Podcast: Demystifying Music Therapy
Uncovering the hidden mental health benefits of listening to and playing music.
Podcast by Thomas Hughes
Join Klipsun Magazine staff writer Thomas Hughes as he dives into the world of music therapy with music therapist Logan Brichta on Klipsun Out Loud. This is a podcast series from Western Washington University’s award winning student magazine Klipsun. This edition’s theme is joy.
Click here to read Thomas’ article that inspired this podcast.
Transcript
Thomas Hughes:
Welcome Klipsun Out Loud, Podcasts from Western Washington University’s award winning student magazine Klipsun. This edition’s theme is joy. I’m your host, Thomas Hughes, and today’s theme is music therapy. In this episode, I will be interviewing Logan Britcha, a certified music therapist of about three years. He graduated from California State University’s music therapy program, and interned with Silverado memory care who also have a location in Bellingham. So we know how you got to Washington. But how did you get into music therapy?
Logan Brichta:
I’ve been playing music most of my life; I started playing classical violin, when I was seven, I started taking lessons. I also played a lot of guitar, growing up, in garage bands and stuff. I initially wanted to pursue a career in nursing. And I found myself finding out about music therapy, where it kind of combines the altruism of a medical profession with the joy of music.
Thomas:
How would you define music therapy?
Logan:
So a super simple answer, like a quick elevator answer for that would be that music therapy is using music to reach non-musical goals. If I was to elaborate a little bit more and give a fuller definition, it would be that music therapy is an evidence based approach, wherein a board certified music therapist guides a client through music experiences, to help that client reach non-musical goals. And this is all within the context of a therapeutic relationship; a relationship that’s rooted in the therapist and the client. I know you wanted to ask, what kind of music do I use in a session. And it’s whatever it is, it’s the clients preferred music, whether that be ambient music to heavy music to what I’ve experienced is like Vietnamese pop music or, or jazz standards, that really early exposure to music, what they’re going to hear, so like folk songs and jazz standards, old songs, patriotic songs, those are the ones that I know really well and I use with a lot of alzheimers and dementia patients.
Thomas:
How would you compare music therapy to talk therapy,
Logan:
Music itself is very familiar and safe and if you relate to a client through their music, they’re more willing to be open about different things. It’s this thing, this inherent thing that that you can follow, its a structure of time. So within music experiences, you can explore so many different things like you can move to the music, you can listen to music, you can compose new music, you can improvise music. So through these avenues, you’re able to achieve a lot of things that maybe you couldn’t through talk therapy,
Thomas:
And what are the best effects of music therapy that you’ve seen in your clients?
Logan:
I can think of one client where as the therapist, I was able to build a lot of trust, and that clients reason for referral was for memory concerns like short term memory, but what I found out is that she also had a lot of anxiety and a lot of things that she’d been holding on to. So through a songwriting process, she was able to explore these thoughts she was having, and also remind herself because she she has short term memory so within the song, she’s able to remind herself and affirm herself of her beliefs and that confidence that she needs.
Thomas:
Personally, one of the main musical activities that helps me with anxiety is singing. Do you sing with your clients?
Logan:
Absolutely. One of the primary approaches to Alzheimer’s and dementia groups is sing along and singing together as one where you find that you’re, you’re not alone and you’re part of a bigger sound, right, you’re singing together. Also, it gives you an opportunity to look someone else in the eyes and make a social connection, connecting over something as beautiful and as relatable as music. I mean, I’m sure you know, like meeting someone that you have the same musical taste as; its just like immediately, there’s this huge, huge connection that develops. And that’s not to like discount all of the physical benefits of singing like with breath. And yeah, just with regulating your breath, your heart rate.
Thomas:
How does rhythm play into music therapy?
Logan:
The great thing about rhythm is music therapists use this thing known as rhythmic entrainment, which is using a rhythm to entrain any part of the human condition. You can train the breath to a rhythm and whatever if the rhythm changes a little bit, the breath will follow that it’s a really interesting phenomenon within the human body. So breath, heart rate as well. You can lower, you can match a heart rate and lower it with rhythm. I would never go into music therapy session if the client has depression and go in there and say “put on a happy face” and just start playing you know, really happy music because one of the primary principles of music therapy is called the ISO principle meaning you meet the client, wherever they’re at, whatever mood they’re at. So if they’re like in a really dark kind of somber place; really slow, quiet, depressed, you know, you could match that with the music. And through training, bring them kind of capture them and in bring them to this place of light, and, you know, more normal, normalize their mood or reorient them a certain way, they’ve all been into that too, and use their strengths, to, you know, their benefit.
