ABSTRACTS
OF THE IVth BULGARIAN MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE WITH INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPANTS, 17-19 NOVEMBER 2017, SOFIA
YANA NIKOLOVA and RADKA GEORGIEVA (Bulgaria), students at Musictherapy Institute - Sofia
Musictherapy - Spaces of Intersection
(Poster)
Music therapy (MT) is a discrete scientific discipline, and being a music therapist is a profession. Music therapy is a process, led by a a qualified music therapist, who by using the elements of music (sound, rhythm, harmony and melody), aims to better the physical, mental, social and cognitive state of people. It has a direct influence by ameliorating various chronic, neurological deficit, mental disorders, thermal illnesses, psychological traumas, developmental impairments, etc.
Music therapy branches out into a few different types and applies various approaches in achieving its goals and expanding the reach of the help provided. We decided to introduce points of intersection in music therapy as a poster.
Depending on whether clients take part in music making or are solely perceiving music, there are two types of music therapy: active and receptive. They both use different approaches.
Active music therapy comprises five main approaches, in which improvisation is being used exclusively: free improvisation (Alvin); creative music therapy (Nordoff-Robbins); music, movement, dance (dance therapy), music psychodrama (Joseph Moreno), music therapy in neurorehabilitation and more.
Receptive music therapy comprises the following approaches: Helen Bonny's Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM), Music and Imagery (MI).
Where do music therapy approaches intersect, as well as music therapy and psychotherapy?
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ANGEL TOMOV (Bulgaria)
Symphony of Individuatuion
(Workshop)
"Symphony (from Greekσυμφονία, "consonance") is a musical genre in which the fulness of the orchestra's capabilities is being expressed. Unlike other musical genres, here there is not a strictly defined, single lead instrument, but rather musical and orchestral interplay and good teamwork of separate musical instruments or groups of instrumenes, are being accentuated.
The musical form typical for the symphony comprises three or four parts. The fisrt part is usually solemn, the second one - slow, the third is dancing and the fourth, fast and also solemn. However, historically this structure of symphony, to a great extent has turned into a formality."
"In analytical psychology, individuation is a process of psychological differentiation, aiming at the development of the individual personality." Mainly, it is a process by which individual beings form and differentiate. In detail, this is the development of the psycholgical individuality as such, different from the basis, the collective psychology."
"Regarding human beings, a family is defined as a group of individuals who live together with an engagement and commitment to each other, form a common ecnomical unit, they might raise children, and their identity is significantly connected to the group. Sexuallity and the parent-child relationship are part of most, although not all of the family relationships."
Our lives pass in a family environment, regardless of its specific idiosyncrasies. That is also the environment where the process of individuation takes its course. I look at the family as if it were a symphony orchestra, whose performance is indicative of the formation and the individual development of its members."
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DARINKA PUSHKARIOVA (Bulgaria)
Active Music Therapy with an Thirteen-Year-Old Adolescent Male with Special Educational Needs
(Case Presentation)
I would like to call your attention to a case, uncovering the capabilities of active music therapy for the development of psychic, cognitive, emotional and physiological processes within the the work with a child with special educational needs and mеntal illnesses from birth. Currently, we have been working together for 4 months.
The application of active music therapy for the 4-month period mentioned above, has empowered the client in the following directions:
1. Conscious self-expression and the sharing of emotions through songs
2. Better quality of communication with himself and others
3. The overcoming of fears and anxiety
4. Speech
5. Breathing
6. Good body posture
7. Cognitive abilities
8. Physiological
9. Change in self-expression and self-confidence
10. Increased trust in himself and others
This case presentation has been dicussed with the parent-guardian of the client, who allowed me the full freedom of sharing information, audio, video and pictures according to their written and informed agreement.
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TANYA ATMADJOVA (Bulgaria)
(Report)
Music Therapy for Children with Special Needs
The place and role of music therapy and the music therapist will be viewed and discussed, as a part of the complex therapeutic work with children with special needs in a short presentation. Videos and photos will vizualize and give proof the methods used in practical music therapy sessions, as this would be a starting point for discussion concerning the advantages and shortcomings of this kind of creative therapy.
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ELENA KUMCHEVA (Bulgaria)
How Do I Hear And Understand My Child? (Sessions with Children with Special Needs and a Parent)
(Case Presentation)
For the last 9 years I have been working with children with special needs. The main objectives in my work as a clinical music therapist (still not certified) are aimed mainly at the socialization of these kids; a development of cognitive processes and support for becoming aware of emotions, their experience and sharing.
Parents mostly approach us with the request for training their child, to empower him or her in coming closer to his or her peers. At the initial interview almost everyone represents their child as a music lover. The answer to the question: "What kind of music?" is:
- "Well, some music from the TV and the computer." When asking "Well, do you dance or sing? ", here information is almost completely absent. They ignore the question or answer that they haven't noticed. When sharing feedback towards a parent, one can notice that they do not understand some of the signals the child is sending, especially those connected to emotions. Very often those parents cannot reconize the way their child expresses joy, sorrow, fear or curiosity. This provoked me to invite moms and dads to join us during sessions and to take part in the activities. I would like to share the results of our work with you, and to demonstrate how do parents hear and understand their child after their coactive work with music.
