In today's post about music therapy, I actually got the chance to interview (via email) a friend of mine; Novelyne Faustine B.A., who is a music therapist and piano instructor from Indonesia. I reached out to her to ask about what she took for her degree and if she has anyone she knew that could help me with my research topic because I knew she was learning music. But when I found out she was actually taking Music Therapy, I was beyond lucky and I had to do this interview with her instead. She was really kind to agree to help me and patient enough to answer my list of questions. So I prepared several questions to ask her more about her knowledge on the topic.
I asked her why she picked Music Therapy as her preferred studies.
She said, "As cliché as this may sound, growing up, I have always enjoyed playing and listening to music. It was a very natural process for me to choose music as my professional field but music therapy ... was something I discovered just a year before my university entrance. I ... was amazed of how much impact music can bring towards human’s mental and health state ... I decide to pursue it as a career. At the time, I thought that music therapy will be a good career prospect since I can still fulfill my dream of doing music and at the same time, utilize the skills I have to help others."
I continued by asking her opinion on how can music therapy help with people's emotions.
"Music therapy is specifically tailored for each client’s needs... For emotional problems, we [musical therapist] do a lot of songwriting, lyric substitution, lyric discussion, improvisation, guided imagery, and music. The music serves as a safe outlet for the clients to pour out what they are feeling. Often times, it can also be used ... to distract patients from the pain they are feeling during a medical procedure, or to help stimulate cued breathing."
To understand more on when does music is used for therapy, I asked her what are the typical cases music therapy is prescribed to patients.
"Neurorehabilitation, autism, dementia care, cancer, mental health, and disability are areas that can benefit from music therapy. People of all ages are welcome to participate."
To understand more on when does music is used for therapy, I asked her what are the typical cases music therapy is prescribed to patients.
"Neurorehabilitation, autism, dementia care, cancer, mental health, and disability are areas that can benefit from music therapy. People of all ages are welcome to participate."
Following that question, I transitioned the interview to ask a question about her knowledge on how can music influence a person's emotions.
"... Music can tap various areas of our brain at work and researches has shown that the structure of our brain can be changed through music processing. For example, the central processing area for emotion in our brain is amygdala, and neuroimaging results has shown that music is able to modulate the activity in the region (Blood and Zatorre, 2001). Dopamine, the pleasure related neurotransmitter that is correlated with pleasure and reward is also released through music activity. This is what makes music a tremendously effective tool for therapy."
To know what can music therapy do, we must also know what types of music therapy is there and how each type differentiates with the others.
"There are two types of music therapy: receptive and active. Receptive music therapy is when a client is passive, and receive only listening-based intervention while active music therapy involves playing musical instruments.
We usually classify music therapy by the approach the music therapist use, such as: Nordoff-Robbins, Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT), NICU, Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM), etc. Each differs in the focus of practice and are used depending on the diagnosis, needs or condition of the clients.
To explain a few, we have Nordoff-Robbins, an active method that is usually used with individuals who has developmental disabilities. They have their own set of pre-composed songs to use in different situations, to stimulate response from the clients. While NMT is the therapeutic application of music to cognitive, sensory and motor dysfunctions due to neurologic disease of the human nervous system. It is based on a neuroscience model and focuses on the influence of music on functional changes in nonmusical brain and behavior function. NICU is usually used with premature babies, where music is used to help reduce anxiety and control breathing, it has been shown to correlate with their feeding habits as well. Mothers are usually included in the session as research shows that infant-directed singing by their mothers promotes healthy attachment between mother and the baby. The Bonny Method of GIM uses specifically selected music as the foundation of the client’s musical journey, discussions about their inner thoughts and emotions usually follow the music listening intervention."
And the last question I asked her is about whether the therapist uses a certain genre/type/kind of music during the therapy that they think works best or shows the most significant improvement.
"There are no specific genre to use. The treatment plan for each music therapy client is individualized so the type of music we use will also vary. We try to suit the music according to the client’s preferred music as each individual grow up with different background, they will have different response to certain types of music. Heine et al. (2015) reported that preferred music enhances functional connectivity and stimulates activity in the brain region that is responsible for music perception even in unconscious patients. During my undergraduate research, I covered the effects of using preferred music in music therapy sessions towards motor improvements in stroke patients and found that preferred music enhances the clients’ perception towards therapy by positively influencing their mood and motivation during the therapy, which also translates to improvements found in motor performances. "
With that, my interview questions are resolved and I really believe that her answers could help me understand more about music and the relation with human emotions, or in this case, about music therapy.
"... Music can tap various areas of our brain at work and researches has shown that the structure of our brain can be changed through music processing. For example, the central processing area for emotion in our brain is amygdala, and neuroimaging results has shown that music is able to modulate the activity in the region (Blood and Zatorre, 2001). Dopamine, the pleasure related neurotransmitter that is correlated with pleasure and reward is also released through music activity. This is what makes music a tremendously effective tool for therapy."
To know what can music therapy do, we must also know what types of music therapy is there and how each type differentiates with the others.
"There are two types of music therapy: receptive and active. Receptive music therapy is when a client is passive, and receive only listening-based intervention while active music therapy involves playing musical instruments.
We usually classify music therapy by the approach the music therapist use, such as: Nordoff-Robbins, Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT), NICU, Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM), etc. Each differs in the focus of practice and are used depending on the diagnosis, needs or condition of the clients.
To explain a few, we have Nordoff-Robbins, an active method that is usually used with individuals who has developmental disabilities. They have their own set of pre-composed songs to use in different situations, to stimulate response from the clients. While NMT is the therapeutic application of music to cognitive, sensory and motor dysfunctions due to neurologic disease of the human nervous system. It is based on a neuroscience model and focuses on the influence of music on functional changes in nonmusical brain and behavior function. NICU is usually used with premature babies, where music is used to help reduce anxiety and control breathing, it has been shown to correlate with their feeding habits as well. Mothers are usually included in the session as research shows that infant-directed singing by their mothers promotes healthy attachment between mother and the baby. The Bonny Method of GIM uses specifically selected music as the foundation of the client’s musical journey, discussions about their inner thoughts and emotions usually follow the music listening intervention."
And the last question I asked her is about whether the therapist uses a certain genre/type/kind of music during the therapy that they think works best or shows the most significant improvement.
"There are no specific genre to use. The treatment plan for each music therapy client is individualized so the type of music we use will also vary. We try to suit the music according to the client’s preferred music as each individual grow up with different background, they will have different response to certain types of music. Heine et al. (2015) reported that preferred music enhances functional connectivity and stimulates activity in the brain region that is responsible for music perception even in unconscious patients. During my undergraduate research, I covered the effects of using preferred music in music therapy sessions towards motor improvements in stroke patients and found that preferred music enhances the clients’ perception towards therapy by positively influencing their mood and motivation during the therapy, which also translates to improvements found in motor performances. "
With that, my interview questions are resolved and I really believe that her answers could help me understand more about music and the relation with human emotions, or in this case, about music therapy.
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