Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Music is food for the soul as Florencia Grasselli Schuijt proves in her therapy sessions, using instruments and songs to help individuals tune into their wants and needs.
According to the American Music Therapy Association, music is used within a therapeutic relationship to address physical, emotional, cognitive and social needs of individuals.
In Florencia’s case, she works at a rehabilitation centre in Bahrain with children struggling with neurological and developmental challenges, including developmental delay, cerebral palsy, attentional deficit, autism, Down’s syndrome and so on.
“Music therapy can be used with all group ages from new-borns to elderly,” said the 39-year-old Argentinian neurologic music therapist. “There is growing evidence demonstrating that both making music or listening to music activates a multitude of brain structures involved in cognitive, sensorimotor and emotional processing.
“Music is processed in many areas of our brain; many of those areas are used for other functions like speaking, walking or paying attention to a task. So when those areas of the brain are not working properly we can use music to activate them.
“The inherent qualities of music, including its structure, predictability, familiarity, the way we feel it in our bodies, and its potential for voicing a range of emotions, are what helps to make serious issues easier to tackle, through and with the music, than they might be otherwise.
“Music therapy has many benefits. It can help improve attention and concentration, it enhances memory recall as well as perception, it increases positive outlook and mood regulation as well as helps people manage stress and cope with anxiety.”
It can also help improve confidence, communication skills, independence, self-awareness and awareness of others. Live musical interaction between a person and their therapist is important during music therapy.
For example, Florencia volunteers with women victims of human trafficking using singing to help them cope with their emotions and to express themselves while feeling that their voices are being heard.
“In the music therapy sessions, the client is invited to make music with the therapist, sing or listen to music according to the therapeutic goals,” she explained. “A music therapy room is full of instruments that anybody can use; you don’t need to be a musician to follow music therapy sessions.
“Music therapy sessions are always goal-driven and so what happens in the session will vary greatly depending on the needs and level of participation of the clients.
“For example, I can sing with a client with speech delay or aphasia to rehabilitate their speech. I can work through active music-making to help children and teens with autism spectrum disorder communicate more effectively with their families. I also use song writing to assist clients who have difficulties with emotional expression or work on developing musical rhythms to enhance motor rehabilitation of clients with motor deficits.”
Florencia, mother to three-year-old Isabella and who is also expecting a baby girl in April, started her musical journey after high school when she started singing jazz at 19. She even released a CD in the year 2000 called Flop & Fly.
It was while she conducting singing lessons that she realised many of her students weren’t taking classes to become great singers. “They were searching for themselves,” she said. “They brought songs that we’re talking about things they were going through. I started to become more and more interested in the psychological components of music and how listening or making music could improve well-being.
“That is when I discovered a music therapy programme at a University in Buenos Aires and my journey began.”
Florencia completed her Bachelor’s degree in music therapy and moved to the Netherlands to do a fellowship in neurologic music therapy, specialising in working with children and adults with neurological challenges.
Last year she achieved her Master’s in music therapy from Colorado State University in the US and has since then worked internationally in the field. She worked with mothers of premature infants in Argentina and with adults and elderly with neurological disorders and migrant women in the Netherlands.
For details, follow her @musictherapy_bahrain on Instagram.
