Kate Jones

Dr Kate Jones is the research group coordinator for Music Therapy at GSMD and also Director of the charity Music Therapy Lambeth. Her role at GSMD is to act as an ambassador for Music Therapy research by supporting current research activity, encouraging new projects in the Music Therapy department and by attracting PhD candidates and research collaborations with external partners.

Kate is passionate about social impact research and her PhD investigated the use of Music Therapy for young children with Selective Mutism; an anxiety-based condition whereby a child can speak confidently at home but not at school.

Kate began her research journey into Selective Mutism after being referred ‘quiet children’ from nursery schools.  These children responded quickly to Music Therapy returning to the classroom talking and often becoming quite loud. You can watch a BBC video about her research here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCvcWTNIJxc

Kate has published widely-read open access articles on this topic and presented papers at international conferences across Europe and the US. The next stage of her research is to collaborate with key professionals and parents of children with Selective Mutism to develop a manualised approach for the use of Music Therapy for children with SM prior to undertaking a Randomised Controlled Trial.

Kate’s other research interests are in the neuroscience of health and wellbeing, particularly for therapeutic interventions but also in the broader systemic applications of how we use the arts for nervous system regulation and health.  She is currently developing research projects in this field.