Our Mission
At Change The Tempo, our mission is to create a healthier tempo for the music industry – one that values people as much as performance. We believe in changing the tempo before the pressure builds, by shifting the culture of music towards a rhythm that supports both creativity and care.
Our focus is on empowering wellbeing before burnout, and we hope to address the challenges faced by artists, producers, and industry professionals before they reach a crisis point. We champion prevention rather than recovery by leading a movement towards a new flow for the music industry, one that integrates mental health, safety, and balance into every beat.
By redefining the cadence of wellbeing in music, we aim to build an industry where creativity can truly thrive – not at the cost of health – but in harmony with it.
About the Founders
Rachel Jepson
Rachel Jepson has over 25 years of experience in the music industry as a singer and is a BACP-accredited psychotherapist. Struggling with her own mental health, partly from being involved in the music industry, Rachel has created the first and only training courses on Mental Health in the Music Industry. Her CPD-accredited certificate ‘Mental Health Awareness In the Music Industry’ has been delivered to over 500 participants in the music industry since it was accredited.
Rachel is passionate about education and training on preparing people for how they may be impacted positively and negatively by being involved in music, and providing a toolkit for people to embark on whatever career they choose in the Music Industry. Her latest course, ‘How to Be A Woman In Music focuses on issues that many women have struggled with in the Music Industry, such as parenting, sexual harassment, and power imbalance. No other music industry course provides these insights and opportunities for discussion and change.
Rachel’s current PhD research focuses on creating a code of practice for Mental Health in the Music Industry, to provide a set of guidelines so members of the music industry community can be protected and supported. She is a published author and campaigner.
Change The Tempo’s identity is defined by Rachel and Alena’s passion for support and change within the industry, having struggled with their own issues within the music industry. Issues such as harassment, discrimination, extreme depression, and neurodivergence have impacted Rachel and Alena throughout their career and they have both continued to try to overcome and will always strive to do so. They have made a pact to try and prevent others from suffering as they have, and so Change The Tempo was born. Their unique viewpoint and collaboration of music industry professionals and accredited therapists is one of the reasons why Change The Tempo will be so beneficial. Rachel and Alena have observed many others in the industry being treated badly by people in power, or feeling powerless themselves due to physical and mental issues and hope to address this.
Alena Herel
Alena is known as ‘the voice behind the voices’ in the world of music, voice, and performance. As a voice specialist, musical artist, vocalist, presenter, and teaching consultant, she brings extensive experience across singing, performance, speech, language, and communication.
Her portfolio includes work with artists such as Lewis Hamilton, Ella Mai, and Billboard recording artist IAGO. She has also contributed to projects with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team and Sophia Webster, and coached for television shows including The Voice Kids UK and Starstruck.
As an independent recording artist and performer, Alena has built a diverse career spanning live performance, recording and commercial media. Her experience includes sharing the stage with Grammy Award-winning artist Chaka Khan, alongside projects and features with leading broadcasters, record labels and global brands including BBC Radio 1Xtra, Defected Records, Sprite, TK Maxx, YOU FM Germany, BT, Channel 4 and ITV.
Her personal and professional experiences within the music industry as a singer, performer, educator and coach sparked a desire to create meaningful and lasting change. Having witnessed the impact of stress, burnout and poor mental health, she became passionate about shifting the focus from crisis intervention to early support. Guided by the belief that prevention is better than cure, her vision is to help people before challenges escalate, creating healthier, more sustainable careers across the music industry. Combined with Rachel’s own personal and professional experience, this became the foundation for creating Change The Tempo.
