may also be used to punctuate and emphasize points in teaching a variety of materials. For instance, song lyrics provide students with a way to relate course material to their lives, “which helps to facilitate higher retention and comprehension of material” (Louden-Gerber & Duffey, 2008, p. 322). Thus, in learning about Enneatypes (a model of personality types), a student with Enneatype 3 (achievement) may come up with the theme song “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better).” Likewise, in an abnormal psychology course or a mental health center, song lyrics may highlight important concepts and provide concrete examples. Think, for example, of Don McLean’s song “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)” about the life of Vincent van Gogh and how the melody and words of this work depict the difficulties of mental instability. In a similar fashion, the lyrics of Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen” portray some of the transitions adolescents experience in forming their identities and establishing romantic relationships. The possibilities of using music as a background to understand thoughts and emotions throughout the life span and in different cultures are limited only by the imagination of instructors and their knowledge of different types of music.
Supervision may also be enhanced through bringing music into the process (Pearson, 2002). For example, counseling students could listen to music outside of class that demonstrates certain concepts or bring into class music with or without lyrics that elicits specific emotions or ideas the instructor wants conveyed. For example, Jewel’s “Pieces of You” is a powerful representation of hatred and fear associated with prejudice. Likewise, Dar Williams’s “When I Was a Boy” portrays the process of gender role socialization and the losses involved for women and men. It fits well into discussions of social and gender identity development and how that plays into difficulties people may have that could bring them into therapy. The point is that music can enhance supervision by helping sensitize supervisees to messages being sent through music that are a part of popular culture and that may promote health or pathology.
Music in Counseling With Other Creative Arts
The ease with which music may be used in conjunction with textual or visual information contributes to its value as a highly flexible therapeutic medium (Gfeller, 2002a). Thus, music may be used with a number of creative arts to produce an effect it could not have alone. For instance, familiar sedative music plus imagery is more effective at reducing state anxiety among college students than just music alone (L. A. Russell, 1992). Music therapists may also consider using social learning theory as a conceptual framework with existing research concerning social skills and communication when working with bullies and victims of bullying (Shafer & Silverman, 2013). In counseling, music is often connected with the creative arts of poetry, movement and dance, play, autobiography and storytelling, and film (e.g., LeLieuvre, 1998; C. B. Williams et al., 1999).
Creative Reflection
Think of your life as a musical. Then make a musical autobiography reflecting the highs and lows of your existence. Include at least six songs. What memories are evoked from writing down and listening to this music? What song titles would you want to create to represent the next 10 years of your life?
Music and Poetry
Poetic lyrics add to the rhythm message of music, although their impact varies (A. White, 1985). Lyrics often extend an understanding of what is important in clients’ lives (C. O’Callaghan & Grocke, 2009). For example, adolescents are often influenced by the lyrics of rock songs. Such lyrics are detrimental when they are sexually explicit, violent, or exploitive in nature (Edwards & Mullis, 2001; L. Ray et al., 1988). However, lyrics and music may be combined in a prosocial way, such as those by popular music artists like Whitney Houston and her song “The Greatest Love of All,” Don Henley and “Heart of the Matter,” or Bette Midler and “From a Distance.” Likewise, country performers such as Matraca Berg and Clint Black sing about growth through pain and convey a positive view of change in such songs as “I Must Have Been Crazy” and “Walkin’ Away.” These works sensitize listeners to words that promote the best within and between persons. They provide “a nonthreatening device to stimulate . . . interaction” (Mazza, 1986, p. 297). It is important that counselors who use music with lyrics listen carefully to the words as well as the melody of songs before advocating that clients try using the recordings therapeutically.
When music and lyrics are packaged together, the way they are expected to be handled therapeutically should be made clear. For example, an inspirational tape, such as Nancy Day’s (1989) Survivor, which focuses on surviving and recovering from sexual abuse, may be one that counselors want clients to hear at specific times of the day when they are likely to feel discouraged or depressed. Likewise, If You Believe in You, an audiotape by Dan Conley (1994), which describes the mixture of feelings derived from divorce, contains materials that should be used selectively. By prescribing music in this manner, counselors increase the chances of clients being influenced therapeutically. The developmental stages of people and families along with gender, ethnicity, age, and roles must be considered in the process. Some music and lyrics are more appropriate for certain populations at specific times in their lives.
Music and Movement and Dance
Movement and dance and music complement each other. The action involved in moving to music, whether formal or informal, allows clients the freedom to express themselves in a way not possible in stillness or silence. The awareness that follows can help individuals realize they are exerting themselves in ways they might never have imagined. The beat of the music makes such expression possible. Once clients have chosen new creative actions or danced in a set pattern, their awareness of self is never the same again. In a study jointly using music therapy and dance movement therapy with severely affected autistic adults, researchers found that treatment positively affected selective behaviors, emotions, and interpersonal interactions (Mateos-Moreno & Atencia-Doña, 2013). In other words, the combination of music and movement made a difference.
A healthy integration of sacred and secular music in fostering positive outcomes can be found today in the musical combinations of those who perform the blues and performers of religious music. Many blues performers have made this type of music their orientation to life after struggling to perform in the confines of churches. Their satisfaction with this arrangement has generally proved beneficial to them as well as to their audiences. They often move as they play, and their audiences sway in time with the beat of their sound, thus combining music, movement, and, at times, dance.
Music and Play
Music is used in play in a number of ways but primarily to set a tone or mood for an activity. One of the more integrative ways of fusing music and play together is through music play therapy (J. J. Moreno, 1985). In this approach, just as in play therapy, a nondirective orienta tion is taken, but the playroom is supplied with musical instruments instead of toys and traditional play therapy materials. Children with whom this approach is tried gradually become tired of randomly playing instruments and commit themselves to playing a tune either by themselves or with the counselor. In so doing, these children establish a structure to which they become committed. This active setup can be manipulated for the overall benefit of the children.
Another way music and play may be combined is through improvised musical play, an intervention technique that uses improvised music and lyrics to encourage social play among developmentally delayed and nondelayed children in mainstream settings (Gunsberg, 1988). In such situations, teachers make up simple songs using familiar tunes to describe what is occurring with the children, such as “Everyone is clapping their hands and being active.” This encourages continuous interaction of the children and sustains “social play episodes lasting more than three times the expected duration”
