Midterm Flashcards
What is Music Therapy?
1960 - National Association for Music Therapy (NAMT) defined music therapy as the “scientific application of the art of music to accomplish therapeutic aims. It is the use of music and the therapist’s self to influence changes in behavior”
American definition of music therapy was based on changing behavior
Current Day – American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) defines music therapy with these additions:
Music therapy involves the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals
Research in music therapy indicates its effectiveness in overall physical rehabilitation and facilitating movement, increasing people’s motivation to become engaged in their treatment and providing emotional support for clients and their families.
Music Is
Music is a universal phenomenon
People of all ages and backgrounds can listen, perform, create, and enjoy it
Music is a flexible therapeutic medium
Many different styles
Variety of ways to get involved (composing, performing, listening etc.)
Music therapists use music and musical activities to facilitate therapeutic/health care goals
Therapy refers to assisting or helping a person
Musical improvising
Creating something with your voice/an instrument that has never been created before
Benefit: this can never be done incorrectly
MTAs facilitate improvising
Build confidence
Piano example: “you play only the black keys and I’ll play the white keys”
Why is Music Therapy effective?
Universality Flexibility Brain activation The ONLY thing that can activate all the areas of the brain Recognition Emotion Speech Cognition Memory
Music as a tool
Use within music therapy in order to achieve a variety of healthcare goals
Music has been found to alter mood/elicit relaxation responses
Can distract from physical pain
Evokes memories
Dementia – memories can be accessed through music even in individuals who struggle with accessing memories
Culture of music
Music therapy means different things to different people, shaped by cultural backgrounds, philosophy, values, training, clinical setting etc. - MTAs can refer to other MTAs that can better relate to certain cultures and backgrounds, this can be beneficial to the client (must recognize if this would beneficial based on cultural needs)
Music Therapy is NOT:
Special music education
Exclusively for people with musical backgrounds
Music lessons
Entertainment
Entertainers are not MTAs
While there is therapeutic value, the entertainer is not forming a relationship w/ the client and/or actively engaging the client in the music
The purpose is not for healthcare goals even if there is therapeutic value
Canadian Association of Music Therapists (CAMT)
CAMT is a federally-incorporated, self-regulated non-profit professional organization
It aims to create strong certified MTAs (Music Therapists) and to raise awareness surrounding professional music therapy services throughout Canada
Canadian definition: the use of music by an accredited music therapist to achieve health care goals
CAMT wants to encourage the practice of music therapy in clinical, educational, and community settings.
Boston Children’s Hospital
Allowing children to gain control over something again
Loud/quiet sounds
Choice of instrument
Singing
Empowering
Building confidence
Also to impact the family/parents
Watching their child engage in something they enjoy again
Encouraging healthy development (music is part of natural development) (rehabilitation)
Process to receive music therapy:
- Referral
You DO NOT refer someone to MT because they have autism/cancer/ABI/dementia, these are diagnoses.
Clients are referred for specific healthcare goals (social skills, speech, communication, self-expression, gross motor skills/fine motor skills) - Assessment
purpose: to tell you what the clients goals and objectives are, to inform the treatment plan - Goals
Based on observations/assessments - Treatment plan (interventions)
- Reports & re-assessments
Framework of Music therapy session:
Hello Song
Interventions
Closing Song
Interventions
Pre Composed Music Singing Listening Instrument Playing Improvising Composing Lyric Analysis
Pre-composed music
can help with people with AD- may still have remember music from their past (able to remember lyrics)
sense of familiarity and safety
therapist must comprehend their knowledge of the client’s pre-composed music
Singing
Improves articulation, rhythm, and breath control
Improves intake of oxygen
Encourages reminiscence and discussions of the past, while reducing anxiety
Brain injuries such as ABI/aphasia - people can still sing even if they can’t speak
Once the brain is primed through singing, the patients are also able to answer questions – short term increase in speech fluency
Rehabilitation
Listening
Cognitive skills, attention span, memory
Opportunity for insight with client recordings
Instrument playing
Facilitates and improves range of motion, joint mobility/agility/strength, balance, coordination, gait consistency and relaxation
Rhythm and beat are important in priming the motor areas of the brain, in regulating breathing and heart rate, and maintaining motivation or activity level
Motor areas of the brain
Strong beats and catchy rhythms have been found to facilitate the initiation of movement with Parkinson’s patients
Improvising
Offers a creative, nonverbal means of expressing thoughts and feelings
Non-judgmental, easy to approach, and requires no previous musical training
Improvising can lead to expression of emotion – ex. “I don’t know how I’m feeling today…” After playing music, the client may be able to better articulate their feelings based on how they felt while playing the music or what they chose to play
Where words fail to communicate emotions, music can feel that void
Provides a safe opportunity to interact with feelings associated with trauma
Musical expression from client followed by musical response by MTA – I heard you, I’m here, I’m listening
Composing
For people with terminal illness, it is a vehicle of examining feelings surrounding feelings towards life/death and the meaning of life and death
Provides an opportunity to create a legacy/shared experience to caregiver/child/loved one prior to death
Familiar melody – you are my sunshine example
Lyric analysis
Lyric discussion can facilitate discussion surrounding trauma/abuse
With whom does a music therapist work?
In Canada, the majority of MTAs are working within long-term care with the elderly population, as the largest client-base is within the elderly population group + funding is available within long-term care facilities
Children with autism – funding is accessed for children with disabilities through passport funding
Children and elderly people have others advocating for them (their parents or their adult children)
Schools/school groups
Prisons
Mental health programs
Rehabilitation
Private practice
What are the personal qualifications of a music therapist?
Musician
Excellent functional musical skills
Broad knowledge of different musical styles
Uses music flexibly, creatively and in an aesthetically satisfying manner
Piano requirement for programs
Usually guitar as well
Therapist
Good physical and emotional stability
Sincere interest in helping others
Patience, tact and understanding
Reliable, genuine, ethical
Clinical objectivity
Learning to be a musician but ALSO a therapist, using music in a therapeutic way
As a pianist, you may excel at classical music but an MTA requires musical flexibility to be therapeutic
Educational preparation of a music therapist
University
1000-hour supervised internship
Certified board of music therapists (CBMT) exam
MTA certification
Continuing education – MTA must maintain their credential every 5 years through CAMT continuing education process
Piaget’s Developmental stages:
Sensorimotor (0-2)
Preoperational (2-7)
Concrete operational (7-11)
Formal operational (11+)
Sensorimotor (0-2)
Learning about their immediate environment through senses and motor activity
Although hearing is still developing, newborns are active listeners and can identify sound source
Newborns and infants are attracted it infant-directed speech, their mother’s voice and songs that contain characteristics of ID-speech
Following beat is innate to humans
Preoperational (2-7)
Rapid language and conceptual growth
Increased vocalization
The child (ages 2-3) may be able to improvise short, melodic patterns (old McDonald – E-I-E-I-O)
2-4 years – the child may show brief moments of brief synchrony to rhythmic music – but being able to maintain steady beat (beat competency) would require greater physical maturation
Rehab/ABI/Post-stroke
3-4: walking, galloping, jumping in musical games
4-5: the child does more accurate imitation of pitch patterns with greater vocal control
4-6: before this, parallel play is primary; at this bracket, children are more willing to share and cooperate
Concrete operational (7-11)
Think systematically and mentally solve problems related to immediate reality
Playing rules for music therapy improv (ex. Play only the black keys)
Music is used to foster social interactions, group interaction and motor functioning
Formal operational (11+)
Children develop abstract thinking skills
Religion, politics, fantasy, gaming
Metacognition (awareness of one’s own thought process)
*How can I make an impact on change? What is within my control, what is not?
The Musical Adolescent
Music is normal/natural – teens may participate in formal music organizations (band/choir) and informal (rock bands) or watch music videos and listen to recordings
Music is an outlet for feelings of rebellion and confusion that come with adolescence. As such, music therapy is a powerful therapeutic intervention for individuals of this age bracket
Musical Diversity
Style and cultural heritage
With such diversity, people can identify with at least one style
Music is a universal phenomenon, music itself can be found across the globe
BUT, music is NOT a universal language, as the same type of music does not communicate the same way across the globe
MTAs take into account which instrument to use – ex. Playing the same song, “You are my sunshine” is different on a piano vs. Guitar vs. Clarinet vs. Flute
Personal preferences of client
Benefits/health-care goals that can be achieved
Functions of Music
Auditory and tactile simulation of music can be helpful in evoking initial or more adaptive responses from nonresponsive individuals at a verbal level
Music serves as an effective mnemonic device
Communication
Emotions
Culture and society
congruity
is a phenomenon wherein a particular music selection or style is paired with a specific event. E.g. tearing up after hearing a song on the radio that was played at a funeral of a loved one
Isomorphism
refers to the use of music to convey human emotions and movements
Music in preliterate cultures
Members believe that music affects mental and physical well-being
“medicine men” used music in religious/healing rites to appease the gods
Healing choruses (a group effort)
Early Civilizations
The advent of agriculture 8,000-10,000 years ago led to civilization
Music played an important role
Ancient Egypt (c. 5000 BC):
Magical, religious and rational components of medicine coexisted
Priest-physicians often included chant therapies in their medical practice because they believed that music was the medicine for the soul
Hieroglyphics depict playing instruments
Music was considered emotional catharsis
