Guided Imagery & Music (GIM) and Music Imagery Methods for Individual and Group Therapy

Denise Grocke, Torben Moe

• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780857008770
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

This is the first book to systematically describe the range of approaches used in music imagery and Guided Imagery and Music across the lifespan, from young children through to palliative care with older people.

Covering a broad spectrum of client populations and settings, international contributors present various adaptations of the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery to accommodate factors such as time restraints, context (including hospitals, schools, and the wider community), client symptomology, and the increasing use of more contemporary music. Each chapter presents a different model and includes background information on the client group, the type of approach, elements of approach (including length of the session, choice of music, verbal interventions during the music, and discussion of the experience), and theoretical orientation and intention. A nomenclature for the range of approaches is also included.

This information will be a valued guide for both practitioners and students of Guided Imagery and Music and receptive methods of music therapy.

PART 1

Music Imagery and Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) with Children and Young People (Individual and Group Work)

CHAPTER 1

Guided Imagery and Music with Children

Exploration of Loss from a Young Age

Mary Reher

This adaptation of the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) is used with children. It occurs within the context of individual music therapy sessions, which encompass a variety of activities and interventions. The GIM activity has no strongly defined name, but is referred to casually as ‘guided imagery and music’, ‘relaxation and listening’ or ‘music and imagery’.

Context

As a contract music therapist in a school district, I am part of the Student Learning Services team, which seeks to address the needs of students with a variety of conditions, issues or learning challenges. The music therapy service is accessed through referral by teachers or other professionals working within the district.

Sessions are usually 30 minutes in length and children receive about 12 weeks of music therapy in the school year. Most of the time, they are seen individually. If I believe GIM could be useful for a child, I include it in our sessions about every second week. The rest of the time is spent engaged in other music therapy activities.

In a music therapy session in this context, the therapeutic intention is to assist the child toward the acquisition of goals and objectives set out by the team, comprising the school-based team chair, occupational therapist, speech-language pathologist and psychologist, among others. Frequently, however, there are deeper issues or circumstances underlying a child’s exhibited learning or behavioral challenges, and these form a large part of what I address in our sessions. In all cases, I seek to put the children in touch with a deeper part of themselves, helping them to recognize and acknowledge their strengths and unique qualities. After all, it is possible they may struggle their whole lives with whatever their challenges are, be it learning disability, fetal alcohol syndrome, attention deficit disorder or autism, to name a few. I want each of them to understand the basic goodness that lies at their core, and to start the journey of learning to appreciate and love themselves.

Those of us who work with adults will appreciate that many of the issues people grapple with in later years are sourced in an incident or circumstance from childhood. Children are frequently ignored at the time of a crisis, or glossed over, as they may appear to be fine and often there is no surplus adult attention or energy available to assist them. GIM can be a potent tool for helping them begin to process and learn to navigate life events at the very time these things are occurring. My hope is that these early experiences in processing trauma or loss, or social or identity issues, will give skills and plant seeds for dealing with upheavals at any stage in their future.

Theoretical orientation

In my sessions with children, I draw upon a variety of theoretical orientations such as Humanist, Spiritual/Transpersonal, Cognitive or Jungian, to name a few. It depends entirely on the character of the child, the nature of his/her challenges, how our relationship unfolds and what I think will best serve the child. The ability to offer myself with full presence and listening attention, informed and honed by an ongoing personal meditation practice, is a paramount underlying feature as I interact with a child.

Differing from traditional GIM in several ways, all elements of this approach are shortened because of the brevity of the session. The pre-talk and induction are similar to typical GIM. Sometimes I create an induction and focus specifically for working on an issue or circumstance (such as bereavement). Although working in such a ‘leading’ manner is counter to the traditional teaching of GIM, it can help to make sessions of short duration more effective and efficient in generating and processing the material.

Music choice

The music for this adapted form is usually around 2–4 minutes. Most children respond and are able to have potent imagery experiences while listening to specially selected classical music. Its aesthetic matrix, coupled with my own therapeutic intention, help to make it a primary music choice.

Other music choices may also be made to suit the situation or intention for a specific session: New Age or relaxation music, First Nations music, or live improvisation. The latter offers a very personal, from-the-heart connection for the child to receive, and may be used more frequently in assessment or when there has been a loss. Depending on the unique characteristics of the child and how the series is evolving, it is sometimes appropriate to also include the child/youth in the creation of the music, by recording an improvisation and then listening to it in a relaxed state. An example of this is offered toward the end of the case study.

