Music Therapy for children, young people and adults.
Music Therapy for children, young people and adults
Throw Me A Line
The Power of Pop Music in a Music Therapy Setting with Adolescents
Any music therapist working with teenagers will know that requests to sing repertoire songs can rapidly become an installation and ritualistic part of their weekly sessions. Katrina McFerran says that “It means a great deal to teenagers when the music therapist arrives to the next session with the requested song in hand. This communicates a genuine and enduring interest and commitment to the therapeutic relationship.”*
Familiar song can be imbued with the same extraordinary power as a football chant, lullaby or hymn and provide enormous opportunities for unprecedented connectedness. Used as a sort of safe, personal and accessible touchstone, a young person may draw heavily on a pre-composed song as a way to begin to acknowledge, process and explore their feelings in a safe and successful manner.
It may be the lyrics or sentiment which attracts, reflects or resonates; the artist who is much admired, the melodic shape, the genre or style but most significantly, it is the song itself which is permanently tethered to a key moment in their lives. Just one line can invoke an overwhelmed response involving tears, smiles and forgotten emotional associations followed by long reflective silences.
In her book, ‘Using Music in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy’, Lauren Beer says “Often adolescents with social, communicative or emotional problems have difficulty controlling and understanding their reactions to sharply contrasting music.” So it makes a lot of sense to take the cue from a teen who fills a music therapy session with predictable, reliable and memorable pre-composed songs, “helping them to become more comfortable with changes in music that can have a positive reverberation in other aspects of their lives.”**
Qualifying back in 1999, “My Heart Will Go On” was one of my first introductions to the idea of ‘anthem anchoring’ and the potential for a song to carry inherent messages which could be owned and adopted by the client. Several young people with a wide range of issues and life circumstances, not least the fact that they were all in care, wanted to begin and end with James Cameron’s hugely successful iconic refrain:
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on
Along with other existing songs, Titanic’s tunes frequently played a substantial role in music sessions up until around 2010. We would immerse ourselves in verse after verse, singing both in duets, turn-taking and solos. Somehow, in those early days of working with teenagers, channeling Celine offered a way of finding collective unity, an instant insight into the young person's troubled life, new psychodynamic observations, the opportunity to facilitate verbal reflections, improve awareness of emotions and embrace the ensuing silence after the final chords.
In these moments, “My Heart Will Go On” was no long inextricably linked to the film. These teenagers had become skilled at associating and assigning their own personal meaning to the lyrics in order to enhance and begin to process their emotional experiences.
Ubiquitous hits such as “Someone Like You”, “All of Me” and “Stay with Me” have all permeated client sessions throughout the years helping the young person to reflect on their life and share their story.
Music therapy methods, however, are always most successful when they are adapted to the client’s strengths and needs. So, when pre-composed song evolves into improvised work, then magical music therapy miracles can truly happen! Improvisation is unparalleled in its ability to provide opportunities for creative expression; to change a teen’s negative self-constructs towards positive “I can” attitudes; to offer them greater sense of control in their chaotic lives and unique chances to test out and successfully hone new competencies, abilities and skills.
Omnipresent pop songs will come and go, but if an adolescent chooses to sing their anthem aloud in music therapy, then both client and therapist can linger on the positive notes of hope, connection, emotional expression and growth.
* Mcferran, K. and Ebrary, I. (2010). Adolescents, music and music therapy : methods and techniques for clinicians, educators and students. London ; Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
** Beer, L. E., & Birnbaum, J. C. (2019). Using music in child and adolescent psychotherapy. The Guilford Press
