A continuum of awareness: Music therapy with the developmentally handicapped

Journal/Book: Music Therapy. 1981; 1: 17-23.

Abstract: Describes 3 therapeutic strategies for actualizing the client's potential. The aim of this approach is to initiate the client into a continuum of awareness--a condition of consciousness in which the client is able to discriminate both between self and therapist and between self and his/her own experiences. The 1st strategy, reflection, is based on C. B. Roger's (1961) technique of instant playback of the here-and-now person. Mirroring and matching the client's song, movements, and chants are indicative of acceptance and acknowledgment of that person. Identification, the 2nd strategy, involves the symbolic representation, in musical forms, of the here-and-now client and therapist. The foundation for this strategy lies in the paradigm of the awareness-excitement-contact cycle. The 3rd approach, "our contact song," serves as the 1st reciprocal expression and the 1st overt indication of the awareness of the existence of another. It is a composed or improvised song that lends itself to adaptations and becomes the fountainhead of activities and experiences in the service of therapeutic goals. (15 ref)

Note: strategies in music therapy; self awareness; developmentally handicapped

Keyword(s): Music therapy; mentally retarded; psychotherapeutic processes; awareness ; adolescence

Zurück | Weiter