Music Therapy and the Grieving Process

         Since the beginning of time music has shown its soothing effects. Take a look at David playing the harp for the King to help sooth his soul. Music can help heal a person who is grieving if the music is used in a structured therapeutic way.

         Grief has six stages that a person passes through. It is important to note that the stages may not go in the exact order as listed. Stage one is always denial. “Denial buys time needed to blunt the initial impact of the shattered dream.” (Moses, 2004) Most times a person is grieving the loss of a dream, whether it is the loss of a dream that you will have more time with the one you love or the loss of a dream you once had for yourself or someone you love. The next stage is anxiety; once a dream has been lost the person has to make a major life change. In today’s world the society makes anxiety an inappropriate response; however anxiety is an appropriate reaction to a major life change.  The next stage is fear; “fear is a warning that alarms the person to seriousness of the internal changes that are demanded.” (Moses, 2004) Fear is a common stage that comes along with anxiety; after feeling anxiety, fear of the unknown comes. Guilt is another state of grief. It is a normal feeling to feel guilty about the life you have. Guilt can be expressed because people believe that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. (Moses, 2004) The next stage is depression “characterized by profound and painful sobbing”. (Moses, 2004) The final stage is anger; the question “why me” is often asked during this state. This stage is typically directed toward one person.

Music therapy sessions can have structure while remaining open to the emotions and vulnerability of the person experiencing the grief. The music therapist can used many techniques as tools to help with the grieving process. Improvisation is a music therapy technique that has a small amount of structure but allows for a large amount of emotional expression. Songwriting is another music therapy technique; this technique can vary in structure. The therapist can take a song that already has a tune and replace the words with some that the client wants or the therapist can write an original song with the client. The therapist uses the existing relationship the client has with music, preferred music or favorite genres.

These techniques can help with anyone who is going through the grieving process such as: someone who lost a loved one, someone who lost the ability of a body part, or someone who has had a close family member receive a serious diagnosis. All of these scenarios have someone who has lost an idea of how their life would look and are going through the stages of grief. Music therapy can uses the stages of grief paired with music to help work through the stages in a non-threatening environment.  

                             -Dana LaValley, Music Therapy Intern

McFerran, K. (2011). Music Therapy with Bereaved Youth: Expressing Grief and Feeling  

       Better. Prevention Researcher, 18(3), 17-20.

Moses, K. (2004). Impact of childhood disability: the parents struggle. Pent Forum. Retrieved

       from: http://www.pent.ca.gov/beh/dis/parentstruggle_DK.pdf

Learning Through Play: The Greenspan Floortime Method

           Mark Greenspan developed a specific method of floortime therapy to interact with children with autism and developmental disabilities. It is all about meeting the child where they are and letting them guide the interaction between adult and child. There are six stages that Greenspan developed in order to aid development.

·      Stage 1: Self-regulation and Shared Attention

o   The child must be able to regulate in the environment in order to enter the world of shared attention with the adult.

o   The adult engages the child using hearing, touching, looking and movement.

·      Stage 2: Engagement and Relating

o   The adult interacts with the child and engages emotionally with them while they play encouraging pleasure they receive from the interaction.

o   Establishing relationships with the adult is important for the child to help support the development of motor planning, language, and positive attitudes towards learning.

·      Stage 3: Two-way Intentional Communication

o   This stage is where the child takes the lead and communicates wants, interests, and needs through exchanges with the adult.

·      Stage 4: Purposeful Complex Problem Solving Communication

o   The adult continues the communication from the child by going with the ideas they are presenting and following through on them (going to the door when the child leads you there and asking what they will go get).

·      Stage 5: Creating and Elaborating Symbols (ideas)

o   This stage focuses on playing with the child in a way that they can transfer later into the real world. Establishing relationships and fixing problems in play will later help them connect that to their life.

·      Stage 6: Building Bridges Between Symbols (ideas)

o   This is when the child is challenged to differentiate between different feelings, thoughts and actions. Creating play or a drama that has a beginning, middle, and end will help the child make sense of themes or ideas that may be fragmented.

In our music therapy sessions, we think about the levels of play in order to ensure the session has a good flow. Incorporating the floortime stages into our sessions can be beneficial to help guide our interactions with our clients to encourage success.

Source: Greenspan, S, & Wieder, S. (2003). Climbing the symbolic ladder in the DIR model through floor time/interactive play. The National Autistic Society: 7(4), pgs. 425-435. 

