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The Effects of Music Therapy on Mentally Handicapped People
Music therapy is a controversial but effective form of rehabilitation on
mentally handicapped people. A great amount of research has been completed on
this subject. It has been proven that our brains respond to music as if it were
medicine. Music therapy is not a commonly used health care, but recent studies
have suggested it can have a wide range of benefits.
Music therapy is the prescribed use of music and related strategies, by a
qualified therapist, to assist or motivate a person towards specific,
non-musical goals. This process is used in order to restore, maintain, and
improve emotional, physical, physiological, and spiritual health and well
being. At the heart of music therapy is vibration. This is backed up by modern
physics, which has taught us that all matter is in a constant state of
vibration. Everything has a unique frequency. Illness occurs when some sort of
dysfunctional vibration intrudes on the normal one. Sound can be used to change
these intruders back to normal, healthy vibrations, which restores health.
Although music therapy is a fairly new method of health care, it dates back
thousands of years. “The use of sound and music is the most ancient healing
modality.” It was practiced in the ancient mystery schools of Egypt, India, and
Rome for many thousands of years. In the Iliad, Apollo, the mythical god of
music and medicine, stopped a plague because he was so pleased with the sacred
hymns sung by Greek youths. Pythagoras, who discovered that all music could be
expressed in numbers and mathematical formulas, founded a school that trained
students to
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release worry, fear, anger, and sorrow through singing and playing musical
instruments.
Today, the power of music remains the same, but music is used much differently
than it was in ancient times. Music therapy in the United States began in the
late 18th century. The profession of it began to develop during World War II
when music was used in Veterans Administration Hospitals, as an intervention to
address traumatic war injuries. Veterans participated in music activities that
focused on relieving pain perception. Many doctors and nurses could see the
effect music had on their psychological and emotional state.
Since then, colleges developed programs to train musicians how to use music for
therapeutic purposes. In 1950 a professional organization was formed by a group
of music therapists that worked with veterans, mentally retarded, and the
hearing and visually impaired. This was the beginning of the National
Association for Music Therapy (NAMT). In 1998, NAMT joined with another music
therapy organization to become what is now known as the American Music Therapy
Association (AMTA). AMTA’s mission is “To advance public awareness of the
benefits of music therapy and increase access to quality music therapy services
in a rapidly changing world.”
Music therapy helps people in a crisis and assists those who may be dealing with
issues of everyday living. The nature of music therapy encourages the
development of positive self-esteem. Even though not everyone is supposed to be
a musician, music therapy can be a way to explore the human need for
self-expression and creativity. Through improvisation and song writing, it can
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help to identify and resolve conflicts slowing down the emotional and personal
growth. It can also assist in the rehabilitation of people with speech
difficulties and facilitate learning, which provided opportunities for
meaningful communication. Music therapy is a process which builds
relationships. Because almost everyone responds to music at some level, it can
be used to develop a trust relationship with the therapist and with other
people.
There are many accomplishments that music therapy can make. It can manage pain,
increase body movement, lower blood pressure, ease depression, and enhance
concentration and creativity. These are just some of the few characteristics.
It has been used in many other processes also.
It is important to be aware that while people may develop musical skills during
treatment, these skills are not the main concern of the therapist. Rather it is
the affect the musical development will have on the person’s physical and
psychological functioning. You can find music therapists working with a wide
variety of people. Some include the mentally ill, the physically handicapped,
those who have been abused, the elderly, the terminally ill, and people with
learning disabilities. Because traditional therapeutic remedies rely on
language, their effectiveness depends on the person’s ability to verbally
interact with the therapist. The language of music is available to everyone
regardless of age, disability, or cultural background.
Studies have been made on the effects of chanting mantras on human physiology.
It has been discovered that by repeating a single word, measurable changes are
produced in energy consumption, respiration rate, heartbeat, pulse, and
metabolic rate. Studies have further demonstrated that through meditation and
relaxation, it’s possible to improve immune function
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and alleviate and prevent heart disease, stroke, and many other chronic health
problems.
The mentally ill are the people that are the most common clients of music
therapy. These are people with behavior disorders and emotional disturbance.
For these people, music improves self-esteem, reduces stress, develops leisure
activities, and improves control over motor skills.
Learning disabled individuals are another popular group of people for which
music therapy is used. This group is explained as having a disorder that
affects one or more psychological process involved in understanding or using
language. Such disorders may affect an individual’s ability to think, listen,
speak, read, or write. The need for individualized instruction, repetition, and
face to face interaction is necessary for improvement.
To become a qualified music therapist you must have an undergraduate and/or
graduate degree in music therapy from university programs approved by the AMTA.
You follow your degree with six months of full-time supervised clinical
training. You must then be board-certified by the certification Board for Music
Therapy and take a national exam. You maintain your status through continuing
education and retesting.
Members of the client’s treatment team prescribe music therapy. Members can
include doctors, social workers, psychologists, teachers, caseworkers, and
parents. Music therapists use their training as musicians, clinicians, and
researchers to effect changes in physical communication, social skills, and
emotional skills. They use musical experiences such as singing, playing
instruments, moving, listening, composing, and improving self-awareness and
growth.
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Musical interventions are developed and used by the therapist based on his or
her knowledge of the music’s effect on behavior, the client’s strengths and
weaknesses, and the therapeutic goals.
