Researching the history of music therapy may reveal that this idea is - PDF document

Researching the history of music therapy may reveal that this idea is not totally new. In many countries, there has been a tradition either for therapists working within community mental health systems, especially from the nineteen seventies on in the United States and many building identities, as a means to empower and install agency. A community music therapy talks about how to humanize communities ecological context within which the indi

vidual lives; conversely, helping any ecological context to become healthier is not a separate enterprise from improving the health of its members; and helping individual and ecology to relate to one another harmoniously makes both healthier". Bruscia underlines how so-called "system theory" is an influential The traditional way When music therapy was reinvented as a modern profession in the middle of last century, it became affiliated w

it music to bridge the gap between individuals and communities, to create a space for common musicking and sharing of artistic and human values. Music therapists are increasingly more often working with whole communities. They do not only work with individual problems, but focus on systemic interventions, how music can build networks, provide symb as well as individuals. Music therapists may soon become health music psychologist and start

to teach people to take care of their own healt childrenÕs music often made the point of departure for common musicking. The first example, taken from Stige (2002, 2003), will illustrated how music therapist may involve the larger community in their planning for music therapy. Already in the eighties, Stige initiated a music therapy project which aimed at integrating persons with mental handicaps into the society. Stige noticed how indiv

iduals with such handicaps were segregated from communal music life. They were not included in local band activity and thus not able to share the symbolic resources inherent in musical life which may g clearly, it informed our ways of doing and theorizing music therapy. Today, we are witnessing how music therapists are crossing the boundaries between "therapy" and "community music making". We can see how music therapy takes part in reclaimi

ng some of the original functions of music in our culture. Music ethnography has demonstrated how music in some form or another exists in all human cultures. It also seems that music always had a regulative role in the culture concerning the indiv obvious, music seems to serve a whole array of functions ranging from social control to ideological maintenance within the institutions of religion, politics and art. Increasingly, music sociolog

ists and psychologists also report about the power of everyday musicking to energize our lives, to emotionally prepare us to cope with the technologized world (DeNo Something was lost when mus support for the arts has led to a more inclusive attitude towards the value of popular musical forms. The boundaries between high and low are not any longer easily justified. At the same time, music sociologists and music psychologists are discoveri

ng how people are using music to regulate and control their emotional behavior (DeNora 2000) and take care of their health needs through music (Ruud 2002). Music is used for identity building (Ruud 1997), relaxation, to cope with stress, to rel the person and the situation, between our psychological state and the demands that stem from our surr to regulate our lives towards improved health. Of course, when it comes to health-promoting behav

iour, most attention is directed towards physical exercise, food, drug, alcohol habits or sexual behaviour (Taylor, 1995; Ogden, 2000). Within the emerging field of health psychology, the study of health behaviour sometimes focuses upon behaviours that may protect health, called Òbehavioural immunogensÓ (Matarazzo, 1984, in Ogden, 2000:13). I cannot see any reason why we could not conceive of music as a form of behavioural or cultural imm

unogen along with other behavioural immunogens like brushing our teeth, the use of safety belts, good sleeping habits and so on. If we link this cultural practice to the practice of community music therapy, we could argue that music therapy, as a discipline of study, has the responsibility to point out how music can be an important part of health planning and promotion, both for the individual and the society at large. I think these idea

s should be incorporated into the information music therapists give to the society along with the information about harmful effects of sound, such as environmental noise pollution and the damaging effects of excessively high volume. Health and quality of life There seem to be two main conceptions of ÒhealthÓ within the common discourse. In a biomedical context, to be in a state of health is taken to mean to live without disease. Many peo

ple, however, when asked about their personal understanding of the concept, renounce this vacuum concept of health (Ogden, 2000: 43). Instead, people tend to think of ÒhealthÓ as a state of being which implies a certain surplus of energy, a state of positive wellbe argued elsewhere (Ruud, 1998, Chapter 4; Ruud, 2001) our perception of quality of life has many subjective dimensions and it is open to values projected from various profession

s. The ethical orientation of each profession is based on different sets of fundamental values, and it is these values that are stressed when confronted with issues concerning life qualities. Medical doctors value and protect the body and life, social workers are concerned about democratic distribution of welfare goods, while psychologists are fundamentally concerned about human rights and dignity. In a similar way I would suggest that mu