Lullaby Project

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · New York, USA (Jacobi Medical Center, Bronx)

What it is

The Lullaby Project is a community and arts-in-health programme. It is not psychotherapy and it is not music therapy. WMI pairs expecting and new parents and caregivers of children aged 0–3 with professional musicians ("teaching artists"), who help each parent write, sing and record a personal…

Format

• The programme is flexible and has no fixed protocol. The Handbook sets no minimum or maximum group size and gives no session count. Formats that have been published include:
• WMI recommends about one teaching artist for every one or two participants. A group of 6–10 can split up so that each parent works individually with an artist.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Professional frame. Lullaby Project roles are not a regulated profession and there is no registration or credential for them. WMI asks for teaching artists with "high-levels of artistry, empathy, and humanity". It trains them at its yearly National Convenings and through consultation during the year. If you are a psychotherapist, you will usually be one of three things:
• If you want to use songwriting as a therapy method in its own right, that is music therapy. In the UK it requires HCPC registration; in the US, the MT-BC credential (AMTA and CBMT). It must not be presented as part of this programme. In domestic-violence settings, the Futures Without Violence profile says implementers need a strong grounding in the dynamics of domestic violence and sexual abuse. It says the…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• WolfBrown's evaluation of ten New York-area Lullaby Projects (66 mothers and family members aged 16–44, in hospitals, temporary housing, foster care, alternative schools and correctional settings) drew on session transcripts, lullaby journals and lyrics. Mothers spoke more positively and hopefully…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Drafts stored on artists' personal phones without consent.
• Clients who feel judged on their "parenting" through the song.
• Performance anxiety. Offer to record with the baby present or in a quiet room.
• Keepsakes showing names or places in DV or child-protection contexts (see 4.3).
• Feeling obliged to perform. Exposure risks for families in shelters or prisons.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.