Name: Mental Health Matters - Music in Recovery
Uploaded: 2016-07-29T09:46:27.000Z
Duration: 29 min 1 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hi, welcome to Mental Health Matters. I'm Shannon Eliot.

Future simple

Today I'll be discussing the role of music in mental health recovery with a music therapist

Michael Kessler serves as the Program Specialist at Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services.

He has practiced music therapy for more than 20 years. Michael has developed therapeutic

programs in adult acute psychiatric, geriatric, and long-term rehabilitation settings. In

his sessions, Michael uses a variety of tools including guitar, piano, drum circles, and

composition. He has a Bachelors degree in Music and a Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling.

Paulette Franklin was born and raised in the East Bay and has been singing in church since

the age of 5. For many years, she also operated her own child development center. While going

to therapy, she discovered that singing was the best wellness tool to lift her spirits

and help her get through one day at a time. Her training with Best Now and internship

at Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services are contributing to a healthier lifestyle.

Welcome, Michael, and welcome, Paulette. Thank you for joining me today.

Paulette, I know you've experienced a lot of loss. Can you tell me what led to your

>>Sure. My brother was murdered in Alaska. Someone tried to rob him and shot him in the

head. And so he passed away. And then next my mother, she had cancer of the liver, and

I took care of her months. And then of course she passed away. And then 18 months after

that my father passed away. And after that I think my mind just couldn't take any more.

And that's when all my challenges began. And I started to go get help for the challenges

>>What kind of challenges were you experiencing?

>>Mostly depression. I didn't want to talk. I didn't want to go outside. I didn't want

anybody to ask me about anything. I just wanted to be by myself.

>>So how did you discover music as a wellness tool and use it for recovery?

>>Well I have been singing since I was a child. My grandfather used to take me to churches

and make me get up and sing. He said, "Just stand there and sing. It'll be ok." [Laughs]

And I was a little nervous, but I would do it. And then just from that point on I've

been singing. I was in a group, we made an album, and different things music has been

in my life. So it wasn't until I had stopped going because after my mother passed that

I went back. And I could hear my mom telling me to sing. She said, "Just sing, Paulette."

She would love to hear me sing. And so I started singing again and I realized that's what contributed

>>So Michael, you have a background in music therapy. Can you tell me a little bit about

>>Music therapy -- the definition I like to use is art and science, using music to achieve

a non-musical goal in conjunction with a credentialed professional therapist who has gone through

training to do it. A great example of that is the ABC song, just singing a song not to

learn the song, but to learn the alphabet, so that's one thing. And I use music as you

mentioned in sing-alongs, drum circles just trying to get people focusing and working

>>Paulette, what kind of treatment options did you try when you were going through your

depression and how did those compare to music for you?

>>I've tried therapy, small groups with women who had similar things that were going on

with me, medication, and it wasn't until -- like I said earlier -- I went back to church and

started singing that I realized that event though I had to do all those things and I

was doing them, it was ok but I really wasn't feeling a lot better. And then when I would

sing, it just made me feel a lot different. And I knew that's what I needed to do.

>>Do you think the singing magnified the effects of those other things or do you think the

singing on its own is really what has gotten you to a better place today?

>>I think a combination of both, I mean of all things that have helped me. But I think

>>Michael, from a provider perspective, how effective do you think music therapy is compared

>>Music therapy is fun. It's non-threatening. It's not invasive. It's kind of a sneaky form

of treatment. You don't really know. You're having fun, having a good time. And it's much

easier, I believe, to express yourself or tell what the sound of the drum just made

than what is going on inside. It's much easier to sing someone else's words sometimes and

just understand them and go hey, that connects to me in such a way as well that I can just

talk about this other person's lyrics. And it hits home without actually having to tell

you what's going on in me and come up with it on my own. It's that way.

>>And that's a beautiful thing because even though you go to talk therapy to feel better,

there's probably a lot of anxiety just going into talk therapy because you know you're

not only going to have to explore things that are painful but then articulate them in a

way for another person to understand. And this seems so much more welcoming and non-threatening.

>>Correct. And you're going in thinking, "Ok, this guy is going to analyze me...."

>>Yeah. What's his background? What are his credentials?

>>"He's going to dig into my head." And no, let's just sit back and have a good time and

hopefully something wonderful will come out of it.

>>So walk me through a sample music therapy session. What do you do? What are the goals?

>>Ok. Usually we start off with a talk session. Sit down and do an assessment with the client,

just finding out what they're there for, what issues they want to talk about or deal with.

So come up with a really good assessment and also talking about the history. And what music

does connect with you, what music doesn't, if you are musically inclined, if you're not.

And then after that come up with a goal. Help the client identify what they want to try

to achieve. Sometimes people come in and they have no clue.

>>A sample goal might be anything from being able to get up out of bed. Just getting up

and starting the day. Or being able to talk to somebody, being able to engage, start a

conversation, just get the conversation going. Or sometimes there's music therapists -- I

haven't done it -- but work with people with physical disabilities as well. So helping

someone to start walking again and so forth. So that's what we come up with, these goals

or overall goal. Then I will go into my little bag of tricks and find a nice session plan

or develop a session plan which would have the overall goal and objectives, how we're

going to try to get there, what hurdles we might see in the process of getting there,

and hopefully there will be some hurdles that I don't expect because I kind of like working

when things don't quite work right. And then do the session. And it could be -- like with

you, you're talking about just singing -- we just find out some songs you like. Sit back

>>And maybe even -- you talking about singing at church...

>>Encourage you do to more of that. Go our and sing at church. Sing with your family.

>>Not only in the therapy session but out in the world in your everyday life as well.

>>And that's hopefully what the music therapy will do. It will transfer to everyday life.

Because you will start off with just trying to express yourself or identify a feeling

that you might not even know is there. And then maybe that will transfer to going to

a grocery store and just trying to converse with the person at the counter.

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Mental Health Matters - Music in Recovery

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