Unit 3 introduction - part 2 of 2

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En provenance du cours de The University of Melbourne

How Music Can Change Your Life

76 notes

The University of Melbourne

How Music Can Change Your Life

76 notes

Did you ever wonder how music works? This course provides free video, audio and journal resources that explain six basic principles about how music can influence individual and community health and wellbeing. From biology and neuroscience, to psychotherapy and politics, the ways we engage with music can make all the difference. Music has always played an integral role in the lives of individuals and communities all around the globe. This course explores the ways that music can be used to achieve positive changes with a particular emphasis on the most vulnerable persons. Six different understandings will be explored, each with their own set of values and assumptions. The greatest thinkers in each approach believe that their way of explaining the power of music is right, but we will show that understanding music in its entirety delivers the best results in each unique circumstance. Once we understand the various ways that music can change the world, we can make informed decisions about how best to employ its extraordinary power. Learners who engage in this MOOC can expect to both deepen and broaden their understanding of how music can be used with individuals, groups and communities. Specifically: • To distinguish between how music works on the body, in the brain, through the unconscious, for bonding, as political action and in reflecting culture, • To design practical programs that utilise music to support individuals, groups and communities based on examples shared in the ‘on-site’ case studies. View the MOOC promotional video here: http://tinyurl.com/jnde3w3

À partir de la leçon

How can music reflect the psyche to improve mental health?

Music can be a powerful way to explore and comprehend our deepest emotions. When used in psychoanalysis, this can lead to rich experiences that may even reveal aspects of our unconscious world that can be processed within the safety of the therapeutic relationship. Within the field of music therapy, practitioners often debate the relative merits of free improvisation on instruments in comparison to using the preferred songs of clients in therapy. Both afford opportunities to deepen our understanding of ourselves and our relationships to others, and music more generally can be used as a health resource that travels with us as we recover from being acutely unwell and continue the journey of life.

Unit 3 introduction - part 1 of 28:58

Unit 3 introduction - part 2 of 25:03

Psychodynamic therapy perspective - introduction1:39

Psychodynamic therapy perspective9:01

Introducing Benedikte Scheiby1:59

The work of Mary Priestley6:02

Individual music therapy11:27

Music and emotions7:51

Research and theoretical foundations14:33

Rencontrer les enseignants

Katrina Skewes McFerran
Professor
Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

So what about research in reflecting the psyche?

How on earth can we research something, that is as nebulous and

unconscious as this kind of phenomena?

Sometimes that requires by its very nature interpretation in order to exist.

And of course that can be researched, but it requires a different set of

understandings to researching things that are observable.

Because this way of thinking, about using music to change your life is based on

a different set of beliefs and assumptions to those which can be easily measured.

However, as we heard from Benedikte Scheiby in her interview, it is possible

to quantify people's responses by asking them to rate their subjective state.

People can choose a number to describe the degree of

pain they’re experiencing between one and ten.

And then we can compare the number that they gave before and

after a therapy session to see if there's any difference.

So it is possible to quantify,

but I would ask you to consider if this is the most useful way.

Some say it is, because numbers provide data that can be used within scientific

frameworks to convince people about the effectiveness of using music.

Music therapy researchers have demonstrated this using randomised control

trials and meta-analyses, which are considered to be the highest levels of

evidence within the hierarchy of the evidence-based framework.

They have proven that music can have a considerable effect on negative symptoms,

for example.

But beyond subscribing to the beliefs of researchers who are used to investigating

phenomenon, such as cells and the effects of drugs,

what else could we show by research?

Sometimes, it's the individual case study that has the most powerful influence.

And the development of the field of psychotherapy,

as well as medicine, has been predicated on what we have learned through

the in-depth examination of single cases.

Another possibility that's congruent with contemporary approaches to

recovery within the mental health sector in many developed countries,

is to solicit mental health users' perspectives on what has been

valuable in music therapy, in how and why they think that might be.

And Hans Peter Sully has provided a metasynthesis of studies where that

has been done.

And he showed that things like having a good time and being together,

and feeling, and being someone, were considered to be more important

than trading symptoms, as Randi describes in her podcast.

So there are many ways to investigate how music reflects the psyche,

both qualitative and quantitatively.

To explore outcomes and processes in relation to improving mental health.

So using music to reflect the psyche, what does that really mean?

Well, just like you might use a mirror to look really closely at whether you have

a hair that you want to pluck, or a pimple that you want to squeeze, so too does

music provide a mirror for looking more closely at what's going on inside of us.

It provides us with information about where we might choose to focus

our attention and make decisions about feelings,

behaviours, and beliefs that warrant deeper investigation.

That might be rooted in past experiences and

are no longer serving a helpful function.

So whilst we probably won't choose to pluck or squeeze them,

as we would our face, we might choose to rehearse different ways of being

in the world by practicing our ways of being in relationship.

Or in cases of therapy, to trust in our therapist enough to

express those parts of ourselves that haven't been shared.

Which, as Randi reminds us, might be joy and

creativity as well as more vulnerable parts of who we are.

And as Laura Medcalf describes in her review article for this unit,

musical intimacy has some quite particular features,

as we also explored in unit three.

And this can demand even greater consciousness of the boundaries in order

to ensure that a safe process is shared.

This is particularly true for

those of us who are grappling with trauma from the past.

And statistics about rates of abuse, violence and

neglect suggest that many of us have survived despite challenging childhoods.

But what is special about music is that it can equally work with our

conscious material that's been repressed, as it can reveal hidden parts

of ourselves that truly shine and express our unique gifts in the world.

Music is dynamic and joyous in that way.

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