How can music therapy be applied or involved in different ages/life stages?
Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at
8:18 am
Different age groups listen to different kinds of music.. but how else?
Im doing a presentation on how music relieves pain, and I need to talk about life/developmental stages? What can I talk about with regards to music therapy?
Filed under: Panic Attacks
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It should suit their liking. I mean in whatever music they have the taste. I feel meaningful music may have more influence.
Music therapy is an adjunct to a therapy program and doesn’t operate on a stand-alone basis. Therefore, its application will always be limited to the ways in which it’s intended to be of value by the presiding psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker, usually in a clinical or hospital environment. It is applied in any number of ways but usually including music performance, listening and creating.
Performance can be in the form of singing, playing easily accessible wind instruments such as the "tone flute" which is somewhat similar to a recorder with a sound closer to that of a flute. It is thought to be quite easy to play and used to be highly popular in the early grades of elementary schools. Seniors groups enjoy learning to play it as well and benefit from the group setting.
Another example widely used is the "idiophonic" group of instruments. All drums and instruments struck for the sake of sound production fall into this group. These are especially adaptable in that hand clapping, mouth-generated popping sounds, sticks beat against a kitchen saucepan or a rock, pebbles shaken in a plastic container—all are representative of this group. People of all ages have shown willingness to participate in performance of this sort.
I’ve worked with groups of all ages, using such methods of introductory music-making. Pains seem to migrate to a back burner when the mind focuses on ego-gratification such as might be the case when confronted with an opportunity to get involved creatively. Surely you’ve noticed how easy it is to forget pot on the stove or the toothache when you’re watching an exciting movie gallop to its close, right? This is the same spirit of excitement that captures a person experiencing music or art therapy. Age has nothing to do with the success of the program.
Adrenaline has a way of distracting us even when we’re in pain. The rush of endorphins resulting from aggressive exercise is not different as it, too, is a form of adrenaline rush. Creative application has been found and shown to predictably lessen conscious focus on chronic pain.
You seem to be thinking in terms of the listening side of music therapy whereas my background focused far more on drawing the patient out of his/her lethargy or isolation and into a joint working space for creative industry where all subjects are on an equal footing, each with something special to "say" whether executing a drumming rhythm or tooting a flute or honking on a saxophone. We see aggressive natures come out, also retiring little-ol’-me behaviors…when working with a group. Many of the more typical issues plaguing people in the every day world come under the microscope in these music-based excursions. The trick is to find ways to enable problematical traits and learned ways to show themselves in the forgiving environment of the professional so that they can be addressed.