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Prof., Dr. Psy.Sc. NADEZHDA VITANOVA (Bulgaria)
An Exciting Energy Between Active Imagination and Music
(Report with sharing of theoretical and practical experience)
This presentation comprises conceptional points of view, regarding the transcendence of active imagination, activated towards a focus required by the client, to which receptive music is being applied accordingly.
Therapeutic experience is shared on the grounds of the basic theoretical ideas, accompanied by a slideshow of the client's drawings and a verbal analysis of their contents.
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ELENA ILIEVA (Bulgaria/South Africa)
Alchemy of Sound
(Lecture with Sound Examples)
From thousands of years humanity has been using sounds and music in the health, increasing productivity, to support learning and sustaining a good level of psychic well-being and balance.
Today there are mutiple techniques and methods of work with music, of which it is worth it to learn something more, in order to be able to create а sound environment that is fostering, supporting and matching the situation - both for ourselves and practicing therapists.
In the following lecture I would like to refer to some of the principles of sound resonance, synchronization, binary bites, frequency and the revolutionary principles of Dr. Tomatis' method. I will try to introduce some depth, regarding the understanding the alchemy of sound, through providing information about the neuropsychology of sound processing.
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ROSSITSA NIKOLOVA (Bulgaria)
Help Through Music Therapy In the Work with People Suffering from Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease
(Announcement)
One of the multiple applications of music therapy is this dedicated to the work with elderly people, suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Those illnesses torture and burden not only those suffering from them, but also the people taking care of them.
In this presentation I would like to share my experience of how music is being helpful with those states, and which music therapy techniques could be used in the work with them.
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NEICHO KARPATCHEV (Bulgaria)
Music Therapy Techniques for Psychological Work at School
(Report)
"How could you express truth without words and with no silence?"
Zen
One of the most direct answers to this question directs us to making music with instruments or by voice!
This report aims at presenting the idiosynratic advantages of the Active Music Therapy and the possibilities for psychological work, offered by this approach. Active Music Therapy is applicable within the frame of various psychotherapy paradigms - humanistic, behavioral, music psychodrama, etc. It is suitable for all age groups and could be successfully adapted for the achievement of goals, matching the psychological needs or specific problems of particular clients.
School years аre characterized by an intense development in terms of age, as both children and adolescents come through different stages, wirh each of them placing unique expectations, goals and tasks. This is not a smooth and even road and is often accompanied by retardation and deficits of cognitive, emotional and social nature. A child is not in possession of the authonomy of an adult, and for that reason has the necessity of support in its individual development. How could Active Music Therapy respond to those challenges and offer a successful alternative, allowing the solution of problems that have already occured and how could it be showing a way toward the formation of accomplished personalities and the build up of a character?
Some alternative music therapy techniques have been listed, as well as the most appropriate conditions for their application. The report shows specific results regarding the achievement of various goals and the characteristic idiosyncrasies of separate age groups.
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SLAVKA ZIDANE (Bulgaria)
Why Do People Sing?
(Announcement)
Why, indeed? In order to find an answer for myself on that question I would like to ask the very people who sing. I am going to ask them when do thay sing, how is singing being rewarding to them, what music do they prefer performing, what is their age and for how long have they been singing. And then what? Then I will look up for concurrence amongst all answers and we will see what is going to happen.
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FAIY EVAGGELOU (Greece)
The effects and the benefits of musictherapy on infants hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) and later at their first 2 years of their lives
(Report)
In many studies, music is characterized as a global language. Cook (1986), states that music has the capacity to overcome the barriers of different cultures, languages and feelings, reducing the sense of loneliness and engaging feelings of intimacy, consolation, relief, and warmth. Guzzetta (1995) becomes even more specific and refers to music therapy as the "recommended use of music through music intervention to restore, sustain and promote emotionally, psychologically and spiritually health and well-being."
Although it seems totally natural for a mother to sing lullabies and other melodies to her infant, in a hospital setting, interest focuses on the required medical interventions, and music, for the majority of those involved, seems to have no place.
The reasons why music intervention is very important for hospitalized preterm infants can be divided into three categories: behavioral condition, regulation of bio-physiological functions and psychological-emotional state of the newborn. Studies conclude that music therapy benefits, short-term but also long-term the preterm infants. It has behavioral benefits in regulating blood oxygen and cardiac arrest, respiratory function, overall duration of hospitalization, weight gain, quantity and quality of sleep, pain and stress reduction, calorie intake, less energy consumption, eating ability and relief from crying.
Music, apart from the benefits it offers to newborns, has additional benefits for parents and, above all, mothers who experience the trauma of preterm labor. When mother is involved, she experiences bonding and interacting with the newborn, she is trained on how to care for it, calm herself down and calm the infant down. In addition, she contributes to its development and a smooth transition from the hospital to the house.
Music therapy is a call, to create a relationship that will help to build a bridge linking the endometrial life, to the period of hospitalization and the later life at home as an important and crucial basis in the infant's bonding process with the mother. It is an effective way to help mothers who suffer from feelings of guilt, fear, and lost self-esteem, to communicate and offer to their infant.
