A RESPECTED TEAM

Dr Marion Gibson
MSSc, Dip S.W., CQSW

Dr Gibson is a past Chair of the Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust and was one of the three members of the initial Board which founded the Trust in 1990 under the guidance of Consultant Neurologist, Dr Michael Swallow.
Marion became President of the organisation in 2019 and with some 25 years’ previous service on the Board, Marion feels it has been a fascinating journey of discovery and development. It has been so exciting to see the conception, growth and development of the organisation over the years through its staff, the Board and of course the thousands of people of all ages, and with such a variety of multiple needs, who have benefited from Music Therapy.
Learning through experience has been the basis for Marion’s professional life. In 1975, following initial training as a student nurse and fifteen years of community support working in the front line of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, Marion trained as a Social Worker at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. This allowed Marion to study psychological trauma in a clinical setting and afforded other opportunities, including as an Intern in a psychiatric hospital in Indianapolis in the US supporting those affected by the aftermath of military service in Vietnam. Marion’s special interest in psychosocial impact of traumatic incidents led to her becoming a Practitioner and Approved Instructor for the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (USA).
Before her recent retirement, Marion was the Manager and Clinical Director of Respond Training (established 2009), a specialist network of psychological trauma practitioners, trainers and researchers from a variety of professional backgrounds.

Mr Gary Lightbody

Detail to follow

Ms Nicki Swallow

Nicky was born in London but grew up in Belfast. She studied music at York University, and after a year’s orchestral training in London, she moved to Florence, Italy, to play the viola in the opera orchestra there. She never left. She gave up professional performance some years ago and is now the manager of a prestigious chamber music festival that is held annually in southern Tuscany.
Released from the pressures of professional playing, Nicky has developed a successful parallel career as a travel journalist writing for newspapers, magazines and websites in the UK and US about Italy and all things Italian.
“Growing up in the Swallow family, the concept of music as therapy was ingrained at an early age, and both my sister and I attended the Share Music courses founded by our father, Michael Swallow, in the 1990s. It was a passion that he was to pursue until the end of his life and it’s a real honour for us to continue to be involved through Every Day Harmony.”

Ms Gemma Swallow

Gemma grew up in Belfast and on leaving school, worked for several years at the Belfast Festival at Queens. She then moved to Scotland and started a career in theatre working backstage as a Stage and Production Manager with many popular theatre companies before moving to London. During a decade in London, she worked nationally and internationally with companies such as Theatre de Complicité, The National Theatre, the Young Vic and Stomp. She returned to Scotland and in 2013 was appointed Technical Director of the National Theatre of Scotland. The National Theatre of Scotland is a “Theatre without Walls” with a touring remit and works across Scotland, the UK and internationally. While there she has championed the work of women backstage and has driven the Company’s green policies with her passion for sustainability

Miss Emma McCabe

Emma is a 3rd year Mental Health Nursing student.
During her teenage years Emma struggled quite badly with mental health and as a result of this she spent quite an extended period of time in hospital. This is where she found her love for music.
Through music therapy Emma found a way to express herself, her feelings, her thoughts and her needs, she found that through music she was able to fight what was going on in her head. Sometimes music was Emma’s only way of communicating, through writing music and singing she was able to let those involved in caring for her know how she was doing.
Without music therapy Emma wouldn’t be where she is today, on the road to becoming a successful nurse and caring for those who are in a similar position to what she was for many years.
Emma is delighted and honoured to come on board as an ambassador for Every Day Harmony and she is very excited for what may come next.

See Emma’s video Emma

Chair: Mr John McCart
MSc, Social Science, BSc, Social Science, Dip, Social Welfare Law

John has extensive experience at a Senior Manager in Health & Social Care. His areas of expertise include, Governance, Financial Control, Service Planning & Development and Multi Agency Working.
John was a Professional Social Worker and Associate Director of Social Work in Belfast Health Trust.
He holds a MSc Social Science and Diploma in Welfare Law.
John has had an interest in and contact with Every Day Harmony since its inception. While working for Belfast Health Trust he gave the Charity its first contract to work in Learning Disability Day Services.
John joined the Charity Board in 2012 and became Chair in 2014.
He has an interest in all things musical and is involved with the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival and the Real Music Club.
He is also attempting to learn to play Alto Saxophone, which, he says, is an enormous challenge.

Vice Chair: Ms Patricia O’Callaghan
RGN RSCN

Patricia is a registered children’s nurse and general nurse and has worked as a senior manager for many years in the health care sector. At the time of her retirement she was Head of Children’s Services at the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice.
There she saw the added value of music therapy which was provided to the children and young people and ten years ago was delighted to be invited to join the Board of Every Day Harmony knowing first-hand what a difference this therapy can make.
She is committed to the further development of Every Day Harmony and to finding new and innovative ways to deliver this very important clinical intervention to potential clients all over Northern Ireland.

