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Helen is Professor Director and founder of the Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy (CIMTR) at Anglia Ruskin University.

She is also a governor of The Music Therapy Charity. She was instrumental to early development of the music therapy profession in the UK, leading international research, especially in the fields of adult mental health and dementia, and negotiated with the government, achieving professional recognition for music therapists in 1982 under the Whitley Council. In addition to her role leading one of the largest Arts Therapies NHS mental health departments in the UK (1981-2006), where she still holds an honorary contract, she served as the advisor to the Department of Health for music therapy and took a lead role in developing legal registration for music therapy. She is widely published, internationally known and currently the UK leader for HOMESIDE, a 5 country research project investigating new methods in music therapy for people living at home with dementia and their family carers. She has recently been involved in developing the Music and Dementia Strategy in the UK, produced by the International Longevity Centre as part of a House of Lords Music and Dementia Commission. In 2016 she was awarded an OBE for her services to music therapy.