Music therapists choose from a large amount of music activities and interventions.
For example, the therapist and client might compose songs for the purpose of
expression of feelings; one client might learn how to play the piano for the
purpose of improving fine motor skills, while another client might use
instruments to improvise unspoken emotions.
Each client has to determine his or her own needs, strengths, and interests.
Sessions are then designed to meet the specific needs of each client. Progress
is evaluated in consultation with the client or the family of the client. This
helps to maximize the emotional, physical and cognitive potential of each
client.
The sessions include a variety of musical experiences. For example, a person
who is terminally ill might benefit from song writing to express inner feeling.
A troubled adolescent might benefit from listening and discussing the lyrics.
Improvisation might be the preferred activity for a person with autism while
learning to play a simple instrument could enhance the self-esteem of a
mentally retarded adult. For a geriatric client, a music therapist might use
familiar songs to reveal past memories, and for a child with Down’s Syndrome,
singing might be used to improve auditory discrimination. These are only a few
examples of music therapy techniques. The possibilities are endless and are
focused on the responses of the client and the creativity of the therapist.
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Back in the 1960’s, a physician was called to investigate a strange disease
that had taken over a monastery of Benedictine monks in the south of France.
Out of the blue, the brothers had become tired and depressed. Once other
medical authorities had ruled out physical causes, the physician began to
search for changes in their diet or work conditions but discovered none. After
a long discussion with the monks, he learned that before they became sick, the
monks used to gather eight or nine times a day and chant for 10 to 20 minutes.
But thanks to the reforms of Vatican II, their daily chanting had been reduced
by several hours a day. It dawned on the physician that the physiological
benefits of their chanting, slowing down their breathing and lowering their
blood pressure, were the cause of the monks‘ tiredness. His solution was
restoring their habit of chants. The effects were dramatic. Within six months,
the monks were back to their old vigorous and healthy selves.
A sixty-year-old physician, Pete, was driving to work when he recognized the
symptoms of a stroke. He pulled into a gas station, leaned on his horn and
asked the attendant to call an ambulance to take him to a hospital. The only
movement he had was his eyelids, and his only means of communication was
blinking once for yes, twice for no.
A few weeks later, Pete’s wife called in a guy who was a composer, music
researcher, teacher, and healer. He suggested they play as much Mozart as
possible in the household. For the next few weeks the healer would come to the
house and sit at the side of Pete’s bed and tap syllables of words into Pete’s
hand in a rhythmic like beat. This is called an integrated auditory
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pattern, which enabled Pete to begin to reconnect with the outside world.
Three years after participating in Pete's rehabilitation, the healer learned
that he had a potentially fatal blood clot in an artery just below his brain.
The healer, who had spent ten years investigating the effects of sound on the
body, knew much about therapeutic uses of music. The men decided to wait a
while to see any changes before any surgery would take place. They simply
hummed, fearful that a more powerful sound might bring on a stroke. He did this
for three weeks, and while humming he meditated on healing images. When he went
back for his second brain scan, the results showed that the blood clot had
shrunk incredibly from its original size and Pete was said to be out of danger.
In 1996, researchers tried giving ten stroke victims thirty minutes of rhythmic
stimulation each day for three weeks. Compared with untreated patients, they
showed significant improvements in their ability to walk steadily.
Moods rose and depression fell for twenty women and men who listened to
familiar music they selected while practicing various stress-reduction
techniques. Classical and New Age music helped twenty-four of twenty-five
people with sleeping problems get to sleep faster, sleep for longer periods of
time, and get back to sleep more easily after waking in the middle of the
night. The best kind of music for sleep deprivation is songs with slow
movements from classical music of all periods.
Don Campbell, a music therapist, offers some simple exercises you can try on
your own.
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If you’re tired and need some “sonic caffeine,” hum a long “e” sound for three
minutes. For a
relaxation make a long “o” or “ah” sound. Most of us even practice our own
version of music
therapy instinctively. A mother naturally sings to soothe her baby. When we’re
depressed, we play or make our favorite music, either to lift us out of our
gloom, or to intensify it, and when we’re happy we play joyous music to liven
the mood even more.
The following suggestions are more experiments to try on your own. Raise your
sound awareness by noticing the sounds around you in everyday life. This
enhances your communication skills by improving your listening skills. Play
your favorite music when you do housework. Not only will it distract you, but
it will also motivate you and create pleasant feelings for that activity. When
you’re angry or frustrated, play an energetic piece of music. Move your body
for five to seven minutes, letting the music release your emotions. Then your
mind can look at the situation with a brighter outlook. If you want a deep
relaxation but have problems with formal meditation, sit somewhere quiet, hum
or chant different vowel sounds and “direct” them to various parts of your
body. When we create and focus on sound, we begin to stop the constant thoughts
in our minds, which is the first step to deep relaxation.
Even though you have inquired all this information, you might still be
wondering how such simple things like music and rhythm could work all this
magic. Well, no one really knows. It is a mystery. But researchers have known
for a long time that listening to music can directly influence pulse, blood
pressure, and the electrical activity of muscles. Neuroscientists now suspect
that
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music can actually help build and strengthen connections among nerve cells.
Although many
people will not agree with or even believe all the wonderful acts that music
can do, it can be a highly effective form of rehabilitation for anyone.