Mr Gerard McCann
CEI Part2, HND,AMIET

Gerry’s background is in public broadcasting and he spent 40 years working for the Irish National Broadcaster Radio Telefis Eireann (RTE).
Since his retirement, he has continued to work as a consultant on major events for BBC/RTE.
Gerry’s expertise is in resource managing for News and Current Affairs, PR and IT. He has an adult child who is on the spectrum and has SLD.
He is a member of several charities involved in caring for people on the autism spectrum.

Dr Michael Nicholson
Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. MB. BCh. BAO.

Michael has worked as a Doctor in the NHS for over 30 years. He has worked in both Northern Ireland and Merseyside, England, as a Consultant Psychiatrist. Prior to working in Psychiatry, he trained as a General Practitioner in Scotland. Throughout the course of his career, Michael has seen the benefits of Music Therapy in people recovering from mental illness in both hospital and community settings such as Care Homes and Day Centres. He has also seen the benefits of Music Therapy through his wide experience in working with people who have physical and intellectual disabilities.
Michael has a life-long passion for music. He has sung Tenor parts in the Belfast Philharmonic Society Choir and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir. His main musical passion however is playing keyboards in the County Armagh-based PM Big Band, which he has done for almost twenty years.
He is very honoured to have the opportunity to work with Every Day Harmony and is keen to use his knowledge and experience to further the organisation’s positive impact throughout Northern Ireland.

Ms Fiona Cassidy
LLM. LLB

Fiona was a solicitor in private practice for many years.  She was a Senior Partner in Jones Cassidy Brett and latterly a consultant with Lewis Silkin solicitors.  She has extensive experience of employment, discrimination, public administration and human rights law.  She also acted for a number of charitable bodies over the years and has a knowledge and experience of charity law.
Fiona also has a love of music and “attempts to play” the piano and violin.  She also sang in the Law Society choir for some years.  Fiona joined the Board in 2022 and finds it an absolute privilege to work with the dedicated team in Every Day Harmony.

Chief Executive Officer: Ms Laura Shuttleworth
BA (Hons) DipM

Laura originally qualified as a Chartered Marketer, before moving to the voluntary sector where she has worked for almost 30 years. Her early years were spent in Marketing and fundraising for a number of disability charities including NICOD (now the Cedar Foundation) and Disability Action, later becoming Head of Marketing and Appeals at Phab NI. She was later Director of the Army Families’ Federation in Northern Ireland for almost five years.

This role sparked an interest in her later work which centred around Veterans’ mental health and the treatment of Complex PTSD, introducing her to a wide range of clinical interventions and their benefits. Improving outcomes for people with PTSD and Complex PTSD is still something Laura is passionate about. In more recent years, Laura managed a large cross-border project funded by the Special EU Programmes Body for Co-operation Ireland and was National Manager for a UK-based grass-roots sports charity.

Laura comes from a very musical family and is hugely proud of her children who regularly perform publicly with local theatre companies. She is a huge advocate of the benefits of music therapy and is on a mission to educate the public about how it can improve outcomes for those from all kinds of backgrounds.

Music Therapy Manager: Ms Julie Allen
MMT, PGDip MT, BMus (Hons)

Upon completing BMus (Hons) at Edinburgh University, Julie went on to obtain a postgraduate diploma in music therapy and a Masters in Music Therapy in Cambridge. Julie has worked as a music therapist at Every Day Harmony since 2005. After working for a number of years in mental health settings, Julie delivered music therapy sessions in the Music in Mind research with Queen’s University Belfast, the largest research into music therapy and child and adolescent mental health (2011). As well as currently managing a team of therapists, Julie provides music therapy for those in forensic, mental health and physical/learning disability settings.

Office Manager: Mrs Sandra Kilpatrick
TDip, HND, Business and IT

Sandra joined the Every Day Harmony staff team in January 2016 as Office Manager, after many years’ experience in the private, public and charitable sectors, the majority of which have been with 2 charitable organisations.  Sandra’s background has been mainly in business and information technology and she used her acquired teaching diplomas to develop and deliver a number of IT related training packages in South & East Belfast Health Trust and higher education colleges. Sandra also ran her own successful business for a number of years.  Her duties in Every Day Harmony include: Human Resources, Information Technology and Office Management.

Lauren Davison
MA. Music Therapy, BA

Claire Adair

MSc. Music therapy, BMus (Hons), ATCL Solo Piano, ALCM Music Theatre

Emma Hamer
MA. Music Therapy, BMus

Roisin Kennedy
MSc.  Music Therapy, BMus

Naomi Craig
MSc. Music Therapy, BMus (Hons). Music, Dip. Maths (Open), Dip. ABRSM (Piano)

Pamela Blair
MSc  Music Therapy, BMus, ALCM

Neal Hughes
MA. Music therapy, Bsc. Social Sciences, Dip. Broadcast Media Production (CSV. BBC)

Madeleine Eves
MA. Music Therapy, MSc. Psychology, BMus, DipABRSM (Violin)

Bethany Coulter
MA  Music Therapy, BA Music.

Lisa Metsamaa
MA Music Therapy, BMus (Hons), DipLCM in Classical Singing