Music Therapy Making a Difference in World Catastrophies

  In May 12, 2008, an earthquake the magnitude of 8 occurred in the Sichuan province China. This was the most serious earthquake in more than one thousand years in China, resulting in 90,000 deaths and 370,000 wounded.

More than a thousand psychologists went to the regions of the earthquake to offer help, but they soon realized that traditional approaches, including crisis intervention techniques, were ineffective in this catastrophic situation. They felt themselves powerless and very frustrated.

...In the situation of severe natural disaster, like an earthquake, music therapy can be extremely effective.  Designed music activities and client-preferred, familiar songs can quickly and effectively change and improve survivors’ emotions and feelings, reestablish the sense of safety, and remotivate life energy and hope for the future.

 
Lee, a 12 year old boy, is in a severe depression because his mother died in the earthquake of May 12, 2008.  When the earthquake occurred, he was in his school.  He escaped from the class room building safely, and started to worry about his mother. He wanted to go back home looking for his mother, but the road had been closed by soldiers and no one was permitted to proceed to his home.  Three days later, he got a chance to return home, and found that his mother was dead under the collapsed building.

The horrific picture of mother’s body with blood always intruded his mind and some times his dreams and nightmares.  He blamed himself for not being able to go back to rescue his mother in the first place, and took responsibility for her death. In his school, he looked very grieved, and refused to communicate with peers and teachers. He lost all his concentration and his school work suffered.

In the MEDR process, three sessions were provided. At the beginning, I played Bach’s Komm susser Tod which expresses deep sadness and grief.  Lee re-experienced the moment he found his mother’s body under the building. He started crying loudly.  As the process continued, he reported the fourth time the same picture with the music of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, he saw his mother laying down on the ground with pretty clothing, no wound, no blood, just like she might appear in sleep. By the eighth time recalling the same moment, with the music of Massenet, 7th orchestral suite, Sous les tilleuls, he reported that he placed his mother in the beautiful heaven, and said goodbye to her.  In the 12th time of recalling, while Wagner’s Lohengrin (Prelude to Act I ) was playing, he reported that his mother was watching him with a sweet smile from heaven, and told him that she would like to see him to go to a college. He promised his mother that he will study hard.

Lee reported that he has moved through the grief, and has decided to study hard on his school work. “I know my mother is watching me from the heaven all the time, and I will not disappoint her.”

 

Founded in 1985 in Genoa Italy, it is the only worldwide professional organization representing music therapy in many areas of the world…  in Africa, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, India, Ireland, Korea, Spain, U.A.E., and the USA.

 

…As a Commission of the World Federation of Music Therapy, Global Crisis Intervention aims to enhance the well being of individuals around the world by supporting and acknowledging the efforts of music therapy work in all areas of global crises. There are numerous social and environmental issues affecting quality of life internationally, such as hunger, poverty, war, genocide, and natural disasters.

….Professor Tian Gao, Director of the Music Therapy Research Center, Central Conservatory of Music Beijing, China, has been leading a team of his students in rescue and relief missions in the regions affected by the 2008 earthquakes. 

 

The European Music Therapy Confederation was founded in 1990, as a forum for exchange between music therapists in Europe.

…membership includes music therapists from all 19 EU countries, and from EU candidate countries in Eastern and Central Europe. Member countries are currently: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Yugoslavia, and Israel.