Certificate
in Song Therapy
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This is a flexible
e-learning course, delivered online over ten to twelve months but you
can take up to three years to complete the course if required. You can
start the course in January, April, June or September and study at your
own pace to fit in with other commitments in your life. Our training celebrates
a truth perhaps, that the positive impact of any therapeutic intervention
is ultimately linked to the way we perceive and consider the needs of
others and indeed the needs of ourselves. It is the quality of these relationships,
with ourselves and with others, that lies at the very heart of our exploration.
A hundred years of invaluable research has established clear links between music, relaxation, good health and well being. As a result many people nowadays are turning to informal singing and music groups to help them face up to particular health challenges in their lives; social isolation, anxiety, depression, learning disability, neurological conditions including multiple sclerosis, dementia, parkinsons disease, autism, stroke and brain injury, these are all examples but there are many more. Informal
singing and music groups offer very specific therapeutic benefits to their
participants by; encouraging positive mood, social inclusion, acceptance
and self worth; bringing people together in inclusive singing and music
making groups; using music as medicine to aid verbal and physical rehabilitation
(stroke and brain injury) or to relieve and delay some symptoms of life
limiting neurological challenges such as dementia, parkinsons disease
or multiple sclerosis; using music as a language, helping communication
for those unable to indicate preference and encouraging self expression
through song writing and music improvisation; promoting physical exercise
through movement and dance; coordination and motor skills; stimulating
cognition; reminiscence; concentration and learning; music as a diversion
to rest the mind of dark thoughts or physical pain; music as recreation
to fill leisure time with enjoyable, fulfilling and creative activity
encouraging relaxation, social interaction and communication.
Very importantly our course looks at self awareness in depth, a subject that is at the heart of leadership training in all walks of life including the arts. How we think about ourselves and the world around us profoundly affects the quality of our relationships with others, including those with whom we share our music. On the same theme
we introduce developmental psychology; theories of childhood development
and the influence of survival theory; shining a light upon the effect
that the experience of lifes journey has on the way we think and
react to others; group dynamics too and why we might act differently when
working in groups. We promote the importance
of self care and the responsibility we have to look after ourselves properly
if we are ever to maximize the potential impact of our music on others. We look at the physics
of sound, harmonics and resonance and use this as a key to understanding
why certain types of music are so suited to sharing with others depending
on the health challenges they might be facing. We drift into the
world of neuroscience and the chemistry of the brain and how some of our
behaviours, feelings, and thoughts are rooted in the mystery of our minds
and the tapestry of our lifes journey. We take a brief look at emotion
theory and consider the importance of emotions as a factor in the way
we think and behave and as a possible measure of our well being. We enjoy regular gentle diversions into modern philosophy and suggest that there are some philosophical traditions that some of us might consider adopting as an ethical foundation to our work, providing us with principles that we can depend on when times get hard.
We explore person
centred thinking through the prism of rogerian theory and the person centred
counselling tradition and suggest that we can learn from their values
of empathy, positive regard, authenticity and honesty, rooted in the philosophical
traditions of humanism and the tao. Finally, given that
music is such a powerful force in peoples lives we flag some of
the potential dangers too. We establish clear distinctions between song
therapy, a recreational music intervention and the established
healthcare profession of music therapy a clinical psychological intervention.
This has important implications for the therapeutic goals that can be
responsibly pursued by trained song therapists in community and social
care settings. These are important lines that we draw at the very beginning
of our study. Indeed the whole area
of professional practice and the responsibilities we have to those with
whom we share our music is one of the corner stones of our study programme. Please note that for those who wish to register as certified song therapists, we offer an enhanced certificate option that requires the submission of video evidence of your practical work in the community. Further information on this is provided in the introduction to the first module.
www.moorvalecreativecic.org.uk
Song Therapy Course Notes and Assignments Copyright Nigel Neill 2019
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