What is music therapy?

Music therapy, also known as music therapy, or music medicine, is a new interdisciplinary subject which integrates music, medicine and psychology.

At present, there is no unified definition of music therapy, and different people have different understanding of music therapy.

1. Bruscia, a famous American music therapist, believes that music therapy is a systematic intervention process in which therapists use various forms of music experience and the therapeutic relationship developed in the course of treatment as a driving force to help the helped achieve their health goals.

2. Doctor Tanaka of Japan defines music therapy as a medical treatment method using music as the media. The main character is the music therapist. According to the prescription of the doctor, musicians, nurses and clinical psychologists work together as a whole.

Although there is no unified definition of music therapy, there is still a common part of its definition: it is recognized that music therapy is different from general therapy in that music therapy is based on music as the media for treatment, and the purpose of music therapy is to promote health. The difference of music therapy is that Doctor Tanaka of Japan believes that music therapy is a "medical treatment method" and prefers to locate music therapy as a medical treatment method. Bruscia's definition does not specify whether music therapy is medical or psychological, but only that music therapy is to "help the helped achieve health goals".

The Principle of Music Therapy

(1) Physical Perspective

Physically, music is a regular mechanical wave (sound wave)

It is a kind of reality existing in time and formed by physical structure (vibration of air molecule). Music contains a variety of frequencies of sound waves, which can be sensed in the ear from 20 Hz to 20 000 Hz. When sound vibration with certain regularity and changing frequency acts on various parts of the human body, gastric contraction, intestinal peristalsis, muscle contraction and relaxation, visceral beating, brain wave and so on will produce harmonious resonance, promote the rhythm of each organ to be in harmony, improve the disorder of each organ, thereby relieving disease and promoting rehabilitation.

(2) Biological Perspective

Music is a special information similar to language and other sounds, and its elements are melody, rhythm, melody, timbre, intensity and speed.

Rhythm activity is the basis of all human activities, whether in music or in any living organism, there is a sense of alternation of relaxation, movement and stillness, and the rhythm mode and melody system of music have a wonderful common with the characteristic rhythm of human body to a large extent. The rhythm of music can obviously affect human's behavior rhythm and physiological rhythm, such as breathing speed, movement speed, heart rate and so on. Different music can produce different physiological responses, such as heart rate and pulse speed, blood pressure, skin potential response, muscle potential and motor response, and brain wave, etc. Music can produce obvious analgesic effect. Because the auditory center in the cerebral cortex is adjacent to the pain center, the excitation of the brain auditory center caused by music stimulation can effectively inhibit the adjacent pain center, thus significantly reducing pain. At the same time, music can also promote the increase of endorphin content in the blood, which can also significantly reduce pain.

(3) Psychological Perspective

For a long time, there have been various schools of theories among philosophers, physiologists and psychologists, who have tried to explain the mechanism of physical and mental effects of music therapy. One theory holds that music influences people's emotions first, produces various emotions, and then acts on people's physiology. The other holds that music influences people's psychology by acting on their physiology. In fact, these two mechanisms interact to a large extent. If traditional psychotherapy believes that "cognition determines emotion", then music psychotherapy believes that "emotion determines cognition". Music therapists make use of the great influence of music on emotions to change people's emotions through music, and ultimately change people's cognition. But they are not simply playing some relaxing and wonderful music to the patients, so that the pain can be temporarily alleviated. On the contrary, music therapists use a lot of music that is depressive, sad, painful, angry and full of contradictory emotions to stimulate the emotional experience of the treated person and help him to vent the negative emotions as much as possible. When the negative emotions are vented to a certain extent, the positive forces in people's hearts will begin to rise. At this time, music therapists will gradually use positive music to support and strengthen the positive emotional forces in the hearts of the patients, and ultimately help them out of pain and predicament.

