Exploring How Music Enhances Therapy: The Healing Power of Sound, Rhythm, and Melody
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Healing Beyond Words: The Benefits of Music and Imagery
Mental health professionals, from art therapists to mental health nurses to psychiatrists, often benefit when implementing varied, multidisciplinary approaches in their practice (Van Lith, 2016). Supportive and trauma therapies can especially benefit from alternative methods rooted in creativity and free expression, such as Music and Imagery (MI), which offers a powerful pathway for healing beyond traditional talk therapies.
What Is the Music and Imagery Method?
Music and Imagery (MI), derived from Guided Imagery and Music (GIM), is a therapeutic approach that combines carefully selected music with imagery to support emotional processing, insight, and integration (Grocke & Moe, 2015). The method can be used in both individual and group settings and is often facilitated by a trained music therapist or trained mental health professional.
Clients are guided to relax and listen to music while allowing images, feelings, and memories to arise. These experiences are then explored in dialogue with the therapist, sometimes accompanied by drawing or journaling.
How MI Supports Trauma Recovery
1. Accessing the Nonverbal Dimensions of Trauma
Certain clients and certain dimensions of trauma can be difficult to access through words alone. Music, as a nonverbal and emotionally potent medium, can bypass cognitive defenses and aid both clients and mental health professionals in accessing deeper levels of repressed trauma (Green, 2015). Imagery allows the unconscious to speak in metaphors, helping clients process experiences that may be too overwhelming to articulate.
2. Creating a Safe Environment
In MI, the therapist helps create a safe and structured space for exploration. The music often serves as a holding environment, gently supporting the emergence of feelings and memories. This can help clients revisit traumatic memories without becoming overwhelmed, especially when sessions are carefully paced and grounded in a trusting therapeutic relationship.
3. Facilitating Integration
Trauma can fragment a person’s sense of self. By working with music imagery, clients often uncover internal resources, new perspectives, or forgotten strengths. This can lead to a reintegration of self, and a stronger sense of agency and resilience (Lawendowski & Bieleninik, 2017).
4. Empowering the Client’s Inner Wisdom
Rather than directing the process, the MI therapist helps the client follow their own inner imagery and emotional flow. This empowers the client to reconnect with their intuitive knowing.
5. Encouraging Creative and Sensory Engagement
Trauma can disconnect people from their bodies and emotions. The immersive nature of music and the richness of imagery can awaken clients’ sensory and emotional responsiveness (Taruffi & Küssner, 2019). Post-session drawing, movement, or verbal processing can further deepen this reconnection.
Who Can Benefit?
MI is suitable for a wide range of clients dealing with trauma, including those with PTSD, complex trauma, and early developmental trauma. It can be especially helpful for individuals who:
- struggle with verbal expression;
- have plateaued in traditional talk therapy;
- experience somatic symptoms of trauma;
- are seeking a more holistic or creative therapeutic process.
A Complementary Tool in Trauma Therapy
While Music and Imagery is not a stand-alone cure, it’s a powerful complement to other trauma-informed approaches such as EMDR and somatic experiencing (Rudstam et al., 2022). When facilitated by a trained professional, MI can deepen the therapeutic process and help clients access profound layers of healing.
References/Read more on:
- Green, A. (2011). Art and music therapy for trauma survivors. Canadian Art Therapy Association Journal, 24(2), 14-19.
- Grocke, D., & Moe, T. (2015). Guided Imagery & Music (GIM) and Music Imagery Methods for Individual and Group Therapy. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
- Lawendowski, R., & Bieleninik, Ł. (2017). Identity and self-esteem in the context of music and music therapy: A review. Health Psychology Report, 5(2), 85-99.
- Rudstam, G., Elofsson, U.O.E., Söndergaard, H.P., Bonde, L.O., Beck, B.D. (2022). Trauma-focused group music and imagery with women suffering from PTSD/Complex PTSD: A randomized controlled study, European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 6(3), 100-277, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejtd.2022.100277
- Taruffi, L., & Küssner, M. B. (2019). A review of music-evoked visual mental imagery: Conceptual issues, relation to emotion, and functional outcome. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, 29(2-3), 62.
- Van Lith, T. (2016). Art therapy in mental health: A systematic review of approaches and practices. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 47, 9-22.
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Co-Funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union
The European Commission’s support for the production of this website does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Co-Funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union
The European Commission’s support for the production of this website does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
The European Commission’s support for the production of this website does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