Faiy An. Evaggeloy is a:
BA (Hons) Music,
MA Music Musicology,
MA Music –Performance Studies,
MA Musictherapist (NbMT)
Bibliography
Als, H. (1999). Reading the preterm infant. Στο E. Goldson (Ed.), Nurturing the Premature Infant: Developmental Interventions in Newborn Intensive Care (pp.18-85). London: Oxford University Press.
Cook, J.,D. (1986). Music as an intervention in the oncology setting. Canser Nursing, 9. 23-28.
Geerdes, H., & Wagner, M. (1994). Introductory Musical Acoustics. Music Educators Journal, 81(2), 60.
Guzzetta, C.,E. (1995). Music therapy: Healing the melody of the Soul. Στο Dossy, B.,M., Guzzetta, C.,E., Kolkmeier L.,G., Keagan, L. (eds.) Holistic Nursing:A Handbook for practice. New York: Aspen. (pp. 672).
Dobbing, J. (1997). Developing brain and behaviour (1st ed.). San Diego: Academic Press.
Papageorghiou, A., Ohuma, E., Altman, D., Todros, T., Ismail, L., & Lambert, A. et al. (2014). International standards for fetal growth based on serial ultrasound measurements: the Fetal Growth Longitudinal Study of the INTERGROWTH-21st Project. The Lancet, 384(9946), 869-879.
Shoemark, H., Dearn, T. (2016). Music Therapy in the Medical Care of Infants. In J. Edwards, The Oxford Handbook of Music Therapy (pp. 24-52). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Standley, J.,M. (2000). The effect of contingent music to increase non-nutritive sucking of premature infants. Pediatric Nursing, 26(5). 493-499.
Standley, J. (2002). A meta-analysis of the efficacy of music therapy for premature infants. Journal Of Pediatric Nursing, 17(2), 107-113.
Standley, J. (2003). The effect of music-reinforced nonnutritive sucking on feeding rate of premature infants. Journal Of Pediatric Nursing, 18(3), 169-173.
Standley, J., & Walworth, D. (2003). Music therapy with premature infants (1st ed.). Silver Spring, MD: American Music Therapy Association.
Standley, J. (2001). Music therapy for the neonate. Newborn And Infant Nursing Reviews, 1(4), 211-216.
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BORYANA RADEVA (Bulgaria/Austria)
Music Therapy with a Child Suffering of Intellectual Disabilities
(Case Presentation)
"Maria" is a 7-year old, almost non-verbal girl with Severe Intellectual Disabilities (F72). Seven sessions in music therapy were held within the frame of her treatment in a out-patients' department (ambulatory) in clinic for child and adolescent psychiatry in Austria. The regulation of emotions, expressed directly as physiological needs, shapes as the therapeutic goal. Walking to the rhythm of a song familiar to her takes a main part in the therapeutic work, which contributes to the fact of her feeling more confident in her communication with the therapist. Gradually, different kinds of musical games become possible, most of them connected to movement and rhythm.
A non-genuine video recording represent part of the method of work.
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IVANA ILIC (Serbia)
Music to support, music to follow - An integrative approach to music therapy (description of private music therapy practice in Niš, Serbia with presentation of original methods through workshop)
(Workshop)
The aim of this presentation is to verify the role of music as motivational and integrative tool for promoting development and learning in neurotypical as well as in disabled children.
Musicorn, music studio for children and parents was created in Nis, Serbia in 2012. to follow the original idea of consolidating educational, psychological and music therapy methods with the aim of preventive and therapeutic effect on children’s development. At the moment, the studio works with over 70 children in individual and group therapy treatments and around 40 children in creative incentive programs. In the last five years, the studio has achieved successful cooperation with five private kindergartens and has managed to create interdisciplinary collaboration with working with children area experts (pediatric psychiatrists, counselors, psychologists, special education teachers).
In working with children with developmental problems, we have created an integrated approach to enable faster realization of child contact and easier communication. In addition to music therapists, psychologist/integrative psychotherapist is included in direct work with children, and he is also trained in the use of basic music therapy techniques. Changing therapists helps us avoid the comfort zone for children and functional application of knowledge, due to different approaches to achieving the same goal.
With continuous intervention (one individual and one group session per week) and regular monitoring and consultation with pediatric neuropsychiatrist, excellent results have been achieved, above all in the contact and communication in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disorders.
In groups of early musical stimulation and creative incentive groups, children successfully acquire social skills and communication skills, develop motor skills and learn unmusical content with the help of music therapy techniques.
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STEFANO NAVONE (Italy)
Music Therapy and Affect Attunement in Long-Term Psychiatric Treatment:A Comparison Between Symptoms and Rehabilitation Strategies
(Case Presentation)
The Music Therapy approach proposed by the author is mainly based on a sonorous music relationship between the patient and music therapist. Active Music Therapy facilitates the expressive process, increasing communicative-relational abilities and modulation and regulation of emotions. This approach is based on intersubjective psychological theories and allows “affect attunement” moments.