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Musicotherapy
What is Music Therapy?
Musicotherapy or Music therapy is the professional use of music and its elements as an intervention in medical, educational, and everyday environments with individuals, groups, families, or communities who seek to optimize their quality of life and improve their physical, social, communicative, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health and wellbeing.
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Research, practice, education, and clinical training in music therapy are based on professional standards according to cultural, social, and political contexts.
How does it work?
Music therapy is a applied in sessions. Within a session, an individual can experience a set of exercises that are used to reach an aim or objective within the self. The objectives are obtained on two levels. The first one is the main aim or objective that the exercise itself carry to the individual, and the second level is the aim or objective that the individual themselves carry in an exercise.
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The general Music Therapy aims or objectives that the exercises can help in, can be:
Attention and Concentration
Improving Social Skills (Listening, Communication, Negotiation)
Body/Self Awareness and Self Confidence, along with Environmental Awareness.
Expressing Emotions
Coping with Change
Gross Motor Skills
Respiration and Moving towards Relaxation
Coping with Loss
Decision Making
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What to expect in a session?
Each session is uniquely designed to meet the needs of the individual/client. A Therapist uses variety of techniques such as:
Song-writing, Drum Circles, Lyric Analysis, Improvisation, Guided Imagery, Singing, Therapeutic Performances.
Beside that, Talk Therapy is applied through reflecting on experiencing the exercises and it is used to help the individual understand, learn, and confront their own emotions and thoughts.
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It is important for the individual before going with any session to understand that there is no Psychotherapy/Psychoanalysis that is happening in a session, yet it is rather a way to unlock obstacles and barriers to the deeper oneself.
The Music Therapist
The Music Therapist, or the Music Therapy Facilitator as I like to call it, is an individual, who underwent studies and training to obtain the needs of being a therapist and facilitating a session of Musicotherapy.
In general, it is expected to study:
Developmental Psychology
Music (theoretical and practical)
Survey of Instrument Techniques
Vocal Techniques
Music in Special Education
Clinical Foundations
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The approach towards the individuals in a session is to implement or facilitate the exercises of the Musicotherapy and assist them to experience the exercises.
On the other hand, there is no interpretation or analysis that occurs from the Music therapist towards the Individuals, (s)he is there to Facilitate, Listen, Link, and Contain the objectives on the two levels mentioned above, and therefore open a way to make them feel connected to one self and the surroundings.