About me
Hello. I’m Donna – a music producer and psychotherapist creating music for psychological states.
My Mission
Music and Atmospheres
For 25 years, I’ve worked in mental health – first as an Occupational Therapist, then as an accredited CBT therapist (BABCP/NCPS), and later training in EMDR and Brainspotting. Throughout this journey, I’ve been fascinated by emotional processing, the moments when something shifts in therapy, and the psychological states that are complex, layered, and often impossible to capture in words alone.
In 2024, I completed my Master’s in Music Production. It wasn’t a departure from therapy – it was finding a different language for the same curiosity.
What I discovered: Music can create space for psychological states in ways words sometimes can’t reach.
My Background
Music, Psychotherapy & Audio Production
My qualifications span psychology, psychotherapy, occupational therapy, arts & health and music. With training in trauma therapy, bilateral music research, and therapeutic sound applications. I hold a Master’s in Music Production and Songwriting from University of Westminster, where I researched musical awe and bilateral sound effects on neural processing. This unique combination allows me to create evidence-based therapeutic audio that serves both clinical and creative purposes.
Bilateral Music for Therapy
Custom soundscapes for EMDR and Brainspotting practitioners. Designed to support emotional processing and therapeutic work, combining precise technical requirements with musicality that honours the therapeutic relationship.
Flow State Soundscapes
Music composed to facilitate peak performance and creative flow. For businesses, professionals, and individuals seeking optimal mental states for focused work, creative exploration, or performance.
Atmospheric Compositions
Visual and sonic journeys through psychological states. My ForestDrive series pairs morning forest imagery with music composed for specific emotions and states of being – because sometimes feelings need their own soundtrack.
Why I Create This Work
Because feelings are more than words
During the loneliest time in my life, when I lost someone very close to me, I found something that helped in a way therapy alone couldn’t. I’d create playlists of awe-inspiring music and spend hours driving through the city where I lived. The combination of music, movement, and the wide open sky would lift me out of the most upsetting feelings and make me feel – just for those moments – like I was part of something bigger than myself.
I wanted so badly to share that feeling. To wind down the window and let everyone hear what I was hearing, feel what I was feeling. But of course, I couldn’t – I’d have been an utter nuisance!
So instead, I’m doing this.
I’m creating music that explores psychological states – particularly that feeling of awe that can help us feel less alone and small, and instead make us feel like an important part of something big and beautiful. I’m fascinated by how sound, combined with visuals and movement, can shift our emotional state so profoundly.
That’s what ForestDrive is: me sharing what I wished I could have shared then. Those morning drives through the forest, with music I’ve composed for specific emotional states – it’s the closest I can get to winding down that window and saying, “Here, listen to this. You’re not alone. You’re part of something bigger.
What I do now
I create music for psychological states, drawing on both my therapeutic understanding and my music production training.
- Bilateral Music for Therapy
- Flow State Soundscapes
- Atmospheric Compositions
Whether you’re a therapist seeking evidence-based audio tools for your practice, or an individual wanting therapeutic music for personal healing and growth, my work bridges the gap between clinical effectiveness and artistic expression.
My Journey To Therapeutic Music
My relationship with music began long before I understood its therapeutic power. My early training was in dance, where I first experienced the profound connection between music, movement, and emotional expression. I started producing music in 1993, learning keyboard and drums, and have always been fascinated by the experience of driving while listening to music. It’s that unique combination of rhythm, movement, and sound whilst moving through a landscape. I find it captivating.
During my occupational therapy degree, I studied sensory processing and mental health, beginning to understand how our senses affect our emotional wellbeing. I also trained in various sound therapies, drums, tuning forks, Tibetan bowls, and chimes, exploring how different sonic textures and frequencies impact our nervous system.
But it was when I went through my own trauma that music helped me when talking could not. It was the experience of creating playlists and driving, that combination of carefully chosen music, rhythm, and movement, that helped me access the flow state and feel moments of being lifted up and out of the depths of despair that I was in at the time.
This personal experience of music as medicine shaped my path. In 2010, I began formal study in singing and songwriting, and later pursued my Master’s in Music Production and Songwriting at the University of Westminster, where I researched musical awe, bilateral sound, and how specific audio techniques affect our neurological states.
Through studying the intersection of sound, neuroscience, and therapeutic practice, I finally found the scientific framework to explain what I’d experienced personally: that therapeutic music isn’t just background sound, it is a direct pathway to nervous system regulation, emotional processing, and healing that can be intentionally designed for specific outcomes.
My Personal and Professional Mission
Now I combine my therapeutic expertise with music production skills to create evidence-based audio tools that support both individual healing and professional practice. I am on a mission to create musical experiences that help people to feel better.