Teacher wellbeing globally is in a critical state, with high levels of stress, burnout, and mental health claims, with music teaching considered one of the most challenging jobs in the profession. Self-care is emerging as a leading strategy to support teachers and is seen as a proactive action to develop, maintain and/or protect wellbeing. Within this study, self-care is defined as anything an individual can proactively do to assist in the development, protection, and maintenance of their health, wellbeing or wellness, enabling individuals to be the best version of themselves. Linking with the conference theme of unity in music education and building bridges for all, this study aims to shift from a deficit narrative to one of hope by investigating the strategies music teachers employ by themselves and with others. Given the social and relational nature of self-care, this study examines the intimate role of music teacher social supports providing a unique lens fostering empathy, understanding and connection to a cohort often overlooked further promoting a more just and compassionate society. Adopting a social constructivist paradigm, this study uses narrative inquiry through the gathering and interpretation of the stories of music teachers and their social supports, awakening tensions under the surface and considers alternative perspectives from an empathic lens. Data has been generated using one-on-one interviews with primary music teacher participants and identified members of their support networks. This presentation features a composite narrative of one focus music teacher and their support network through one-on-one semi-structured interviews and photographs, providing opportunities for both the focus participant and social support personnel to reflect and comment on each other’s responses. Participant transcripts and photographs are collated providing rich and complex triangulated data that contributes to the retelling of the focus participants narrative and their self-care practices. The narrative is deductively thematically analysed through Lemon’s (2024) self-care framework of self-compassion, mindfulness, habits, time and empowerment. Findings offer practical, assessable and personalised actions individuals can utilise to support their wellbeing in the development of their own self-care tool kit. By developing a self-care tool kit teachers can utilise strategies they know work for them enabling both teachers and students to flourish. By building on existing research in positive psychology, wellbeing and self-care this research aims to provide practical, adaptable and accessible self-care strategies that can improve both teacher retention and productivity rates, sustaining teachers well into the future.