Our Minds on Music with Allison Davies - PART 1

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, we chat to former Neurologic Music Therapist Allison who stepped out of the allied health system after 16 years, and now focuses on enacting societal change by dismantling harmful musical myths. To get a sense of what Alli is all about, I thought I’d read one of her quotes which I love.

‘As a woman I was suppressed by the systems that told me to ‘be seen and not heard’, to ‘stop being hysterical’ and to ‘not give up my day job’ in response to my musical expression.
Others were led to believe that not being able to play an instrument, sing in tune or access lessons meant they were ‘not musical’. Some were told to mime in the school choir. Many were punished for using their voice to speak up.
These systems are coming to an end.
AND WE ARE THE ONES DISMANTLING THEM.”

Oof. Did you feel that? Yes? Then let’s chat to Alli about music and the brain, how to use music to help children regulate and how we are all musical. This is episode one of two of our chat together.

👉  Alli Shares

• About the connection between music and the brain
• That music is a tool for healing
• How  we as parents and educators use music in different ways to help children regulate
• Her work to dismantle the myth that people aren’t “musical”
• Why we listen to music on repeat

👉  Opt In for FREE Downloadables

👉  Links and Resources

Connect with Alli on her website

Book Reccs:
Kissing the Hag: The Dark Goddess and the Unacceptable Nature of Women by Emma Restall Orr

👉 Guest Details

Allison holds a Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Teaching (University of New England, 2003), a Master of Music Therapy (University of Queensland, 2005) and Neurologic Music Therapy training (Academy of Neurologic Music Therapy, 2016). A former Registered Music Therapist of 16 years, Alli left the Allied Health industry in 2021 in order to align her work more deeply with culturally responsive practices and to switch her focus from individual change to socio cultural change. She is an independent liberatory scholar currently exploring the gatekeeping and classism of the social construct ‘musical vs non musical’.

Alli is an autistic person with attention, sensory processing and executive functioning difficulties. She works within a neurodiversity framework that favours deep acceptance and regulation over assimilation and intervention, and shares her lived experience of autism openly within her seminars, workshops and conferences as part of her ‘emotive storytelling mixed with science’ approach to education.

Wildlings Forest School Contact Details

Website
Facebook

Welcome back to Raising Wildlings — where we explore raising brave, resilient, curious kids who feel at home outdoors.

If you're an educator ready to bring more nature play and child-led learning into your Early Years program, our Bush Kindy Professional Development Workshops are for you. You'll walk away with practical tools, risk-benefit strategies, and the confidence to take learning outside in a way that's safe, meaningful, and genuinely exciting for

You know this podcast is just a small part of what we do at Wildlings Forest School. So if you want to find out more about our range of programs for children, our professional development workshops for educators, our free downloadables, blogs or our online store, just head to wildlingsforestschool.com. It's all there waiting for you. Come and join the village.