Music, Kalimba and Therapy
Music has therapeutic properties, do you agree?
For some reason, listening to and playing music is like disconnecting from real life and giving relief to stress, sadness, worries.
Kalimba is widely used in music therapy: thanks to its sweet and relaxing sound, its practical and portable shape and its simplicity, it can create relaxing atmospheres and focus the attention of anyone on the instrument.
I found this page on Instagram Spazio MusicoTerapia and I’d like to propose his project.
Spazio Musicoterapia is an online service of music therapy that has the aim to help each customer to eliminate stress, to conduct an active and serene life. The project was born in 2018.
Interview with Sergio De Lurentis
How does the project work?
We analyze the type of stress of each user and we study an individualized path of listening to songs
specially selected music. Our main feature is to stay close to the customer throughout the journey, even if with a virtual presence.
Over the years I have found that some music has an important impact on stress levels and I have helped many users and friends weighed down by this problem. I noticed that on the net there were no proposals series of experts in music therapy and I decided to open a special space.
Smt was born with the help of different people who have alternated over the years. Today SMT can offer the competencies of Silvia Riccio and Emi Spinucci, who manage online group routes for disabled, women in pregnancy, company training and more.
I quickly read on the internet what music therapy is. I read that are recognized 5 clinical models (Benenzon, creative, analytically oriented...) and I’d like to know if you follow one of or if you propose an innovative and independent therapeutic model.
A qualified musicotherapist approaches all the model, assimilates its peculiarities and applies the most suitable to the context. It is different to work with children or with terminal patients. The experience and the inclination then push the single musician to give priority to a specific field and therefore to specialize in a model. It often happens, however, that the single music therapist declines different models in an original way, thanks to their skills specifications.
This is the diversity of music therapy compared to other techniques. We are not scientifically reproducible. We are mainly artists, extroverts and researchers in various fields; this wealth becomes part of us and we offer it to our customers. But each of us gets rich in a different way and there are no two musicians who work in the same way.
Personally, I have applied the "Benenzon" and "Lecourt" models for many years and I consider them effective also online, with the necessary modifications. For example, we don’t just offer a 'wide choice of listening as it can be spotify; we are constantly present alongside our customers.
I saw that you propose exercises to relieve stress through music: what elements must have a song to cure the mind and body?
The answer is articulate, because the body tends to adapt to the parameter "time", while the mind to that "melody". Some "harmonic" elements influence muscular relaxation, while the "rhythm" has repercussions on breath and heartbeat. To enrich the situation there is the importance of a sound path. If I listen to music for 15 minutes, each song must have different parameters from the previous one, because the degree of tension with which the patient starts to listen is different from the one with which he listens to the second song and so on. We add that the state of tension with which a housewife starts to listen to music is different from that of a 'teacher or a secretary.
What kind of routes do you propose? And what exercises?
Spazio Musicoterapia offers different paths depending on the needs of time, the purpose to be achieved and personal problems. The 1 minute musical pills are intended to teach the customer to observe their own state of tension at any time of the day. The Wellness Plus course offers a complete overcoming of stress through different exercises: music for silent listening exercises, background sequences during work and some funny listening, music and theater, for moments of entertainment.
To experience the effectiveness of our services, we offer a free trial of 15 days.
Next to these services, we offer online group tours through 2 main tools: video contact with zoom and contact written with whatsapp. In this way we aim to help some types of users compromised by covid-19.
Since my blog and channels talk about Kalimba, what kind of relationship does Spazio Musicoterapia have with this instrument?
The kalimba is present in the instrumentary of every musician therapist, thanks to the ability to produce melodies in a simple way. In practical activity, it is very important to create pleasant melodic phrases; this induces very useful unconscious states to 'introspection. On the SMT website we propose songs of all kinds of music and a rich choice of instruments, including the Kalimba.
SMT also aims to use music in those areas of daily life that are most stressful: the waiting room of a doctor, office work, queues in post offices, just to give a few examples.
When we enter a place, we immediately feel an unconscious feeling of pleasure or displeasure; this feeling, for a good 70% is generated by sounds. The most important job for us, is to make known the music therapy to as many people as possible, highlighting the benefits against stress, a silent problem that exacerbates the lives of 8 out of 10 people.
To these we add some commercial places that do not know to propose music that creates tension, unwittingly participating in the collective stress: restaurants and clothing stores for example.
Visit the website: https://www.spaziomusicoterapia.it/
