Music Therapy...Making a Difference: Part 1 Canadian Influence

by sara star | May 24, 2009 at 10:25 am

384 views | 57 Recommendations | 11 comments

“She has been yelling all day, is there anything we can do?” “A flustered nurse asked me on my first day of work being a Supervisor. I didn’t have a chance yet to get to know the residents or the nurses well, but this I knew: “Have you tried music therapy?” I asked. Off we went to plug in Elvis Presley. She knew every word, as it send a steady beat of comfort to her spirit. She rested calmly, as we left the room.

Music therapy is the skillful use of music and musical elements by an accredited music therapist to promote, maintain, and restore mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Music has nonverbal, creative, structural, and emotional qualities. These are used in the therapeutic relationship to facilitate contact, interaction, self-awareness, learning, self-expression, communication, and personal development.

Music therapy can be applied to a wide scope of illness, from special needs children to cancer patients, and giving voice to regret in older adults. It is helpful in substance abuse and in women’s prisons.

Robert Harris a gifted music therapist, knows what it is like to be institutionalized, being visually impaired. In the video Hope is a Whistle, one can clearly see the difference that he has made in the life of Amanda, a 5 year old girl with a severe development delay.

Harris works at blueballoon Health Services that specialize in helping children develop to their full potential. They have two offices, one in Toronto, the other in Burlington. No referral is necessary.

blueballoon Health Services specializes in paediatric assessment and direct treatment in a family-focused, warm, compassionate clinical setting. blueballoon collaboratively delivers integrated healthcare services including Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Speech Language Pathology, Music Therapy and Psychology.

The Canadian Association for Music Therapy held its 35th Conference called

A Song for Everyone: The Voice of Music Therapy in Ottawa, Ontario May 6-9, 2009. There were over 250 participants.

The mornings began with chanting and breath work at sunrise before breakfast. No these were not Buddhist monks or people seeking enlightenment at a weekend retreat. These were Professors and Doctors.

Diane Austine, PhD a vocal therapist teaches how songs, toning and vocal improvisation can be used in the healing process to retrieve feelings, images, and memories from the unconscious.

We enter the world and with our first sound, announce our arrival. We begin as vital, spontaneous beings, curious and open, and the sounds we make express this. As we continue to grow and develop, we are affected by the spoken and unspoken messages we receive from the significant people in our lives. Many of us lose our individual voices, sometimes subtly and gradually without even realizing it is happening and sometimes not so subtly. When our feelings and needs are judged or ignored, we learn to judge or ignore them. We shut down for self-preservation. We silence ourselves.

The Canadian Music Therapy Trust Fund, based in Ontario works tireless, many who are volunteers, to promote Music Therapy and offers funding to many projects nation-wide.

Since 1994, with the help of the Canadian music industry, the Trust Fund has been able to distribute over $2 million to almost 290 projects from coast to coast. These projects range from hospices for terminally ill persons with cancer or HIV/AIDS, centres for the aged, schools for children who are autistic, physically or mentally challenged and programs for street kids. It has also funded projects for women in prison, children who have been sexually abuse, teens who are suicidal and people who are isolated due to psychiatric problems.

CAMT is the Canadian Association of Music Therapy

The CAMT is the national body promoting music therapy and supporting, advocating and accrediting music therapists in Canada.

Several Canadian universities offer BA’s in Music Therapy, including Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

Laurier Faculty of Graduate Studies in Waterloo, Ontario offer the only full-time Master of Music Therapy (MMT) program.

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Jon Azpiri

at 10:53 on May 24th, 2009

Thanks for this. This piece is certainly a good primer on music therapy, a field that a lot of people don't know much about.

Yuliya Talmazan

at 14:02 on May 24th, 2009

Thanks, sara star. A great story.

LilHoody

at 15:21 on May 24th, 2009

yup - very cool story.

Art de Rivers

at 05:27 on May 25th, 2009

Yes - Music therapy - its a good story and a reaffirmation of the place arts have in creating a form of re-centredness through feelings and sensations .. Poetry and painting too can be very positive. I recall a service user who used to take crayons and wallpaper rolls onto acute wards and attract really positive responses from acute sufferers of mental illness - just drawing and messing about .. He used to get a better response than staff !

jazzyzazzy

at 01:11 on May 25th, 2009

La la la la la la lah. Yes it works music therapy has been underestimated in the past.Autistic children improve rapidly with vibration and sound. Music be the food of love.Lah lahhhhhh.

SamirJ

at 04:12 on May 25th, 2009

Awesome!

Music is a thing which is omnipresent in my life and I was very pleased upon seeing this piece.

Thanks for posting this Sara!

Art de Rivers

at 05:36 on May 25th, 2009

I confess I sing to my cat .....

Yes ..... In real "Yowl" too ...

My partner thinks I am quite mad ...

But the US national anthem in high "Yowl" gets Kitty the Cat in the heart and she comes over for a good stroking and a mega purr.... I laugh a lot so it cures me too ..

This is a picture of Kitty at Dinner relaxed after listening to high Yowl by me ...

Kitty At Dinner

Babel-Fish

at 22:19 on May 24th, 2009

Yes and it also works on animals, many farmers know much about music therapy. Cows provide more milk and chickens lay more eggs when soft music is played.

When I need therapy I need the therapeutic quality of a place without music as here in the philippines load music becomes a nuisance the therapeutic quality is lost. However I normally find a hidaway house such as where I live now, where the only music normal heard is what my partner and I wish to hear.

My own therapy applied to clear my mind of muddle thought is to express those thought in my articles or on a fresh canvas. Or being cuddled by the one I love or seeing the smiles on children faces. Or just siting here on my veranda watching the sun go down, feeling the warm breeze on my face and then enjoying that very special time of the short twilight and then seeing the stars light up in the sky.

The truth about any form of therapy of the mind is having something interesting to concentrate on to take away thought that can make you mad or thought that cause stress or anguish volumes of thoughts. Or those thought that lead one into a circle problems that seeming have no solution or have and your are to selfish to apply.

Yes music can be good therapy for those that are suffering a mental illness and for the sane it can stop you going mad.

Babel-Fish

at 07:37 on May 25th, 2009

I have two of these musical creature outside my kitchen door at dinner time, they achieve that note just below the one that cracks or shatters glass. I gave both do the round like off season caroler's to my neighbors on the same lot. However we refused to supply the knifes and forks when they dine in the entrance to our garage. More items to wash up and both cats have sharp teeth and claws.

Art de Rivers

at 08:14 on May 25th, 2009

Ahhhh Cats ...

We have cats in the neighbourhood that listen to rap too ! ... And then fight on narrow fences doing some kind of furry yowl foo .... I always said that rap stuff was gangersterish and my evidence base now is the local cats...

So there's a line to be drawn on therapy and music and cats ... You heard it here first .. NowPublic ! (winks)