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Utilizing and Nurturing Music Practitioner Spirituality Within a Religious Context

Discover practical methods for music therapists to nurture spirituality within a religious context. Explore the dimensions of spiritual well-being and learn to reconcile your own beliefs while supporting clients with diverse spiritual backgrounds.

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Utilizing and Nurturing Music Practitioner Spirituality Within a Religious Context

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  1. BEING IMAGINATIVE, CREATIVE, AND LIFE-GIVING Utilizing and Nurturing MusicPractitioner Spirituality Within a Religious Context Dr. Wilfred Gallant Ed. D., M.S.W. B.A., C.A.C., R.S.W. Associate Professor Emeritus School of Social Work University of Windsor

  2. TAKING LIFE AND OURSELVES SERIOUSLY AND LIGHTLY SpiritualityOriented Music-Based Intervention forMusic TherapistsInforming & Supporting Ourselves asMusic Therapists Dr. Wilfred Gallant

  3. Scientist, artists and musicians have shown that spirituality can contribute to the healing and the highest well being of people

  4. Spirituality cannot be spoken of outside of the context of religion because they are not mutually exclusive.

  5. Countless Spiritual Exercises Have Emanated from Religious Practices

  6. To free yourselves in working with clients, you as music therapists need practical methods that can be used

  7. across the diversity of spiritual and religious beliefs and practices which clients present to you.

  8. Even Though Elements of Religion and Spirituality May be Dormant in you,

  9. You Still Need to Reconcile Your Dealing with Them When They Arise in Your clients.

  10. To this end you need to nurture theSpiritualPhysicalEmotionalCognitiveandSocialdimensions in your own lives

  11. Spiritual Peace, Meaning and Connectedness

  12. Physical Exercise,Rest, Diet, Body Symptoms, Acceptance and Self-care

  13. Emotional Resentment, Gratitude, Fear, Anxiety, Shame or Depression

  14. Cognitive Self-Concept (Self-Worth) WhatMattersMostisHowYouSeeYourselves

  15. Cognitive Value Hierarchies

  16. Cognitive Attitudes About the World

  17. SocialInterpersonal Interactions withOther People

  18. SocialInterpersonal Interactions withAnimals, Plants

  19. Interpersonal Interactions withthe Ecosystem Social

  20. For a More Radical Approach to the Practiceof Music Therapy These Five Dimensions are the Foundation

  21. Radical because it calls for transformation at the root-level of change

  22. Includes An Intuitive and an Inner connected-ness of MindBodyand Spirit This Beacons you Towards a Rational and Transrational Approach

  23. You Need Transdisciplinary Lenses in Assessing Your Own Unique Sense of Spirituality

  24. The includes a careful examination of three consciousness levels: • Pre-personal HEALTHY AND UNHEALTHY • Personal HEALTHY AND UNHEALTHY • Transpersonal HEALTHY AND UNHEALTHY

  25. Healthy Pre-personal Enjoyment of Basic Needs such as Dining, Watching a Sunset, Enjoying the fullness of your Sexual Integrity Spontaneous expression of self in dance, art, poetry music and song

  26. Unhealthy Pre-personal Shame and Denial Emphasizes the needs of self over the needs of others

  27. Healthy Personal Able to Postpone immediate gratification for the Highest Good Can provide a sense of presence to other people, other living things, and the larger social order.

  28. Unhealthy Personal Blaming limits of self on others and minimizing the limitations of other people Acting out of sense of duty (obligation)

  29. Healthy Transpersonal Living fully in every moment, as if it could Be the last moment, because death has Been faced. Capable of spiritual love for self, other people, other living things, and ecosystems (A conscious choice/intent to serve)

  30. Unhealthy Transpersonal Minimizes the “animal nature” of self by neglect of diet, exercise, sleep, sexuality, relationship Although identification from self is reduced this is replaced by in a subtle identification with a false sense of success in spiritual development

  31. This Brings us to Seven Paradigms of Spiritual Transformation 1. Spiritual Momentum 2. Mindful Daily Living 3. Spirit with Heart 4. Religious Self 5. Bio-consciousness 6. Community consciousness 7. Eco-consciousness

  32. Know Thy Self • Our Spiritual Journey entails a recognition of our own levels of • Transference and Countertransference at both the • Spiritual and Religious Level

  33. The Problem that Arises with Transference and Countertransference is That we Unknowingly Transfer to Our Clients Unresolved Conflicts Which we Have (With Roots in Both our Past and Present Experience) That are Related to the Spiritual and the Religious.

  34. The Conscious Use of Our Higher Self Requires An Awareness of • Any Past Trauma in Our Lives at the Following Levels • Spiritual (family, church, community) • Physical (critical event in our life) • Emotional (peer or adult abuse) • Cognitive (that have taught us negative views of self, others and the world) • Social (that have taught us aggressive or passive behavior)

  35. Consequently, we Either Underidentify or Overidentify with Our Own Values and Beliefs or With Those of Our Clients To Offset this dilemma, one of the most fundamental aspects required is what I have Termed

  36. Self-Reflective Accurate Empathy or Agape (Unconditional Love) [Towards Ourselves] • Which Translates into • Spiritually Oriented Accurate Empathy or Agape (Unconditional Love) [Towards Our Clients]

  37. Self-Reflective Accurate Empathy Entails “accepting ourselves” in an inner- directed manner in order to capture the substance of our being and sense of presence in the world.

  38. Accurate Empathy Reflects our awareness of the content, feeling, meaning, behaviour and experience of the client’s life situation. Unconditional love or ‘agape’ allows us to enter the dark, repulsive ravishes of the human condition in order to elevate it to a place of dignity, value and respect (Tillich, 1962).

  39. Spirituality Seeking A Spiritually- Oriented Philosophy of Life and Living Where you as music therapists and educators (to be) can ‘tell your story’ and ‘bear your soul’ so as to honestly confront your own personal issues and professional concerns.

  40. By being spiritually alive ourselves, we breathe spiritual life and energy in our clients, and sometimes, MAYBE, EVEN in our colleagues

  41. Artistic Accurate Empathy Our ability to clearlydenote andconvey through the use ofprose,poetry, drama or musicthequality,texture and varied nuances of the client’s expression and the manner in which such individuals experienceetheir world at thecognitive, affective, behavioural and experiential level.

  42. Humor (A Spiritual Trait) is at the Heart of Being Able to Take Ourselves Lightly, to Smile at Our OwnFoibles and Laugh at our Own Idiosyncrasies

  43. Thank You for Listening

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