--Lauren Booke, Music Therapy Intern

Rhythm, Music, and The Brain

         I have been working my way through Dr. Michael Thaut’s book, “Rhythm, Music and The Brain.” While the book is quite academic in nature and focuses a lot on complex scientific findings, there are also universal music therapy concepts that can directly apply to everyday practice.

         Dr. Thaut has dedicated his research and music therapy practice to putting science behind the success of what music therapists’ witness with their patients every day. He has created the field of Neurologic Music Therapy and continues to train others in these science-based music therapy techniques. While a lot of his research is with patients who have suffered a stroke or have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, his findings can be applied across the board.

         Here are a couple of quotes from his book that really have stood out for me. I think it is so important as advocates for music therapy to learn from as many sources as possible about the field and research that is available to us.

        “Rhythm may be one of the central processors to optimize our gestalt formation in the basic processes of learning and perception.” (pg. 17)

o   A gestalt is a completed unit of human experience. So basically he is saying that rhythm can help our brain develop the tools we need to gain the processes of learning and perception.

·      “Artistic expression may exercise fundamental brain functions and may create unique patterns of perceptual input that the brain needs and cannot generate through other means in order to keep its sensory, motor, and cognitive operations at optimal levels of functioning.” (pg. 25)

o   One of the many reasons music therapy is such a beneficial treatment modality is because it has that unique artistic expression component that triggers the brain totally different than anything else.

·      “Music must be viewed as a biological fact, not just as a cultural phenomenon.” (pg. 57)

o   Human beings are innately musical and learning more how to utilize that to achieve growth is what music therapy is all about.

Through his research, Dr. Thaut has proven time and time again that there are unique benefits to using music in engaging, developing, and growing the potential of the human brain. These are just a few of many of his findings and the music therapy community is blessed to have him continuing to learn more about what we do each and every day. 

-Lauren Booke, Music Therapy Intern

North Fulton Family Life Magazine-Music Therapy & Literacy

Ms. Perry Wright's article on Music Therapy & Literacy was published in the North Fulton Family Life Magazine this month.

Click here to read the article!

Incorporating Sensory Input into Music Therapy Sessions

            We have five senses to taste, to touch, to see, to hear, and to smell. When we incorporate these senses into a session we are incorporating sensory techniques. The use of sensory-based therapies has become more common throughout therapies when treating developmental and behavioral disorders. 

           There are four main sensory processing systems: vestibular, proprioceptive, tactile, and auditory. Children with sensory issues can have either hypersensitivity (over-responsiveness to senses) or hyposensitivity (under-responsiveness to senses). The sensory issue I will be discussing is hyposensitivity; these techniques should not be used for those children with hypersensitivity because this will over-stimulate them.

          In the case study, Music and On-Task Behaviors, the authors mention five off-task behaviors: running away, refusing, hand/arm movements, jumping and spinning, and verbal repetitions. Dieringer, Porretta, and Sainato used two different techniques: music and no verbal prompts and music plus verbal prompts. All of the participants engaged in more on-task behaviors during music plus verbal instructions.

         In our group, Little Beats, we are using music and verbal prompting (which stimulates the auditory system) but we are also adding other sensory components:

●      Vestibular: addressed by swinging

●      Proprioceptive: addressed by jumping

●      Tactile: addressed by actual objects in songs (if a book talks about leaves bring in leaves)

When adding the other senses into a session the therapist is helping address the needs of the clients. Clients with hyposensitivity actively crave and seek sensory input; the off-task behaviors that were described in Music and On-Task Behaviors, were behaviors that the children are using to attempt to gain sensory input. For example spinning can show a need for vestibular input; when we address these needs in the session, the client is able to gain more from the session. Over the past three sessions we have found that the clients have increased their on-task participation in the session from 20% to 80% of the clients participating.

First the therapist must understand the off-task behaviors and then the therapist can address the needs of the clients. The incorporation of sensory input into music therapy sessions can greatly benefit any client who is diagnosed with hyposensitivity.         

                        -Dana LaValley, Music Therapy Intern

Samayan, K., Dhanavendan, K., and Nachiketa, R. (2005). Allied health professionals’

           perceptions of the role of sensory integration therapy in managing challenging behaviours.

           International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 22(4), 167-172.

Dieringer, S., Porretta, D., and Sainato, D. (2017) Music and on-task behaviors in preschool

        children with autism spectrum disorder. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 34, 217-234.

        https://doi.org/10.1123/apaq.2015-0033