Helen Odell-Miller: archives

This collection is uncatalogued. The following is a temporary description which may change when detailed cataloguing takes place in the future.

Papers created and collected by Helen Odell-Miller, researcher and clinician in music therapy. The majority of Odell-Miller's records span the 1970s to 2010s and include:
- Correspondence to and from Helen Odell-Miller,
- Reports, articles, transcripts of talks and guidance documents authored, or co-authored, by Helen Odell-Miller,
- Documents created and collected by Odell-Miller during her posts at St Ida Darwin Hospital and Fulbourn Hospital,
- Collated printed and published material including Anglia Ruskin University brochures, Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research (CIMTR) brochures and reports and British Association for Music Therapy reports, and British Association for Music Therapy (BAMT) reports (previously known as The Association for Professional Music Therapists (APMT) from the 1970s until the merger with the British Society for Music Therapy, leading to BAMT).
- Audiovisual media in VHS and DVD formats,
- Press cuttings,
- Newsletters of the Association of Professional Music Therapists, c. 1980s-1990s,
- British Journal of Music Therapy, Summer 1975 - Spring 1987 [with small gaps],
- Publications relating to music therapy.

These records document:
- The development and establishing of music therapy as a registered profession, and establishing of music therapy as a Whitley Council Profession in 1982, in the NHS - the first formal career progression for music therapists.
The later establishing of music therapy as a registered profession with the CPSM (Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine) and later under the Health Professions Council (HPC) which then became the Health and Care Professions Council latterly (HCPC)
The development of music therapy training, in particular the first UK music therapy MA course at Anglia Ruskin, and Helen Odell-Miller's role in this
- Helen Odell-Miller's clinical, research and advocacy roles, e.g. within the NHS, as a government advisor and as principal investigator for TIME-A and HOMESIDE-RCT trials in music therapy.
- The establishment and activities of the Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research (CIMTR) at Anglia Ruskin University,
- Types and methods of music therapy services and provision in the UK, in particular at Ida Darwin Hospital and Fulbourn Hospital,
- The relationship between music therapy and wider arts therapies,
- The use and effectiveness of music therapy in treating mental health conditions and dementia,
- International research and developments in music therapy training and services.

1950s-2010s

Uncatalogued: 10 boxes

Donated by Helen Odell-Miller in June 2023 (Acc 2709).

Abridged from Helen Odell-Miller’s Wikipedia page ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Odell-Miller ).

Helen Odell-Miller is a research and clinician in music therapy.
Odell-Miller undertook a BA Hons in Music at Nottingham University in 1976 and afterwards began a postgraduate diploma in music therapy at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she studied under Juliette Alvin.
In 1977 Odell-Miller took up a new post at St Ida Darwin Hospital, near Cambridge, where she was responsible for developing a new music therapy service for children and adults with learning disabilities.
As a result of her work to professionalise music therapy, a new full-time music therapist role was then created at Fulbourn Hospital in Cambridge in 1980. Odell-Miller went on to develop four new music therapy posts in mental health and psychiatry in Cambridge and some elsewhere, and the first music therapy post in Cambridge Child and Family Psychiatric service.
In 1990 she was one of 4 co-founders of the European Music Therapy Confederation.
In 1994 Odell-Miller co-founded the first UK MA in Music Therapy at, then-named, Anglia Polytechnic University, going on to open the Jerome Booth Music Therapy Centre in 2007. In 2017 Odell-Miller and her colleagues founded the Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research (CIMTR) at Anglia Ruskin University, where she was also Director.
In 2008 Odell-Miller completed her PhD at the University of Aalborg, Denmark.
Odell-Miller has been a key figure in the professionalisation of music therapy in the UK. Along with her colleagues Tony Wigram and Leslie Brunt, she negotiated with the government to achieve professional recognition for music therapists. In 2016 she was awarded an OBE for her services to music therapy. In 2021 her university, Anglia Ruskin University won the Queen’s anniversary prize for research and innovation for their research in music therapy for people with dementia, led by Odel-Miller.

Transferred to Wellcome (where owned by Helen Odell-Miller).

This collection is currently uncatalogued and cannot be ordered online. Requests to view uncatalogued material are considered on a case by case basis. Please contact collections@wellcomecollection.org for more details.