Music therapy for Harrison

Harrison was born prematurely and quickly diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, impacting his mobility, communication and interactions. In addition, his first 2 years were spent within the care system, exacerbating the difficulties he had in communication and interaction by frequent moves and inconsistent support. This consequently caused him to become incredibly anxious and directly impacted his ability to attach to a primary carer.

At two years old Harrison was adopted by Aysha and transitioned to a new home and family set up, away from everything he knew. At this point Harrison was still pre-verbal and only able to move by bottom shuffling, he required full support for all tasks including feeding and drinking.

Over the following few years Harrison made tremendous progress, beginning to use single words to communicate, then moving on to two words and short sentences. With the support of a mobility aid he learned to walk short distances and was able to explore more of his world. However, during this time Harrison's outbursts and aggressive behaviour began to intensify. His sleep which had always been challenging continued to be difficult and his need to control everything became more evident. Aysha sought help from the adoption social workers; and managed to get a local social worker within the disabled children's team; which was not easy without a lot of hoop jumping to prove how challenging things were. An assessment was carried out commissioned by and on behalf of the adoption team. This assessment suggested that the level of need and therapy required to support Harrison, and his family would total £70,000. Being way over budget other assessments and therapies were trialed, including: Non Violent resistance, Occupational therapy, Therapeutic parenting, Story Stems assessments to name a few. It was concluded that Harrison's level of need was so significant that the adoption was at incredibly high risk of breaking down if immediate support and respite was not put in place.

During this time Harrison was diagnosed with Autism, ADHD and his violent outbursts were becoming more frequent and dangerous, resulting in a number of hospital admissions for Aysha. In addition to this the world was going through a pandemic which made support even less possible, and the family came very close to breaking. Fortunately Harrison was still able to attend school during this time, due to his status as a vulnerable child however it was becoming more obvious that a mainstream school could not meet his learning needs.

In 2022 Harrison transitioned to a specialist provision; however, due to the complexities of his needs this was a significant journey each day. Consequently, causing sporadic attendance, difficulties transitioning and resulting in Aysha having to leave her job as a special needs teacher. Subsequently this placement broke down and Harrison has been out of education for the past year, suffering with Emotional Based School Avoidance, leaving Aysha and Harrison alone full time with minimal support and respite. This has caused significant setbacks in Harrison's ability to separate from Aysha and has left a vulnerable family even more vulnerable.

In 2024 Aysha approached the adoption social worker and asked for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) to pay for music therapy for Harrison. This was set at £5000 per year. Due to he time of year and the number of sessions requested, split funding across two financial years was obtained and Harrison began music therapy.

Initially Harrison refused to interact with the therapist, not letting her in the house and when he did requiring Aysha to be present throughout. Slowly he has begun to trust the therapist and will happily engage in the sessions; however it is evident that this is a long term approach. Unfortunately, in April 2025, after committing to maintaining the ASGSF the government announced plans to immediately slash the budget by 40%. This means there is now no funding available to Harrison and his music therapy sessions which have become a life line allowing Harrison to begin to explore his emotions, attachments and provide some therapeutic support will cease.

It is imperative that these sessions continue, enabling Harrison to continue exploring his emotions in a non threatening, low demand manner, and to prevent him feeling like he has lost yet another attachment. Aysha is therefore desperately seeking financial support to provide the therapy for the remainder of the year, in the hope that the ASGSF will be able to continue support again in the future.

7.5% of all donations to Tree of Hope in relation to this appeal will be allocated to the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope to cover their core operating costs.

If we raise insufficient funds, or surplus funds, the funds will be used, if appropriate, to support our child’s needs in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objectives. If, in those circumstances, we are unable to use all or part of the funds for the benefit of our child, any funds that cannot be used will be transferred to support the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope.