23.7. 1993 Vitoria-Gasteiz / Spain - World Federation of Music Therapy

Modalities - creativity
Alternative modalities, such as music, art and poetry,
offer new or complementary possibilities of expression
and communication. This fact is a strong incentive to
use music- and other creative therapy forms in cancer
care.
The possibilities of non-verbal expression stimulates
creativity - the process to make, to create, to shape, to
give existence.
The creative process supports what I like to call "the
inner motion of life" and usually leads to encountering
something new; a picture, a symbol, a feeling, an idea or
a vision.
Energetically trying out ways to meet the therapeutic
needs of the patients, I realized that creating does not
always imply creating something new. It may be far
more important to re-create. Maybe all creating is recreating,
in a sense? A re-creating of the self?
563
A person who is fully occupied in managing to live
through the next half hour, cannot afford energy to
create anything new. Instead, she fights to pull together
whatever strength is left, focusing on the most essential.
Recreating, remembering or recalling the richness of
her own self.
Literature offering numerous examples, I still want to
share an episode to illustrate my ideas;
Case 1- Iris
Her dark skin contrasting the white bed linen, her hair
left with only a stubble and her body is as frail as that of
a young bird. Sparkling eyes and a heartwarm smile.
She is beautiful. Her room is filled with an atmosphere of
vital forces.