An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

chooses the music, the choice has to be also within the comfort zone of the therapist. Inother words the music cannot be irritating, depressing or reflect negative emotions inthe therapist. The therapist should aim to promote calm and positive emotions in theclient. If the therapist is comfortable, it is more likely that the client will be comfortablewith the selected music.There are CDs of recorded music for healing to accompany various healing treatmentsand music to accompany what is seen as the revival of ancient healing methods that arebecoming accepted in today‟s climate of increased stress from busy lifestyles wherepeople crave and need more time for peace and tranquillity. There is music to promotetranquillity, harmonious living, inner peace and better concentration as well as bettersleep and relaxation. Appropriate recorded music is sometimes used for healingservices in the URC when the organist or pianist is unavailable.Music therapy works for clients in different ways, iIn the same way as each individualresponds to a particular type of medicine or foods in a different way. Some of the waysthat music works for clients are listed by Priestley (1975): assisting the client withcommunication difficulties to improve their communication; changing the environmentso that the focus is not on the illness and the client can enjoy an environment thattranscends his present world; helping the client who is out of touch with reality to getback in touch with reality. In some cases the client cannot say what or how musicworks; he just knows that it works. Priestley further explains that it is only in the pastdecade that music has been officially accepted in this country as an ancillary medicalservice. He argues that music therapy harmoniously integrates the ego, super-ego and idof Freud‟s conceptual model of the psyche. Priestley and the pop psychologist295