Stress is increasingly being recognized as one of the main factors that is negatively affecting our health, and therefore there is a need to regulate daily stress and prevent long-term stress. This need seems particularly important for adults with mild intellectual disabilities (MID) who have been shown to have more difficulties coping with stress than adults without intellectual disabilities. Hence, the development of music therapy interventions for stress reduction, particularly within populations where needs may be greater, is becoming increasingly important. In order to gain more insight into the practice-based knowledge on how music therapists lower stress levels of their patients with MID during music therapy sessions, we conducted focus group interviews with music therapists working with adults with MID (N = 13) from different countries and clinical institutions in Europe. Results provide an overview of the most-used interventions for stress reduction within and outside of music. Data-analysis resulted in the further specification of therapeutic goals, intervention techniques, the use of musical instruments, and related therapeutic change factors. The main findings indicate that music therapists used little to no receptive (e.g., music listening) interventions for stress reduction, but preferred to use active interventions, which were mainly based on musical improvisation. Results show that three therapy goals for stress relief could be distinguished. The goal of “synchronizing” can be seen as a sub goal because it often precedes working on the other two goals of “tension release” or “direct relaxation,” which can also be seen as two ways of reaching stress reduction in adults with MID through music therapy interventions. Furthermore, the tempo and the dynamics of the music are considered as the most important musical components to reduce stress in adults with MID. Practical implications for stress-reducing music therapy interventions for adults with MID are discussed as well as recommendations for future research.
Depression is a highly prevalent and seriously impairing disorder. Evidence suggests that music therapy can decrease depression, though the music therapy that is offered is often not clearly described in studies. The purpose of this study was to develop an improvisational music therapy intervention based on insights from theory, evidence and clinical practice for young adults with depressive symptoms. The Intervention Mapping method was used and resulted in (1) a model to explain how emotion dysregulation may affect depressive symptoms using the Component Process Model (CPM) as a theoretical framework; (2) a model to clarify as to how improvisational music therapy may change depressive symptoms using synchronisation and emotional resonance; (3) a prototype Emotion-regulating Improvisational Music Therapy for Preventing Depressive symptoms (EIMT-PD); (4) a ten-session improvisational music therapy manual aimed at improving emotion regulation and reducing depressive symptoms; (5) a program implementation plan; and (6) a summary of a multiple baseline study protocol to evaluate the effectiveness and principles of EIMT-PD. EIMT-PD, using synchronisation and emotional resonance may be a promising music therapy to improve emotion regulation and, in line with our expectations, reduce depressive symptoms. More research is needed to assess its effectiveness and principles.
Using fMRI, cerebral activations were studied in 24 classically-trained keyboard performers and 12 musically unskilled control subjects. Two groups of musicians were recruited: improvising (n=12) and score-dependent (non-improvising) musicians (n=12). While listening to both familiar and unfamiliar music, subjects either (covertly) appraised the presented music performance or imagined they were playing the music themselves. We hypothesized that improvising musicians would exhibit enhanced efficiency of audiomotor transformation reflected by stronger ventral premotor activation. Statistical Parametric Mapping revealed that, while virtually 'playing along' with the music, improvising musicians exhibited activation of a right-hemisphere distribution of cerebral areas including posterior-superior parietal and dorsal premotor cortex. Involvement of these right-hemisphere dorsal stream areas suggests that improvising musicians recruited an amodal spatial processing system subserving pitch-to-space transformations to facilitate their virtual motor performance. Score-dependent musicians recruited a primarily left-hemisphere pattern of motor areas together with the posterior part of the right superior temporal sulcus, suggesting a relationship between aural discrimination and symbolic representation. Activations in bilateral auditory cortex were significantly larger for improvising musicians than for score-dependent musicians, suggesting enhanced top-down effects on aural perception. Our results suggest that learning to play a music instrument primarily from notation predisposes musicians toward aural identification and discrimination, while learning by improvisation involves audio-spatial-motor transformations, not only during performance, but also perception.
expressiveness, performance, musicians, skills, educationUsing the genre of Improvisational theatre as a basis, my research aims to design and develop instructional strategies that would help students enhance their expressive skills and achieve the flexibility to adapt their motor behavior to the musical piece. Embodying diverse characters and physicalities, as well as affective states or fictional realities through improv theatre exercises should enable them to expand their expressive range and, therefore, better convey their interpretation to their audience. Through this process, this study also seeks to gain an understanding of the effect this type of training may have on musicians' performance experience, as well as its implications in other areas of their development.
Vaak vinden middelbare scholieren het lastig te spreken in de vreemdetaalles. Ervaring leert dat dramatechnieken (bijvoorbeeld rollenspellen) hierbij kunnen helpen. We ontwikkelen een training voor vreemdetaaldocenten waarin ze leren om dramatechnieken in hun lessen te gebruiken.Doel We ontwerpen een training om docenten moderne vreemde talen te laten werken met 'improvisationele dramatechnieken' (IDT), zoals rollenspellen en theatersport. Deze technieken helpen om een veilige en positieve sfeer te creëren. Hierdoor is de drempel om te spreken lager. Docenten kunnen IDT in de les gebruiken om leerlingen hun spreekvaardigheid te laten oefenen. De training in improvisatietechnieken wordt beschikbaar gesteld voor de lerarenopleidingen moderne vreemde talen. Resultaten Dit onderzoek loopt. Na afronding presenteren we hier een samenvatting van de resultaten. Looptijd 01 februari 2019 - 01 februari 2024 Aanpak Het onderzoek bestaat uit twee fasen. In deze eerste fase ontwikkelen we een training voor professionalisering van docenten. We maken hierbij gebruik van inzichten uit de wetenschappelijke literatuur en observaties in de praktijk. De training zal docenten moderne vreemde talen vaardigheden en materialen bieden die zij nodig hebben om dramatechnieken in te zetten in hun lessen. We geven de training in deze fase aan een eerste groep docenten. Op basis van een evaluatie passen we de training vervolgens aan. Deze aangepaste training bieden we in fase 2 van het onderzoek aan een tweede groep docenten aan. Catherine van Beuningen (hoofddocent Talenonderwijs en Meertaligheid, Hogeschool van Amsterdam) is als copromotor bij dit project betrokken.
Vaak vinden middelbare scholieren het lastig te spreken in de vreemdetaalles. Ervaring leert dat dramatechnieken (bijvoorbeeld rollenspellen) hierbij kunnen helpen. We ontwikkelen een training voor vreemdetaaldocenten waarin ze leren om dramatechnieken in hun lessen te gebruiken.
