Movement, Rhythm & Music

(Spring, 1998)

Our first priority... is that of establishing deep empathy... The ability to "get inside" the other person and see, feel, and think the way that person does without judging, censoring, or criticizing. (Levy, p. 189)

I grew up as an awkward person, without a strong sense of rhythm. When I first started playing guitar, it was a learning process, but I was effectively tone deaf and without any sense of rhythm. I was sixteen at the time. Now, fourteen years later, I have achieved a certain level of mastery at my instrument, able to create music spontaneously, merging and mixing tones and rhythm in whatsoever fashion moves me.

It is impossible to articulate fully how much the experience of developing control over music and sound has meant to me. It took me years before I was willing to even use the word "musician" to refer to myself. But over time, I did develop those skills, and found myself continually fascinated by the power that music could hold over people.

More than ten years ago, I attended a lecture by Art Farmer, a jazz trombonist, probably best known for his trios with Jimmy Guifrie and Jim Hall. It was in a music hall, which had originally been a chapel, at Lawrence University. It seated 1200 people, and at that point the vast majority of them were loud, boisterous, high school students. He walked onto stage and didn't say a word. Instead, he sat at the piano and played a single note, letting it ring out for some time. He did this again, not speaking a word, and repeated it at least five times, never changing the note he played. With each successive time, the room grew more and more quiet. Finally, the room was reduced to silence.

At that point, he walked away from the piano, across the stage, and to the microphone standing in the center. "Let me tell you something," he said. "Music is power."

"I just played a single note, over and over again, without saying a word, and it brought you all to silence."

I have never forgotten that comment, and I've taken the power of music quite seriously ever since. Much research backs up the notion that music can be very powerful. Cordes (1997) writes on how voice therapy can provide strong therapeutic results and Sammon (1997) discusses the medical benefits involved in musical performance. Sammon also notes that in Greek Mythology, that Apollo, god of healing and the medicinal arts was also the god of music, also noting that "Interestingly enough, not only are physicians drawn to music, but musicians are also drawn to healing."

Hoffman (1997) further demonstrates that music can be of extreme value:

Music... can help achieve a deep state of relaxation, relieve insomnia, enable patients to recall suppressed memories, lower blood pressure, and even help normalize cardiac arrhythmias.... A number of these effects are accomplished on an emotional level. Several researchers have demonstrated that the right hemisphere of the brain, which has to do with feelings, imagery, dreams, and the unconscious, is activated by music..

The physiological benefits, however, are just the beginning. Hoffman continues:

I do a lot of work with adults who have experienced major gaps in their memories of childhood. Using music, they are often able to recall lost or suppressed experiences, which in turn may eliminate the emotional underpinning for their physical ailments....

The goal, as I see it, is to achieve a form of random synchronicity with a client. If we keep in mind that on a cellular level, even hydrogen (the element with the simplest atomic structure) has its single electron orbiting in a pattern which is neither predictable nor consistent (Hein, Best, Pattison & Arena, 1992). What does this mean? It means that if you try to predict specific motions and movements in an interactive system, you're probably going to be wrong.

So instead of trying to teach clients to use specific movements and motion, what's much more important is to use the power of music to achieve contact on a profound and moving level, and to give the clients a certain level of control over the experience. Levy (p. 189), for example, has a section on Penny Lewis:

The Gestalt therapy approach, like psychodrama and dance therapy, stresses the importance of individuals being actively involved in the experience instead of merely talking about it. Growth in therapy... Is more likely to come about when the individual can participate in and achieve a "full identification with the process." (Levy, p. 189)

The specific target population with whom I want to work is actually quite simple. I want to work with people who feel they want to get more in contact with their own sense of rhythm and movement, and I want to try to integrate the two systems together. Their needs vary considerably from person to person, but the idea is that everybody can benefit from gaining a better understanding of their own internal rhythms and motion.

The process is fairly straightforward. I begin by talking to the client and assessing their mood and tone. Then I tell them that what I plan to do is to start playing music. I offer them some simple rhythm instruments to use if they wish (in the session I did in class, I had a small egg-shaker, morrocas and a tambourine), so they have the choice of participating through motion, music or both. I then tell them that I'm going to play something which I think is most appropriate for them, and ask them what sort of music they like, and what sort of music I should try to avoid. Then, I ask them whether they'd rather work with music which is fast or slow, loud or soft, and invite them to tell me whatever else they feel is appropriate.

Once I feel I've got a good idea as to what they're looking for, I tell them I'm going to start playing and that they should respond in any fashion they feel is appropriate (including stillness if that's what they feel they need at the time). I will begin by controlling the sense of rhythm and style myself, choosing things which I feel the client wants, though I try to make it clear that they are free to express disagreement with that if they feel a need to do so.

