Bliss. Music. Therapy.

Every couple of weeks I offer interventions that I've used in my work as a Psychiatric Music Therapist.



Sample: Anchoring and Grounding, An Exercise Using the Ocean Drum

Every time I pull out an Ocean Drum in a music making group session, I hear lots of Oohs and Aahs. What is it about the Ocean Drum that makes us feel so good?

1. Our association with the soothing sound, which ladies and gentlemen, is a lot like being in utero. Studies have found that sounds that are like that of the uterus are calming to fussy babies.
2. Our association with being outside on the beach in a beautiful place, kicking our biophilia into gear.
3. Rhythm wise, there is safety in approaching an instrument that sounds good, but requires very little effort, concentration, talent, or skill.

Because of these reasons, the ocean drum is an excellent instrument for anyone to use when wanting to explore release, visualization, and anchoring.

Ways to use the following exercise:

1) If you are facilitating a Drum Circle. As you are introducing the instruments, give a brief summary of this exercise. This will invite participants to use the exercise if they’d like and will give them something to connect to with this instrument. After, you can ask participants why they selected the various instruments and what they released if anything by using the ocean drum.

2) If you are teaching or working on grounding and anchoring techniques, the sound of the ocean can be a cue for clients to calm down and ground themselves. Using the ocean drum not only provides the sound stimulus, but is a tangible object for someone to hold.

3) This exercise would fit into a Dialectical Behavior Therapy and/or Cognitive Behavior Therapy curriculum, by . . . (Click here to enter my blog!)



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