Music & Movement

1. Music & Movement Anide, Mijin, & Dayna

2. History • History: tribal communities, humanistic psychology movement of the 50s & 60s • Events: critical of mainstream reliance on verbal communication & rational thought • Contributors: modern dancers, embodies female consciousness • Music therapy: work form all theoretical orientations, music used as therapy or in therapy, supportive vs. insight • Wiener, D. (Ed.). (1999). Beyond talk therapy: Using movement and expressive techniques in clinical practice. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

3. Terms & Definitions • DMT: Dance/Movement Therapy – “the psychotherapeutic use of movement as a process which furthers the emotional and physical integration of the individual” (soma+psyche) • ADTA: American Dance Therapy Association – in 1966 led to the professionalization of the field • Music Therapy is the use of music in the accomplishment of therapeutic aims: the restoration, maintenance and improvement of mental and physical health (National Association for Music Therapy). • Wiener, D. (Ed.). (1999). Beyond talk therapy: Using movement and expressive techniques in clinical practice. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

4. Advantages • Non-verbal (mute or autistic) • To increase expression of feelings • To decrease isolation • Increased body awareness, individual expression, spontaneous, creative, intra & interpersonal, inner music starts to play • Unexpected insights, repressed emotions expressed • Social & ritual interaction in group

5. Limitations • an individual may not be drawn to music/movement • atypical vehicle of expression

6. General Guidelines (Ideas to Consider) • Appropriateness of activity • Role of the leader as it pertains to activity • Communicating immediate observations • Amount of structure in the activity

7. Specific Guidelines (Special tasks or actions) • All individual & group responses are valid • Develop a sense of what the group needs • Be flexible • Consider participants condition

8. Activity • Convex/Concave • Maypole • Feeling Mirror

9. Convex/Concave • Objective: to use the interchange between convex & concave body shapes to amplify the interchange between emotions, instincts & sounds which mirror each other • Materials: willingness, imagination, movement, sound, & courage • Leads: facilitate client’s movements, behaviors, and emotions • Newham, P. (1999). Using voice and movement in therapy: The practical application of Voice Movement Therapy. Philadelphia: Athenaeum Press.

10. Convex/Concave (cont.) • Steps: • Stand comfortably with arms hanging loose, breath evenly through mouth, and imagine standing in the center of a sphere encapsulating your body. • Experience the space – backward, forward, side to side, and up and down. Explore the sphere and find a rhythm/dance. Notice how as one surface of the body stretches to become convex, its opposite becomes concave. Continue to focus on breathing. • Now notice the interchange between mirrored emotions as the body moves from convex to concave. Seek to locate opposite feelings and attitudes (defensive/open, giving/receiving, extroverted/introverted). If comfortable, when locating these intense feelings add sound. Exaggerate and amplify these sounds and observe the tone changes as the body moves.

11. Maypole • Objective : to provide less verbal members with an activity in which they may participate more fully and to promote socialization via group interaction and cooperation • Materials : A maypole and colorful strings, sounds, a large open area • Leads : counselor explain maypole and introduce possible movements. the group may decide on some for what is to be done with maypole before dance and one group member leads directions • Schulberg, Cecilia H.(1981)The Music Therapy Sourcebook:A Collection of Activities Categorized and Analyzed : Human Science Press, Inc.

12. Maypole (cont.) • Steps • Each person take hold of an end of a string and spread out into a circle, with maypole as its center. • Follow the directions of the leader, members walk, hop, skip, and run around in a circle to the left, right, forwards, backwards, turning at different speeds, with an outer circle goes in the other, do dance in time to music. • Switching hands in the air, walk-squat sequence, or imitating animals walking can be used in advanced. • All movements patterns can be worked out with varicolored strings.

13. Feeling Mirror • Objective : • Provide a stimulus for feeling to be express and different ways to explore feelings • Provide a vehicle for interpersonal contact and processing • Encourages self-expression and feedback concerning certain area • Leads : • See whether members felt the same reaction from the move • Discuss how the observers perceive the move. What emotions did they feel were being express

14. Feeling Mirror (cont.) • Steps : • Discuss feelings and different ways in which feelings can be express • Have members form two lines facing each other (make sure everyone has a partner) • Have one member create a movement and/or facial expression that expresses a feeling as he/she move towards the other member.

15. Feeling Mirrors (cont.) • Have the other member opposite that member mirror the feeling as performed while also moving towards the other member • After members have each arrived at to the opposite end mirroring the feeling, discuss from each members point of view what the move was like • Repeat the same procedure for everyone * Plach, T. (1980). The Creative Used of Music in Group Therapy. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas