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International Encounters in Clinical Music Therapy 2008
Sala Conceria,CHIERI (TO)
Third Encounter
Friday 22 and Saturday 23, August 2008, 9.30 AM to 6 PM
Lecturer
Dorita S. Berger, MA MT-BC, LCAT
Assistant Professor of Music Therapy,John J. Cali School of Music,Montclair State University, U.S.A.
"Developing a “Clinical Eye”: Physiologic Foundations for Music Therapy"
Friday, August 22
DAY ONE: THE BODY: An Owner’s Manuel
9:30am – 10:45am: lecture: What is this thing called “ME"?
Lecture and exercises for understanding physiologic function and information processing. Explored are physiologic sensory systems, the Fear Spiral, hearing and listening, the integration of sensory information and its effects on interpreting the planet. Included are sample participatory group exercises demonstrating key scientific and diagnostic point.
10.45-11.00: coffee break
11:00am – 12:30pm: Lecture: You: An Owner’s Guide – Physiology and The Senses
Lecture and exercises designed for awareness of sensory information processing.Lecture and possible activities involving sound, movement, visual stimulation are analyzed and discussed from the perception aspect. “Hearing vs Listening”, auditory constraints in diagnosed populations, visual/auditory coordination, proprioception, vestibular issues, and brain and information processing, and more
12:30 – 1:45 Lunch Break
2:00pm – 3:45 pm, (Break – 3:45pm – 4pm), 4:00 – 6:00 pm
Issues in Sensory Processing – Gestalt Laws, Audition, Entrainment
Continuation of previous lectures, including exploration of “Dimensional Hearing", auditory scene analysis elements and implications in music therapy, Gestalt laws of sensory”,processing and potential malfunction in diagnosed populations, Synesthesia(cross-sensory processing). Activities include coordination exercises, auditory tracking activities, rhythm, etc. and video viewings of diagnosed client(s)
Saturday, August 26
DAY TWO: THE BEAT GOES ON: Why Music?
9:00am – 10:45am : lecture: What is this thing called “MUSIC” ?
10:45 – 11:00am: coffee Break
11:00am – 12:30pm: lecture
Lecture and discussion on the phenomenon of music, with theories of why it exists and is required by the human mind and spirit.. Discussion of the six individual music elements: rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, dynamics, form. Explored is the difference between music as “therapeutic”, and music therapy as a clinical intervention for long-term results. In addition, session includes discussion of Hearing vs. Listening, Dimensional Hearing, Auditory Focus, Auditory Tracking, Auditory Figure Ground, and other auditory issues implicated in this (music therapy’s) acoustic intervention. Session may include videos, and listening activities and discussion
12.30-14.00: lunch break
14.00: private bus transportation to the hospital
3:00pm – 5:00 pm : Hospital demonstration: Clinical Music: Therapy vs Therapeutic
What am I looking at? What do I see? What does this mean?
Lecture, activities and video tapes demonstrating ‘music’ at work. Integration of previous information with the in-class experience of making and listening to music. Further examples of how the six music elements are applied individually or in combination, within a variety of clinical settings for treating specific diagnoses including Autism, ADD, Pain and Stress Management, Language and Learning Delays, and others.
5:00pm – 6:00pm CONCLUSION: Summary, Observations, Questions and Answers.
Because humans are primarily emotionally intuitive animals whose responses derive instinctively from the brains interpretation of sensory information, music can influence responses on a sub-cortical level, influencing sensory information processing systems to alter homeostatic set points.
In assessing behaviors through physiologic-information lenses and knowledge, the therapist’s ”clinical eye” can observe important physiologic information to develop clinical goals for functional adaptation in any diagnosis..
Presentation reviews sensory elements involved in information processing and sensory integration; processing errors giving rise to problems associated with ill-adaptive behaviors in Autism and other diagnoses (including psychiatric, psycho-social and brain-damage); how music therapy, different from therapeutic, changes the picture.
Presented, along with the three basic levels of Functional Adaptation (functional accommodations) are:
a) “feedback-feedforward” systems, combined with exploration of vestibular,proprioceptive, tactile, visual and auditory sensory stimulation, auditory processing,(e.g., dimensional hearing, figure-ground, tracking, etc); HPA Axis; Fear Spiral; Synesthesia; etc .and how music, specifically applied as therapy, can contribute to altering homeostatic set-points in the information processing matrix toward adaptive responses.
b) six basic music elements and how each, applied as therapy, can influence the altering of homeostatic set-points in the information processing matrix to drive the system toward adaptive responses (continuous disturbance = change in response);
c) viewing and/or discussion by session participants of patients/clients/cases, for the purpose of putting the information into perspective and learning how to observe with a “clinical eye”, the behaviors from the physiologic ill-adaptive function perspective;
d) demonstration and discussion of applying information in assessment and treatment goal development. Session activities demonstrate types of interventions including specific use of musical implements and instruments for timbre and auditory concerns, sensory coordination, and other areas (language development, movement, etc) based on physiologic information being learned.
Suggestions of implements, instruments and possible tasks for physiologic goals, questions and answers, and Bibliography for further reading concludes the lecture.
Dorita S. Berger, MA MT-BC, LCAT is a concert pianist, educator, Board Certified Music Therapist, and a New York State Licensed Creative Arts Therapist.
Ms. Berger is Assistant Professor of Music Therapy at the John J. Cali School of Music, Montclair State University, New Jersey, where she teaches many courses in Music Therapy, and provides supervision in field work for Music Therapy students.
Along with her teaching responsibilities, Prof. Berger also conducts an extensive private music therapy practice at her clinic in Norwalk, Connecticut, working with people with PDD, autism, language and learning delays, sensory issues, anxiety and psychological disorders.
She also provides professional supervision, consultation and therapy services to schools, institutions and professional clinicians throughout her region, and various locations in the United States. In addition to published articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals,
Dorita’s published books include The Music Effect: Music Physiology and Clinical Applications (with co-author Dr. Daniel J. Schneck); Music Therapy, Sensory Integration and the Autistic Child, both available from Jessica Kingsley Publishers, and Toward The Zen Of Performance: Music Improvisation Therapy For The Development Of Self-Confidence In The Performer.
In addition to teaching and clinical work, Ms. Berger, who has recently been nominated for the roster of the Fulbright Visiting Scholars program, is sought after to conduct seminars and lecture/workshops on music and physiologic function at Conferences and Universities internationally.
Born in Mendoza, Argentina, Prof. Berger grew up and has been trained and educated in the United States, holding degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and New York University, with additional piano and chamber music studies at the Juilliard School in New York.
She continues her concertizing as a Violin and Piano Duo with daughter Sabrina, and in Chamber Music with a variety of artists.