Unlike the typical GIM approach, there is no guiding during the music listening. When the music is finished, the child is verbally assisted to return from his/her journey. He/she is then invited to draw a color/shape expression of his/her journey. In this GIM adaptation, the music re-plays as the child creates the picture, which helps to facilitate sensory recall of images from the earlier music listening.

Elements of guiding occur after the drawing is complete, when we discuss and inquire about the child’s images and picture. At this time, the student gives a title to his/her drawing and GIM journey. Occasionally, an additional strategy for processing the material over subsequent sessions is implemented, using musical improvisation. This is not typical of all the children with whom I work, but was a very effective choice for the student in the following case study.

Case study: Kate

Kate started music therapy when she was in grade 5, at the age of 10. The referral, initiated by the psychologist, stated that Kate was unable to focus, and had been having educational struggles and extra support since kindergarten. Knowing that attention deficit disorder symptoms can mimic aspects of post-traumatic stress syndrome (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), she wondered if emotional issues and unresolved loss could be at the root of Kate’s learning problems. During the course of our sessions, we addressed issues of unresolved loss and grief, self-concept and strengthening of family.

As mentioned above, my theoretical orientation is a broadly based foundation that can include a number of diverse elements. The predominant orientations used with this child were Humanist, Spiritual/Transpersonal and Cognitive. Looking more deeply than the concentration and academic challenges which prompted her referral, the process of her therapy grew from a Spiritual and Humanist place of knowing that each child has his/her own inner direction and inner knowing that will lead him/her toward a greater state of health and balance. Through listening and being in presence, guidance for the most effective interventions and next steps evolved for each of us.

I discovered that just before her Kindergarten year, Kate’s father had become ill. His condition worsened quickly and unexpectedly. He had lapsed into a coma, and emerged with permanent brain damage. This changed Kate’s father forever. He had to go into a care home in a nearby city.

Goals

As I began work with Kate and started to know her, I asked myself, ‘How can I get at her emotions? Where are they hidden? How can they be accessed?’ Our sessions fell into a pattern. In one session Kate would have a GIM-type experience, followed by drawing and conversation to process the imagery. The next session would be spent further processing the imagery and picture from the week before. Musical improvisation was used, with Kate choosing specific instruments for each image as a direct expression of the picture she had drawn. Sometimes we actually put the picture in front of us and read it like a sheet of music. She chose the instruments carefully and played them with great awareness.

Kate herself brought up the topic of her dad in our second session, through a series of associations triggered by us playing on the piano together. Later, I sought out the principal/school-based team chair to tell her about it. She explained that Kate actually discusses her dad matter-of-factly, but never her emotional state around it. I wondered, once again, how to get at the emotions. I considered it my mission to attempt to assist Kate in diving below the surface.

There were four sessions in year one, and a further four in year two.

SESSION 1

Induction – Tighten/release

Focus Image – Little girl playing on a beach

Music – Debussy: Girl with the flaxen hair (2:56)

Session Title – ‘Journey to the Center of the Spirit’ (title given by Kate for the mandala)

Kate fought to keep her eyes open the whole time, despite periodic reminders to fully relax. She had an amazing journey and created a beautiful picture (the mandala in Plate 1.1), which showed a small figure of a girl lying down and another one close by, in an animated stance, wearing ballet attire. Between the two figures were swirling curvy lines of blue and light green, which she later indicated were the Spirit. Kate described her picture as follows: ‘I’m lying as a little girl. The Spirit comes out of me and creates another girl, and starts dancing – while the music is playing.’ I asked Kate, ‘How did that feel?’ She said, ‘I feel excited, that a new person was created!’

In the following week’s processing session, Kate likened the contrast in her improvisation between high and low black piano keys to the Spirit in her journey. Then she said, ‘The high pitch [multi-tone wooden instrument] was the new person rising out of her [the old figure that was lying down]…and the low drum pitch was that new person dancing… The alternating dynamics [loud and soft] were the flowing of Spirit.’ Kate reflected that improvisation is like another form of communication. ‘Things can come out you d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsement
• Half Title
• Of Related Interest
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of colour plates
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1 Music Imagery and Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) with Children and Young People (Individual and Group Work)
• Part 2 Music Imagery and Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) with Adults (Individual Therapy)
• Part 3 Music Imagery and Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) with Adults (Group Work)
• Part 4 New Music Programs
• Part 5 Training
• Compilation of Music Selections Cited in Chapters 1–24
• The Contributors
• Subject Index
• Author Index
• Also available