The community music therapy program was established to aid in the recovery of trauma for individuals who were affected by the Black Saturday fire in Australia. The music therapists had been asked by a teacher at the school if music therapy would be helpful for the children and both of the music therapists, McFerren and Teggelove, agreed and went to the school the first day of their third term, 6 months after the Black Saturday fires.
I really thought that this article gave an interesting perspective on how to approach individuals affected by a trauma. Many people had tried to help the students, but their efforts either failed or they dwindled in their services until the students were left without any support. A teacher recognized that the students needed therapy and asked Kate Teggelove if music therapy would work.
The music therapists worked with three groups of students of varying ages for 90 minutes once a week for a total of 10 weeks. In each of these sessions Teggelove and McFerren determined, through their final interviews of the individuals that they used Bruscia’s term of music AS therapy for the therapeutic process instead of their initial thoughts of music IN therapy. I think this surprised both the authors because they did a lot of instrumental performance with the group and even performed at a venue by invitation only for the students to perform their music.
The other interesting aspect was the focus of group cohesion. McFerren (2009) discusses how she had revisited her “favourite influences in the form of Irvin Yalom (2005) for his advice on working with groups as well as Andy Malekoff"s (1997) approach to the whole teenager, positioning [herself] as an adult who is open to having some fun, as well as being able to hang in there and not lose hope.” I have just spent more than one semester reading Yalom’s book about group psychotherapy and I have heard that description over and over again. To see it in an essay, about a music therapy program, really put it into perspective. I understand the concept of group cohesion, and its necessity for the therapeutic process to be meaningful, but it was hard to visualize outside of the way Yalom was describing it. Teggelove and McFerren determined group cohesion as an important part of the experience based off of what the students had stated in their interviews. They stated that “everybody” having a role and doing things “all together” was really important. The students “owned the group and experienced negotiating with one another much more strongly than if the process had been more strongly facilitated by the music therapist” (Teggelove and McFerren).
I also really enjoyed the fact that authors were not hesitant to include the words “fun” in their report. The students really enjoyed the group and that was how they described it in their interview. In a separate article entitled “A Journey Into the Heart: Music Therapy After the “Black Saturday” Bush Fires, McFerren (2009) writes “we have had a lot of fun. There has been plenty of laughter, moments of touching sadness, surprising levels of honesty, and an extraordinary capacity for creativity.” I feel like we are constantly trying to show everyone in the medical field that music therapy is effective and is needed, that we take out words such as “fun” because it downplays our profession. I understand this reasoning, but sometimes people need to have fun and after a trauma, for students to be able to say they are enjoying themselves and having fun, seems to be a big step in working through their grief.
A Journey Into the Heart: Music Therapy After the "Black Saturday" Bush Fires (2009)
by Katrina McFerren
Response to Music Therapy with Young People in Schools: After the Black Saturday Fires by Katrina McFerren and Kate Teggelove