Welcome to Take a Deep Breath CIC

Changing Lives Through Singing

Our Mission

At Take a Deep Breath CIC, We are going to provide vital mental well-being support for communities that are unable to access services due to a lack of availability, or in some cases, they fail to exist at all. We aim to fill these gaps. We will actively promote what we do and how we can provide mental health and wellbeing support for local communities through our work in the creative arts sector.

Core Values

Through a holistic approach, our goal is to provide mental health and wellbeing support for individuals, groups and projects through music, singing, songwriting and creative arts. We will become advocates for mental health awareness. Our goal is to provide support and provisions, where there is none. We will educate and open up discussions to address the taboo that still exists around struggling with mental health issues.

What We Do

The clinical research and evidence into the benefits of singing, music and songwriting for mental health is now widely known. Take a Deep Breath supports people of all ages groups through creative singing, songwriting and music programmes. We provide workshops, facilitated sessions and projects for groups and individuals. Our expert practitioners include professional musicians, creative artists and practitioners with a wealth of training and experience. They have also worked with many community projects where mental health and wellbeing has been the central focus.

One example of our work has been identifying the impact of mental health after serious brain injury. The gap between returning home after brain injury and finding support to start a new life is very wide and very long. This commonly results in severe depression for the sufferer and has far-reaching consequences for family and friends. For the sufferer, this often results in depression, marriage breakdown, alcoholism, prison and in some cases, suicide.

By providing programmes and projects when it’s needed most, we address the growing gap we have identified and provide support that normal service provisions are simply unable to fill.

Sophie Garner is the director of Take a Deep Breath CIC.

As a professional musician she was the very first artist to play on the main stage at London’s O2 Arena upon opening and gas released 4 albums as well as touring internationally. A highly experienced teacher and creative wellness practitioner, Sophie has built a reputation as a leading expert in her specialised area of the creative arts.

Using songwriting and singing as a tool kit to impact the health and wellbeing of people across different ages and sectors. This has included developing, designing and running projects across the UK for the NHS and Headway Brain Injury charity.

Sophie has spent her entire adult life working full time within the creative arts industry leaving school at age 16 going straight into a career as a singer and actress. She has a wealth of experience in education as a practitioner having taught music to 4,000+ children in primary and secondary education. This has had a positive impact on the mental health of many young adults and children in schools throughout the UK. She is the published author of 3 work books ‘The Creative Songwriting Journal’, ‘If You Can’t Say it Sing It!’ and ‘Reawakening The Creative Playmaker’. She has developed workshops, retreats and training around all three books.

In 2019 Sophie completed her masters degree. Her research resulted in creating, designing and delivering a successful group music programme for brain injury sufferers recovering in an Acquired Brain Injury unit in Bedford. This proved to be so successful that she has since delivered her sessions to various branches of Headway in addition to the service users she works with on a weekly basis at Bedford Headway and has offered training and master classes for employees of Headway.

Sophie runs 4 community choirs throughout Northamptonshire and Suffolk including Suffolk Soul Sisters where she is an ambassador for the Bury At Edmunds branch of Woman’s Aid. She is fiercely dedicated and focused on creating and delivering the best projects to support the health and wellbeing of people who are struggling with their health and wellbeing without judgement.

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We are delighted to confirm that The National Lottery Community Fund have awarded us a grant for £20,000 to support a two year project we want to create. We will be providing weekly music and social sessions for survivors of brain injury and their carers.

Every 90 seconds someone is admitted to A & E with a brain Injury. The impact is life changing and the recovery can be very long, hard to live through and difficult to process. Some people never make a full recovery.

By offering a free weekly service of music and singing for brain injury survivors plus a separate space for carers to sit and chat over a coffee, we aim to provide valuable support during an extremely difficult period when it is needed most.

Take A Deep Breath CIC