Holding Space When You Can’t Control the World

Every Sounds Joyful session is a new composition. It’s a co-creation of sounds and songs, unpredictable, authentic and alive.

Jo, who leads many sessions, is a powerful presence conducting an orchestra of change. Some gatherings ask for gentle melodies, others for vibrant drums that shake the walls.

To hold space means listening beyond words, sensing energy, emotion and the unspoken. Jo reads the group’s rhythm, non-verbal behaviour and levels of attention, adjusting her approach in real time, sometimes leading with clarity, sometimes stepping back to let others lead with their own voices.

From a systemic view, this is attunement in motion, a continuous dialogue between stability and freedom. We can’t control the world outside but we can co-regulate within it. Holding space is not passive. It demands presence, patience and faith in the group’s capacity to find its own rhythm. In that sense, it mirrors therapeutic containment, not about keeping emotions neat but allowing them to exist safely. When someone feels held in a non-judgmental environment, nervous systems synchronise, trust grows quietly beneath the surface. The lesson is profoundly psychological: we can’t fix chaos but we can create moments of coherence and sometimes chaos is the answer. Holding space is not about fixing, it’s about feeling the pulse of community and trusting its wisdom. I enjoy observing Jo as part orchestra conductor, part entertainer, part therapist. Her fine-tuned interventions allowing people to come through and overcome their barriers for joining in is somewhat magical. I also secretly envy her energy levels, as managing to keep a very diverse group of people singing, drumming, shaking, dancing and moving is not an easy task. At Sounds Joyful, we never know where the session will take us, but everyone quickly learns to trust Jo to light up the road and lead the way.

Written by: Juliana Lax, Volunteer Assistant Psychologist at Sounds Joyful.These reflections are personal interpretations informed by psychological theory and observation, translating lived experience into words. Sounds Joyful is an inclusive community programme, not a therapeutic or clinical service