Depression, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia… When symphony orchestras play doctors

To break the vicious circle of isolation and self-stigma, around twenty psychiatric patients, suffering from depression or bipolar, schizophrenic or personality disorders, attend rehearsals of the Toulouse Orchestra as part of the “Résonance(s)” project which, after three years, is spreading throughout France.

The project was born in 2023 from a partnership between the National Capitol Orchestra and several mental health institutions in the region. Its objective, faced with pathologies likely to lock patients into a negative view of themselves, is to allow them to attend four rehearsals per year to initiate a dynamic of returning to others and to promote their recovery.

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In mid-February, around 25 patients from clinics and day hospitals, accompanied by their caregivers, sit in small groups in the spectacular Toulouse concert hall of the Halle aux grains. In front of them, the musicians are preparing to work on three movements of the Fantastic Symphony by Hector Berlioz, monument of French romanticism.

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The choice to attend rehearsals rather than concerts is no coincidence: seeing the musicians dressed in T-shirts and hoodies like them helps patients identify. For two hours, patients ranging from their twenties to their sixties listen attentively, sometimes taking notes. A young man closes his eyes for a few moments to let himself be carried away by the music.

Melancholy

After the rehearsal, the protocol provides for a time for discussion with members of the orchestra. Both patients and caregivers show a lot of curiosity towards the musicians present, the violist Claire Pélissier and the oboist Serge Krichewsky. Then the discussion lingers on the third movement of the Fantastic Symphonywhich opens with a dialogue full of melancholy between oboe and English horn. “From the moment you played the third movement, I cried a lot”entrusts a patient to the instrumentalists. “It allowed me to release a lot of emotions, I arrived very tense at rehearsal. I was swept away by emotion”she continues.

The psychiatrist Nathalie Bounhoure, at the origin of the project, is a specialist in “psychosocial rehabilitation”. She wanted to include Résonance(s) in this field of psychiatry, which attempts to help patients “to shift the burden of diagnosis” et “find ourselves as people”. “It really allowed me to regain my footing, to ground myself, to understand that my emotions come, pass… These are things that happen every day, all the time, but at least, with music, we are not alone”Naémi, a 25-year-old patient, told AFP. “We feel legitimate to be in this fluctuation, because the music fluctuates too.”

“Breaking a solitude”

“Sick people are very isolated in what they experience”deplores Nathalie Bounhoure. Gold “it’s very important to be able to feel the same thing as someone else”. Participate in a group project in a field, music, with great potential for “emotional synchronicity”can therefore “help them reconnect in relationships with others”she emphasizes.

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“I felt a unity between the conductor, the orchestra and me. I felt the tensions, the moments of admiration; when the conductor wants to lead the orchestra, further, stronger”Danielle, a 65-year-old patient with hypersensitivity, told AFP. “It breaks the loneliness, it allows you to reaffirm yourself, to move forward.”

“It’s as if it’s speaking to my subconscious. (…) We realize to what extent music is a powerful lever on an emotional level”analyzed Laëtitia, another 44-year-old patient, subject to problems of depression and addiction. “It’s all well and good to take antidepressants and talk to a psychiatrist”more “fortunately the monitoring is not limited to medications”she rejoiced.

The success of the first three sessions led several orchestras – from the Philharmonie de Paris, Limoges and Rouen – to join the project in January 2026, and other musical ensembles in Caen, Metz and Bordeaux, as well as that of Radio France, are due to launch in September, details Nathalie Bounhoure.