“She only likes music when it’s loud, when it hits her in the stomach” sang Herbert Grönemeyer in 1984, making it clear to many people for the first time that deaf people pick up and perceive vibrations through their bodies. However, the perception of vibrations is only one facet of music as therapy – the awakening of emotions and memories is another.
Music as a means of communication
Music serves as a means of communication. Not just for singing schmaltzy declarations of love under shaky balconies or for loudly broadcasting political beliefs to the world. In medicine, music has been used since ancient times to heal numerous ailments. Temple chants have been handed down from the Sumerian empire, which were firmly integrated into healing rituals. Throughout antiquity until 1550, music was an integral part of the training of medical practitioners. In the present, music therapy has experienced a strong upswing after the Second World War. Today, music therapy is defined as the “targeted use of music within the framework of the therapeutic relationship to restore, maintain and promote mental, physical and spiritual health“. This includes all music therapy psychotherapeutic concepts that are used in medicine. It is not about “right” or “wrong” singing, or whether piano lessons were successful.
Musical approach to people with depression
Music therapy is often used where the usual means of communication fail. For the most common mental and psychiatric disorders in the elderly – depression and senile dementia – music therapy offers support and help. Depressed people who are trapped in their emotional world often succeed with music in leaving their emotional rigidity and re-engaging with life. However, the music therapy approach to depressed people should be left to the therapists. Music therapy is always integrated into an overall therapeutic concept and is competently supervised there – simply playing a CD is not enough.
Music therapy against forgetting
For people with age-related dementia, music is the means of choice to awaken memories. Because formative musical experiences are made in youth and people with age dementia usually live in the reality of their childhood and adolescence, music therapists can connect here with experiences and adventures that their patients have not forgotten. Many patients with age dementia who no longer remember the names of their relatives can easily sing songs from their youth. For many patients, this experience alone is a quality of life. Music addresses emotions that go far beyond verbal and cognitive abilities. Conversely, mobility can also be stimulated again in this way: Dancing to music often follows spontaneously as rhythm and music communicate to the body. Recognizing this potential is the task of the music therapist, who must deal with each individual patient accordingly. So the term “music lesson in a nursing home” certainly does not do justice to the music therapy approach in geriatric care.
With rattles and soft strings
What kind of music, which instruments and to what extent music is used therapeutically is decided by the therapist. For example, many therapists use Orff instruments, which do not require any prior musical training from patients. If body sensation and perception are to be supported, a “sound chair” is also used. The patient sits upright with his back against the backrest in the chair, on the back of which steel strings are made to vibrate by the therapist. The sound is perceived on the chair over the whole body, with the spine as the physical center of vibration transmission. Therapists appreciate the sound chair because it allows the patient to maintain an upright but comfortable posture that supports inner mindfulness and awareness. Patients who are afraid of feeling at the mercy of others, or who are very helpless due to a physical disability, especially benefit from the new therapy tool. Sound couches are also used for infants and children or the severely disabled, with which the sounds can be perceived over the entire body.
Relaxation for body and soul
Music – whether primarily heard or played by the patient – serves to address the patient emotionally and, in this way, to relieve tension and find communicative access to the patient. Accordingly, music is used as a building block in the mental health and psychiatric treatment of children. Because the sense of hearing remains functional the longest, even the most seriously ill can be addressed through music. Studies have shown that these patients can be addressed by means of the sense of hearing through sounds, tones and speech. At the same time, sensations are also transported. Trust, security and closeness resonate. Measurements show that deepened and more regular breathing and a slower heartbeat follow – relaxation and calming occur.
Music therapy for coma vigil patients
Therefore, music therapy is used as an adjunctive therapy for patients in a vegetative state. In these patients, lasting damage has occurred due to external influences such as an accident, bleeding in the brain or temporary lack of oxygen. In the past, it was assumed that people in a vegetative state were not aware of their surroundings. These patients often lie in their beds with their eyes open but almost motionless. It is difficult for outside observers to assess what is going on inside them. Today, we know that coma patients respond to attention and specific sensory stimuli. Many patients improve in the course of their coma, which can be temporary or permanent. For this reason, music therapy measures are also recommended by the Association of German Pension Insurance Institutions.
