Content information: this abstract mentions the creation of a new song-cycle with traumatic themes that some readers may find upsetting.Vulnerability underpins human existence and is a pillar of musicians’ creative expression. Musical vulnerability enables musicians’ flow and transcendence, but can heighten risk of emotional strain, empathy-based stress or traumatisation. This risk can be exacerbated by material containing sensitive subject matter and/or traumatic themes. Implementing person-centred frameworks in music education can alleviate this risk. Learning communities using Trauma-Informed Music Education and Compassionate Music Teaching promote justice and autonomy for students and educators, while minimising potential for painful affects (feelings, emotions and mood). To date, there is little investigation into care systems for musicians working with sensitive subject matter and/or traumatic themes.In acting spaces, specific positions and methods are utilised to assist performers handle vulnerable content. The position of the intimacy director (or coordinator) has been developed to honour performers subjective vulnerability. They use consent-based practice to co-design frameworks with performers, equipping them with tools and language to level power imbalances and empower them to uphold their boundaries. This framework can be supported by methods such as the Michael Chekhov Technique. The technique is a psychophysical methodology that encourages mindbody imagination, promoting personal agency through physical play. Together, these practices can establish a form of embodied care for performers.This study explores embodied care when rehearsing music with traumatic themes. Eight student musicians and two creative leaders collaborated in a two-day workshop rehearsing a new song-cycle. The songs centre the librettist’s lived-experiences of disordered eating, premature birth and cancer-related death, interwoven by the question ‘why won’t you eat?’ The workshop integrated a co-designed framework of embodied care. This was facilitated by an intimacy director and supported by exercises from the Michael Chekhov Technique. Exercises, group discussions and reflections were AV recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed.Narratives and themes emerging from the data highlight the overwhelmingly positive response of participants to embodied care and the impact these frameworks could have on empowering learning communities. Cultural assumptions within musicmaking (including conformity and obedience) influenced some participants capacity or willingness to engage. However, there was notable enthusiasm when participants maintained their boundaries, while throwing themselves into unexplored territory. Vulnerability can be exposing and confronting in rehearsing musical works. Incorporating embodied care in music education has the potential to honour learning communities’ vulnerability and champion them to thrive as music-makers and as human beings.