Where Process Theology and Speech Therapy Meet
In the context of open and relational (process) theology, to practice the presence of God is to act in ways that enable the healing love of God to be effective in the world. This healing love is a soft energy that works in and with the physical body and mind, but that is not all-controlling. It works inside the body, in the brain and tissues, and also in a person's heart/mind. It is, in the words of Deuteronomy, on the side of life.
To act in ways that enable this energy to be present in the life of another is to be a conduit for such energy. Singing with others can be one form that this channeling takes. For my part, I know this from singing at assisted living centers twice a week. What strikes me is that the folks I work with love to sing along as best they can, even if they can't speak with fluency or even at all. Singing with others, not at them, is part of my ministry; and, of course, I received quite as much from the folks I work with as I offer them. The ministry is mutual.
Another very practical expression of this ministry is "melodic intonation therapy" among speech pathologists. This is but one place, among very many, where the work of those in healing professions (occupational theraphy, physical therapy, speech therapy) is a coalescence of the spiritual arts and the healing sciences. Never is the soft energy all-controlling; never is it unilaterally effective apart from many other factors. And yet the speech therapist is its vessel, gently carrying its healing power in hands, eyes, and voice. The practice is in the singing and the respect and care, the therapist brings to it. Whether she knows it or not, hers is a healing ministry, too.
- Jay McDaniel
Melodic Intonation Therapy: Shared Insights
on How it is Done and Why it Might Help
by Andrea Norton, Lauryn Zipse, Sarah Marchina, and Gottfried Schlaug
Abstract: For over 100 years, clinicians have noted that patients with nonfluent aphasia are capable of singing words that they cannot speak. Thus, the use of melody and rhythm has long been recommended for improving aphasic patients’ fluency, but it was not until 1973 that a music-based treatment (Melodic Intonation Therapy, (MIT)) was developed. Our ongoing investigation of MIT’s efficacy has provided valuable insight into this therapy’s effect on language recovery. Here we share those observations, our additions to the protocol that aim to enhance MIT’s benefit, and the rationale that supports them.
Indre Viskontas
Soprano and Neuroscientist
DOES MUSIC HAVE WAYS TO HEAL THE MIND THAT WE MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT?
We are starting to learn more and more about how powerful music can be in terms of rewiring the brain. We hold up the musician’s brain as a model of neuroplasticity because we have observed the signature of musical training on many different neurological levels: from a sensory response to sound all the way to larger white matter tracts joining disparate regions of the brain.
One of the most dramatic examples of music’s power to rewire is in patients with injuries to the left side of the brain, whose speech is impaired. Many times, they cannot produce specific words on demand but they can often still sing them. With melodic intonation therapy, a type of music therapy that is very effective, the patients recruit the intact right side of the brain to communicate, first by singing the words and eventually regaining speech. As a result, the arcuate fasciculus, a white matter tract that joins the speech comprehension and speech production regions on the left side of the brain, becomes larger on the right side, taking over function.
I’m sure there are plenty of other uses of music that we still need to discover, particularly in terms of reducing anxiety and pain, and dealing with trauma. I also think that music will play a larger role in how we treat patients with neurodegenerative diseases. But because music is so subjective, and can have so many different forms, we need to conduct research that will help us uncover its healing properties and not just assume that playing Mozart is a panacea. It’s not, but that’s also like saying take an aspirin and call me in the morning. We need specific drugs for specific ailments, and the same will be true of how we use music in therapeutic settings.
Addendum: Music on the Mind Podcasts
podcasts on music and the brain
developed by Indre Viskontas
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Indre Viskontas, PhD, is the creative director of the Pasadena Opera, host of the podcasts Cadence and Inquiring Minds, and a professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She lives San Francisco.
Muhly Far Away Songs from Indre Viskontas on Vimeo. |