HORTICULTURE MUSIC BINDERS FILTERS

MUSIC PROGRAM at the Center of Family Love

The MUSIC program is one of the highlights of the residents at both the ICF and the Loosen Geriatric Center. In this outstanding program, residents enjoy weekly 'lessons' in music and social interaction in a group setting. Groups include the Okarche Singers, the Okarche Rhythm Band and last, but not least, the Center of Family Love's Handbell Choir. Led by Dr. Miho Fisher, the groups have performed concerts last year at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, our own 25th Anniversary Celebration and a benefit concert at Christ the King Catholic Church in Oklahoma City.

To view a complete photo album of our outstanding MUSIC program, please click here.

WHY MUSIC THERAPY?

The Association of Professional Music Therapists has produced a leaflet entitled ‘Music Therapy for People with Learning Disabilities’ which gives a number of short case examples. These and other case studies cite a number of different potential aims and achievements of therapy. These include:

Improve attention span.
Decrease difficult behaviours.
Improve social skills.
Increase self-esteem.
Improve communication verbally or non-verbally.
Deal with anxiety and anger.
Tolerate closeness.
Develop ways of using music interactively and expressively.
Develop confidence in day to day interactions.

Some other comments made about using Music Therapy as a beneficial form of treatment with adults with learning disabilities include:

- “Before Music Therapy he had a musical soul locked into an isolated and frustrated body” (Clarkson, 1991)

- “He will always be developmentally disabled and will always be autistic but now need not remain locked in a totally negative sense of self” (Fischer, 1991)

One of the fundamental thoughts that Music Therapists all work with and is particularly relevant in this field is expressed by Bunt and is that ‘music allows us to bypass some of the functions necessary for decoding speech and can have a great impact on non-verbal clients whose verbally saturated environment only adds confusion and further isolation’.

Usefulness of Music as Therapy

The therapeutic usefulness of music is not a modern concept. It is as ancient as the human civilization. Long before the human species invented language and tools, the sound was the only source of relieving pain and anxiety. The sound was used not only for generating emotions (such as pathos when a tribal member is dead or joy when there is union through marriage etc.) but also for its release. Sound of drums particularly, could be used to dispel fear during the war between the tribes or during hunting animals. This was in addition to aahs and oohs of vocalization that removed inhibition due to fear or suppression by the pecking leadership. Rhythms (intervals of time) and melodies (pitch/sound vibrations per sec.) were variously used to express one's love or hatred, joy or anger, devotion or indifference. The ancient tribes used the iso-principle, matching of mood to appropriate music and entrainment, i.e., after matching initial mood moving towards more positive mood in their cultural expressions woven in and around drumming, singing and group dancing. Music not only brought in healthy behaviour and social interaction but also strength to individuals as well as to societies across the globe.

Some Recent Scientific Research on the Therapeutic Usefulness of Music Researchers from the Mind-Body Wellness Center in Meadville, PA, conducted research with cancer patients that involved those playing drums. The results showed, among other things, stronger immune systems as a result of the "music therapy." The article says, "It seems now more than ever the healing power of music, over body and spirit, is being put to the test." Many music therapists have always felt that music could help with healing. Now science is starting to show that they are right.

The New York Academy of Sciences recently published Biological Foundations of Music, a collection of scientific research, which demonstrates, 'the dynamism and richness of this emerging discipline' of music and neuroscience. The USA Weekend article talks about how music, both listening to it and playing it, can change brain function, and how our bodies respond to stimuli. Studies are showing that cancer patients, those with Alzheimer's, pain patients, and those with many other diseases, benefit from music. A study with Alzheimer's patients showed that music helped them sleep better, because their serum Melatonin level went up significantly. One of the researchers said, "for the first time, we've been able to measure music's impact."

Music Therapy is both the art of music and the science of healing, working in tandem. It involves techniques and interpretations, bridging the gap between arts and science, towards a balanced approach. It is an application of broad range of music with procedures, protocols, techniques or methods adopted for application in clinical set ups. Music therapy is based both in culture and context and music therapy interventions involve assessment of various factors before treatment planning. Benefit of music therapy depends on determining the patient's music preference and necessitates a music therapist to develop an efficient means of determining such preference. Factors like musical upbringing, cultural background, personality, musical training and musical taste in family lineage influence musical preferences, music listening pattern and musical selection which are vital with regard to music therapy. Based on these factors, it becomes important to adopt appropriate approaches to be tried to achieve the desired goals.

In the December issue of Music Therapy Today, they published Lucanne Magill’s response to Michael Mayne at the World Congress in Oxford, July 26, 2002. She reflects on what she believes is really the heart of what musical therapists do, music therapy in spirituality. As she says, “So much of what we do is beyond words and it is really because of this transcen-dental nature of music that important healing in music therapy can and does occur”. In her four themes in music therapy, she proposes that music [Music therapy and spirituality; A transcendental understanding of suffering 3 Aldridge, D. (2003) Music therapy and spirituality; A transcendental understanding of suffering. Music Therapy Today (online), available at http://musictherapyworld.net] builds relationship, enhances remembrance, gives a voice to prayer and instills peace. In the presence of music, when transformations begin to occur and healing begins, that it is in the lived moments of music therapy that the essence of our work - music therapy, spirituality and healing- is experienced and known.