MEET THE TEAM
Carine Ries

Director, Music Therapist
MA Music Therapy, FAMI, RYT 200hrs
Carine completed her undergraduate degree in Music & Psychology at the University of Leeds before moving to London to undertake her MA in Music Therapy at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Carine qualified in 2010 and has since also trained in Neurologic Music Therapy and is a qualified GIM and MI therapist. Carine completed her 200hrs yoga teacher training in 2017 and has since presented internationally on the benefits of using a combined approach in therapy. Carine has experience working with children and adults in a variety of settings and with a range of needs, including mental health, emotional and behavioural difficulties, sensory processing difficulties, and profound and multiple learning disabilities. In her private practice Carine works with children and adults offering music therapy, GIM, and yoga. Since 2014 Carine has been supervising Guildhall students on music therapy placements and has been offering private music therapy supervision.
Isobel Needham

Music Therapist
MA Music Therapy
Isobel trained at the guildhall school of music and drama and qualified in 2004. She has worked in a variety of settings including the NHS, schools and privately. She has extensive experience in working with Autism, PLMD, children with learning difficulties and children with behavioural / emotional issues including looked after children, children who have suffered abuse and attachment disorders. She has a keen interest in brain development and its impact on children and young people and qualified in Neurological Music Therapy in 2017. She is a BAMT registered supervisor and has hosted Music Therapy students on placement. Isobel works in both individual therapy and group therapy and works both client centred and psychodynamically.
Eleanor Austin

Music Therapist
MA Music Therapy
Eleanor graduated with an MA in Music Therapy from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Eleanor has experience working with adults and children in schools, hospitals, and hospices, in areas including mental health difficulties, learning difficulties, neurodiversity, neurorehabilitation, and palliative care.
Michaela Pugh

Music Therapist
MA Music Therapy
Michaela holds a Music degree from the University of Southampton. She completed her MA in Music Therapy at the University of Roehampton in 2025. Michaela has experience working with adults and children in a variety of settings and with a range of needs, including social, emotional and mental health, experienced trauma and attachment disorders, neurodiversity, and profound and multiple learning disabilities. Michaela works with a psychodynamic client-led approach.
Elizabeth Dunlop

Music Therapist
MA Music Therapy
Elizabeth originally trained as a singer at the Royal College of Music and for thirty years was engaged in performing, teaching in schools and privately and bringing up her three children. Motivated by her experience of the therapeutic effects of music on an audience and the therapeutic relationship with her students, Elizabeth was delighted to undertake further training at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, completing her MA in Music Therapy in 2020. She has experience of working with children in special needs schools, community groups at a children’s hospice, and in adult mental health.
Elizabeth has a particular interest in working with infants and with children and their families. Her MA research explored the work of therapists in music therapy groups for infants with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions and their carers in children’s hospices.
Jessica Wise

Music Therapist
MA Music Therapy
Jessica holds a Music Performance degree from Coventry University and a PG Dip. from Birmingham Conservatoire. She completed her MA in Music Therapy at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Jessica has worked in several settings including NHS hospitals, care homes, and both mainstream and SEN schools. She has experience working with neurodiverse children and children with learning disabilities, children experiencing trauma, as well as extensive work in older adult mental health
Bara Horejsi

Music Therapist
MA Music Therapy
Rowena Marshall

Music Therapist
MA Music Therapy
Rowena graduated with a degree in Music from the University of Bristol in 2023. During her studies, she became increasingly interested in Music Therapy through her work with primary school children in the community music project Thinking Music. Rowena went on to train as a Music Therapist at Guildhall School of Music, recently graduating in 2025. Through her training, Rowena gained clinical experience in adult mental health, special education needs and primary, secondary and early years education, through a variety of NHS and school settings. Alongside her Music Therapy work, Rowena maintains her community music work as a Songs and Smiles sessions leader, running intergenerational singing groups for young children and their parents/carers and older adults in care homes.
Toni Fairminer

Speech and Language Therapist
MA Speech and Language Therapy
Toni completed an undergraduate degree in Primary Education. She has vast experience with children and young people with Autism and worked for many years as a Teaching Assistant with the client group before qualifying as a Speech and Language therapist. As a therapist, Toni has worked with children and young people with a variety of needs including Autism, Down’s Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy and Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties. She has vast experience in AAC and functional communication and supporting children and young people to engage and thrive within their learning environment. She has a particular interest in understanding the link between communication and behavioural difficulties and working with children and young people, their families and their wider support network to develop communication and subsequently reduce behavioural outbursts. She has training and experience in Lis’n Tell- Live and Inclusive Story Telling which works extremely well when co-delivered with a member of the Music Therapy Team.
Charlie

Therapy Dog
PAWS-Certified
Charlie has officially become a PAWS-Certified therapy dog in 2023.
Charlie loves coming into 1-2-1 animals assisted therapy sessions and also enjoys going into schools for visits.
In her spare time Charlie loves her scentwork training and taking part in trials.