Thomas:
This leads us to the interactive portion of this podcast, if you want, you can follow along with the activities we’re about to perform, or you can replicate them with a friend.
Am I your patient now?
Logan:
I guess you are my client! And everyone at home is also my client, you’d like to join along. So what I would first do in a session would say, I bring in some instruments, I usually use pitched and unpitched percussion instruments, because they’re just very easy to get into. You don’t have to worry about fretting any notes, you don’t need to worry about the black and white keys on the piano. So I’ve got a selection of different instruments here in front of us, if you’d like just pick any instrument that calls to you, Thomas. So what I’ll do is I’ll pick an instrument with you. And I would do this in sessions with clients at the beginning to introduce each other is to play the syllables in our name. So if I was introducing myself as Logan Brichta that I can go -plays music- or I can go -plays different music-
Thomas:
That’s a nice little Latin jam right there!
Logan:
Yeah, here, play my name with me. -Plays music-
Thomas:
Cool! Oh, I love that.
Logan:
So you just learned my name, we’re interacting musically. Let’s let’s hear your name.
Thomas:
My name is -Thomas Hughes in music-
Logan:
So there’s different ways you can play and say our names. But now I just learned your name. We just started interacting musically with each other. And we related because I just played your name on my instrument, you know. Well, let’s take it a step further and kind of get more into the music and a little bit of improvising, where you’re making something up right in the moment. So what we’ll do is join me on a basic beat. We’ll trade off and have a conversation just like we would in real life.
Thomas:
Okay.
Logan:
I will play I’ll play four beats worth of music, and then it’s your turn. Okay?
Thomas:
Okay!
Logan:
And we’ll just keep going back and forth so I’ll take four. Your turn! My turn! Your turn! My turn! Yea! -Music ensues-
Nice job, Thomas, nice! And the beauty in music therapy and in music too is the second of silence right after the music’s over right? Where all these thoughts are coming in, right?
Thomas:
It is! And especially especially when you’re in tune enough to the point where you know when to stop together. I love that feeling so much, like my favorite part about playing music, honestly.
Logan:
Isn’t that kind of ironic, that the best part about music is when it ends? But you’re right, we kind of came together and we had to be so in tune with each other to end at the same time.
Thomas:
Yeah, and I mean, for the people watching at home, we’ve never played music together before, and we, you know, we just knew when to stop together. It’s beautiful.
Logan:
It just took a little bit of structure, and then a little bit of structure provides so much room for exploration. I just had four beats you had four beats, but we were able to communicate with each other and did you, what did you notice about our musical conversation?
Thomas:
Especially in the beginning there were there were parts where my rhythms were inspired by your rhythms. I feel like we almost like diversified our musical portfolio as we went on. It felt complete in that way. It felt rich.
Logan:
Rich, right? And you’re right. You were maybe we were talking some ideas or highlighting. It’s like a way of giving a compliment. Or conversing. Just like in a talking conversation, how you might say “Oh, I noticed you said this. This is what I have to say about that.”
Thomas:
“I’ll say back but a little different, or complement it with this new idea that you made me think of!”
Logan:
Exactly. And so in therein, you know, music is a great way to explore socialization and in turn-taking and conversation, some people just barrel right on through and start talking. -Purposefully interupts- And there are musicians that are like that, right? They just keep playing.
Thomas:
That is true. They take up a lot of bandwidth.
So my final question is: Is music therapy for everyone?
Logan:
I’d say most everyone can benefit from music therapy. Music therapists might work with everyone from just the general population to babies. Like I mentioned earlier, like working with babies to the end of life hospice care. Someone who’s in the last weeks of their life, they can really gain a lot through exploring music therapy. You know, even people who are deaf can benefit from music therapy because you can still feel vibration through the vibration of the music and rhythm, and all of that those ideas of entrainment still work. So I think music therapy, I think everyone can get something out of music therapy.
Thomas:
That’s all for this edition of Klipsun Out Loud, podcasts from Western Washington University’s student magazine, Klipsun. The background music for this podcast was improvised by Logan and I before I interviewed him. I hope you were able to make some music of your own. Thank you for listening.