Early Adopters of TroubleChutes

Kid's Company

Baroness Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder and chief executive of Kids Company (a charity offering support to 17,000 exceptionally vulnerable children and young people) heard Marsha performing her song “Johnny Can’t Read” at a live concert and asked her to work for Kids Company as a commissioned songwriter.

This soon developed into lyric workshops, where talking about a song, enabled some children to relate to and talk about problems in their own lives at a safe distance. Music had the capacity, when used in this way, to completely transform a child’s psychological landscape. 

In later years the performance side of the work was expanded. Highlights included:

 

  1. Marsha performing these songs with the children for Prince Charles.
  2. The songs being used for a Ruby Wax documentary about Kids Company 
  3. Performances with the children to Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street. 
  4. A musical production written and choreographed by Marsha and performed by the children at the Brideswell Theatre 
  5. Performances for the Metropolitan Police
  6. A performance of the songs at Café de Paris

The Clinic for Dissociative Disorders

The Clinic for Dissociative Disorders is a tertiary specialist NHS provider working with children and adults who have experienced extreme trauma. Marsha was asked to work with children who had not been able to engage with conventional psychotherapy and who had been expelled from highly specialised therapeutic schools. 

These children were often considered by social services to be “unreachable”, but responded in a positive way to weekly sessions with Marsha.

For one of the most vulnerable children, Marsha received weekly supervision from one of the leading child psychotherapists of our time, Dr Anne Alvarez (Tavistock Clinic).

A key feature of Marsha’s work was finding a way to gain the interest of an emotionally numbed child through music and then sustain that interest in the formation of a relationship that could then progress to higher levels of relating. Children who were shamed by the idea of therapy were able to benefit from a process that was therapeutic without appearing to be therapy.

Amanda’s Action Kids

After taking a break to become a mother, Marsha joined forces with celebrity children’s entertainer Amanda Frolich of Amanda’s Action Club. Amanda has been dubbed the Jamie Oliver of West London’s playgrounds. Marsha met Amanda when her daughter attended her classes which she loved. When Amanda was looking for new music for her franchise, Marsha was delighted to help out. She wrote songs for Amanda’s album for pre-school children, in collaboration with multi-million selling recording artist Alison Wheeler from The Beautiful South, a long-time supporter of Amanda’s work.

The album features songs about growing up, healthy eating, and sharing. Amanda used this music to host parties for her A-list following which has included the Beckhams, Amanda Holden, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s children. Watch the video on the home page to hear Alison Wheeler TroubleChuting the song “Jealous Friend”