Oh I’m so jealous! I couldn’t attend the evening meeting this month.

We had a visit from the lovely Steve, from Rhythm Reaction.

(Yup it’s upside down but it plays the right way round… confused 🤷‍♀️)

A little bit about why we are interested in drumming therapy:

Drum therapy uses rhythm to promote healing and self expression. Research indicates that drumming accelerates physical healing, boosts the immune system and produces feelings of well being, a release of emotional trauma and reintegration of self.

Other studies have demonstrated the calming, focusing, and healing effects of drumming on Alzheimer’s patients, autistic children, emotionally disturbed teens, recovering addicts, trauma patients, and prison and homeless populations.

Results demonstrate that drumming is a valuable treatment for stress, fatigue, anxiety, hypertension, asthma, chronic pain, arthritis, mental illness, migraines, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, paralysis, emotional disorders, and a wide range of physical

Drumming induces deep relaxation, lowers blood pressure, and reduces stress, which as Parents and Carers of children and young people with ADHD we can’t get enough of!

Chronic pain has a progressively draining effect on the quality of life. Researchers suggest that drumming serves as a distraction from pain and grief. Moreover, drumming promotes the production of endorphins and endogenous opiates, the bodies own morphine-like painkillers, and can thereby help in the control of pain.

Research has also demonstrated that the physical transmission of rhythmic energy to the brain synchronizes the two cerebral hemispheres. When the logical left hemisphere and the intuitive right hemisphere begin to pulsate in harmony, the inner guidance of intuitive knowing can then flow unimpeded into conscious awareness.

Drumming also synchronizes the frontal and lower areas of the brain, integrating nonverbal information from lower brain structures into the frontal cortex.

The reason rhythm is such a powerful tool is that it permeates the entire brain. Vision, for example, is in one part of the brain, speech another, but drumming accesses the whole brain. The sound of drumming generates dynamic neuronal connections in all parts of the brain even where there is significant damage or impairment such as in attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). According to Michael Thaut, director of Colorado State University’s Center for Biomedical Research in Music, “Rhythmic cues can help retrain the brain after a stroke or other neurological impairment, as with Parkinson’s patients…” The more connections that can be made within the brain, the more integrated our experiences become.

Drumming can also help people express and address emotional issues. Unexpressed feelings and emotions can form energy blockages. The physical stimulation of drumming removes blockages and produces emotional release. Sound vibrations resonate through every cell in the body, stimulating the release of negative cellular memories. “Drumming emphasizes self-expression, teaches how to rebuild emotional health, and addresses issues of violence and conflict through expression and integration of emotions.

Drumming helps alleviate stress that is created from hanging on to the past or worrying about the future. Drumming helps you place yourself squarely in the here and now, grounding you firmly in the present moment.

As our lovely members said after:

It was fab! Good stress release beating the crap out of something, and you can’t get arrested if it’s a drum!

I really didn’t think I’d like it but was great!

One lady was saying I can’t do it but she was drumming like a gooden by the end and smiling her head off. Clair was really funny singing as well as drumming x