Music is My Whole Life - World Federation of Music Therapy

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Horesh, T. (2006) “Music is My Whole Life” - The many meanings of music in addicts’ lives. Music Therapy Today (Online) Vol.VII (2) 291-317. available at http://musictherapyworld.net lyrics and music evoke feelings of melancholy and despair. All music that I personally wasn’t acquainted with, and truthfully – at that time – wasn’t very interested to be acquainted with. I also felt that their music listening was a very passive activity, something that connected to the pas- sivity of drug using. It wasn’t something I wished to introduce to the music therapy groups. I felt it was more appropriate to enable opportunities for creative music making – singing and instrumental improvisation, vocal work – activities which could awaken hidden strengths, enhance body-emotion connec- tion, non-verbal expression and social interactions. I felt that the groups were beneficial for my clients, and preferred to “let sleeping lions lie” – as it later turned out. A chance conversation with a small group of clients – changed every- thing. To my supposedly naive question: what kinds of music do they like to listen to, they each spoke about music-related relapses – returning to drug use after periods of abstinence, or increased use , which they related to the specific music they listened to. One of the women characterised the music of her favorite rock band as “dangerous music”. I felt that this conversation was a turning point, almost an initiation into a secluded group that held important information, unrevealed until now. My clients also felt that this was a special moment, and expressed relief that some- one was interested in this acute problem, which had never been addressed in therapy programs they had attended in the past. This conversation began a process which started with my delving into the different genres of music, the very ones I had tried to avoid. I began listening to heavy metal, Russian rock and criminal songs, trance and elec- tronic music, Israeli Mediterreanean songs – much to the joy and consternation of my own teenagers, who, together with their music Experiences with clients and my step into research 302
Horesh, T. (2006) “Music is My Whole Life” - The many meanings of music in addicts’ lives. Music Therapy Today (Online) Vol.VII (2) 291-317. available at http://musictherapyworld.net minded friends, immediately stepped in to help. My interest in ethnomu- sicology was rekindled upon discovering that popular music of all kinds is researched by this field. I discovered fascinating musical, cultural, his- torical and personal realms that were new to me. The process continued with my introducing the subject to the music therapy groups. My first impressions were that while some of my clients enjoyed listening to their music in the groups and saw it as a pleasant pastime, others presented their relationship with music as one of their life obsessions, and spoke about it with the same passion or embarrassment usually used when speaking about their drug use. Choosing methodology This was my incentive to research – I myself began to feel overwhelmed by the many faceted meanings of music that I was beginning to detect in my clients lives. I was driven to understand the many different forces I felt were lurking behind this phenomena. I decided to conduct formal research, as a M.A. research student in the Hebrew University, in order to understand the many meanings music has in the lives of drug addicts. After deciding upon qualitative research, with analysis of narrative inter- views, I thought it would be interesting to interview addicts I didn’t personally know. So I phoned all the social workers I knew who worked in the field, hoping for referrals. I told them I was looking for those clients who had a passion for music. Not one social worker could think of any appropriate clients, apart from one who had played in a band… I began to think that maybe the whole idea was in my imagination. I knew that my clients could be manipulative and compliant – were these stories of the music in their lives something they told me to fulfill my Choosing methodology 303
Page 1 and 2: Music Therapy Today Vol. VII (2) (J
Page 3 and 4: Horesh, T. (2006) “Music is My Wh
Page 5: Horesh, T. (2006) “Music is My Wh
Page 21: Horesh, T. (2006) “Music is My Wh

Music is My Whole Life - World Federation of Music Therapy

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?