
and Burwood Hospital.
As well as setting up the
organisation, Wade co-founded
the Cantabrainer Choir Trust
with Therapy Professionals in
February 2012 which is now run
by the trust.
The choir is for people with
neurological conditions. Wade
said she is really proud of what it’s
done for so many people.
“There was a real gap for people
with neurological conditions
who couldn’t afford private music
therapy.
“It’s a fabulous community
space for people to come together
and be able to do rehabilitation
without it being super expensive.”
A lot of Wade’s clients,
especially her stroke clients, are
not covered by ACC which means
they have to pay privately for
music therapy.
“There’s never enough funding
in the neurologic area and there’s
never enough understanding of
what musical therapy can offer,”
Wade said.
“I do have clients who sacrifice
parts of their lifestyle in order to
pay for the therapy because it’s so
highly valued in their world.”
It’s only after years of education
and advocacy of music therapy
that Wade feels more people are
aware that music therapy is out
there. Ideally, she wants people
to know that music therapy is an
option just like speech therapy or
physiotherapy and to make sure
it’s available to people if they need
it.
“In the last couple of years
music therapy is becoming more
recognised and more valued,” she
said.
“It’s definitely growing and
keeping it as a quality service is
very important.”
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