Therapeutic Function of Music Therapy

1. Physiological effects and therapeutic functions

At present, K. BR-USCIA, the most authoritative music therapist in the United States, defines music therapy in his book Definition of Music Therapy: "Music therapy is a systematic intervention process, in which therapists use various forms of music experience and therapists'therapeutical relationships developed in the course of treatment as a driving force to help be helped." To achieve the goal of health. "

The need to create music and to listen to music are the common needs of mankind, which, like language, is a prominent feature of human physiological ability. Both primitive society and modern civilization can not do without the phenomenon of music. Therefore, as an important part of human nature, music behavior undoubtedly has a certain significance for human survival itself. Music is an auditory art, that is to say, the only way for music to make people feel is to send sound waves to the brain through ears and tympanic membranes, which will have an impact on thinking and behavior in the future.

Different music can produce different physiological responses to different tissues and even organs, such as heart rate and pulse speed, blood pressure, skin, muscle and motor response, endocrine and biochemical substances in vivo, and brain waves, etc.

The rhythm of music can obviously affect people's behavior rhythm and physiological rhythm, such as breathing speed, movement speed rhythm and heart rate. Medical experiments have shown that the frequency of autonomic pulses in human central nervous system is about 30 seconds. In music analysis, it is coincidental to find that Mozart's music rhythm reaches a peak almost every 3O seconds. Therefore, listening to Mozart's works can promote the homeostasis of the human body, reduce tension and anxiety, and promote relaxation.

2. Psychological effects and therapeutic functions

Music has a great influence on people's emotions. Music therapy is to use music's great influence on emotions to change people's emotions through music, and ultimately change people's cognition.

Although SARS has been far away from us, it left unforgettable memories in people's hearts. People talked about "non-SARS", which aroused deep concern for mental health in society. The infection rate of medical staff in the front line of SARS prevention and treatment is very high, belonging to the high-risk population. In addition to the heavy work which made them tired physically and mentally, there were still some people in the society at that time, who had some psychological fears and exclusions to front-line medical staff and their families, and also brought them negative psychological effects. Although the relevant departments try their best to provide the best material conditions for these separated medical workers, due to the monotonous life in the isolation area and the lack of some necessary professional psychological services such as emotional counseling and psychological support (i.e. post-disaster psychological intervention), many psychological problems are unavoidable. According to the theory of traumatology, the symptoms of post-disaster psychological stress often appear three weeks to several months after an emergency. If there is no timely and effective post-disaster psychological intervention, some psychological stress symptoms will be highlighted.

That is, at such a special historical moment, the Music Therapy Center of the Central Conservatory of Music, under the leadership of Gao Tian and Liu Mingming, boldly entered the SARS isolation zone, providing music psychotherapy services for the isolation medical staff who are fighting against SARS at the front line. It is the first time that music therapy has been involved in public health emergencies in China.

Music therapy can be divided into three levels: support, introspection and psychological analysis according to the depth of psychological intervention.

The latter two levels of treatment involve a deeper psychological level, which is more suitable for individual or small group therapy. Supportive treatment, though shallow in the level of psychological intervention, has a wide audience and has irreplaceable advantages in the large number of collective treatment.

During the period of SARS, the music therapy implemented the following steps: first, using performance as an opportunity for communication. Secondly, by involving medical staff in the singing of their favorite "karaoke" songs and combining with certain song discussions, they can guide them to express their emotional experience in the fight against SARS, and share with others, so as to achieve the purpose of emotional catharsis and mutual support. Third, through music and dance activities to reduce their tension or monotonous experience of life in the isolation area, eliminate negative emotions and establish a pleasant positive emotional experience, in order to help them recover their positive and normal psychological state as soon as possible.

Throughout the course of one month's treatment, therapists will welcome new front-line medical staff every day, and at the same time send away those who return home safely after the end of the isolation period, to help these medical staff during the isolation period, try to alleviate psychological pressure and various negative emotional experiences, so that they can return to normal family life physically and mentally healthy.

This attempt made by the Music Therapy Center of the Central Conservatory of Music is of great significance to both the society and the discipline construction of music therapy. Music is both joyful and sentimental, which is one of the means to reveal human emotions in an all-round way. When listening to music, with the help of accepted or recognized music, people release their emotions freely and incisively with the progress of music, alleviate internal pressure, and keep the body in a relatively balanced state.