Since the situation is completely improvisational, there is no guarantee that this contact will work perfectly. Some clients will be more resistant to the process, and others will fall into it very quickly. Regardless, the goal of the therapist is to achieve a state in which the client feels unconditional positive regard and the ability and freedom to express anything they wish to at the time.

This is done primarily by handing control of the music over to them. Thus, the therapist becomes the vessel through which the client can express themselves through both dance and music. I.e., if the client begins to slow down, the therapist plays more softly and slowly. If the client speeds up, the therapist matches that as well. Anything the client expresses, the therapist is to follow unconditionally.

The process is designed to be open-ended, without a specific time limit. When to end the exercise should be left entirely to the client, and they should feel free to end it in whatever means they feel is best (i.e., they can simply stop moving, bringing it to a close, fade out slowly, or say "okay I've had enough now.").

The idea is to achieve a certain level of presence and contact with the client. Levy (p. 77) quotes Stroop as follows:

When I am intensely present... I feel that I am in balance... My approach to my work becomes an "attitude" rather than a "treatment." The question of any one treatment form would get in the way of my trying to understand the ununderstandable. If I face a patient with the freedom of all my capacities intact, I can more readily detect... The parts that seem to be intact, as well as those that seem to be different.

This is important to remember. In order for this process to work, it has to be performed in as free and open a setting as possible. Whitehouse (Levy, p. 65) also notes that:

...the inner sensation, allowing... impulse to take the form of physical action is active imagination... It is here that most dramatic psycho-physical connections are made available to consciousness.

It's essential for the therapist to take this into account, to understand that what happens during the movement/music process can be extremely evocative, and not to discount it. Winding down after the experience is quite important. Thus the client should be encouraged to spend some time writing, talking, journaling, sketching or performing other activity which helps process the experience.

Also, the process does not need necessarily to be singular. Some clients might prefer to move for awhile to music, check-in, talk, draw, or journal, and then move some more. The important thing is that the therapist be ready to move with whatever the client needs.

This is still a process which is in exploration for me, but judging from the results of my in-class experiment with it, it has great potential. The feedback was highly positive, and gave me new ideas for possible alternate directions in which to go with this. For example, the following thoughts came to the surface:

How would the process be different in a group vs. private setting? In class, there were four of us, and while I only dealt with one person at a time, the question was brought up whether the presence of other students encouraged anybody to engage in the movement as performance as opposed to process.
Sometimes the whole point of an experience does not necessarily have to be therapeutic in any direct fashion. I.e., it doesn't have to deal with specific issues or events. Sometimes the simple process of something which is extremely fun to do can be very profound in itself. Not every attempt at this exercise will yield "results," but that doesn't make the process meaningless or unimportant.
As a musician, I found it more difficult to deal with simpler and slower patterns, and sometimes had to fight the urge to make the music more complicated and sophisticated. As the therapist, I have to remind myself that it's not about what I want out of the music, but instead the authenticity of the process itself.

Later, I was also considering the notion of performance and group interactivity in such a therapeutic model. While this wouldn't be right for every client, I can see some situations in which I could practice this with a small group of people. The process would be similar to the one I described, but everybody would be in a circle, and each client would take turns "leading" the group, with the therapist responding musically to only one person at a time.

The question once again of performance arises in this situation. Would participants be more interested in performing for one another or for developing their own patterns of movement for their own purposes. The same question might be asked of the therapist: Would the participation of multiple individuals cause the therapist to worry more about coming across as a good musician than participating in a successful therapeutic process? These are important questions to be considered, along with the issues of comfort and personal space.

It was also suggested to me that this would be a good process for children to experience. While I have very little experience with children, and no expertise whatsoever with them, I do believe that the circle with group leaders might be of great value to adolescents. Quite possibly, at an earlier stage of development is where they could gain a great deal of benefit from the process, since not all neural pathways have yet fully developed in children, thus allowing them experiences which could teach them a great deal when they are most ready to be receptive to it.

For me, this process was extremely meaningful. I think maybe I am so personally motivated to do this sort of therapy because the experience of understanding and manipulating music over the years has helped me through so many aspects of my life, to the point where I can no longer conceive of it not being a part of me. If I can give just a taste of how that feels to my clients, I think it is among the most valuable of gifts imaginable. My hope is that by allowing myself to hand control of my own music to others, they will be able to understand the sheer joy of the experience.

References

Cordes, H. (1997) The power of voice: how to tune into life by freeing the song within. Utne Reader, n84, p. 78.
Hein, M., Best, L., Pattison, S & Arena, S. (1992) College chemistry: An introduction to general, organic and biochemistry.
Hoffman, J. (1997) Tuning in to the power of music. (use of music in medical care) RN, n6 p52(3)
Levy, F. Dance/Movement Therapy.
Sammon, James T. (1997) March music. (physician participates in swing band). JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, n10 p816(1)