John Ortiz, PhD, a “psycho-musicologist” based in Pennsylvania, is a trained musician and psychologist as well as the author of The Too of Music (1997). He uses a combination of techniques to speed up patients’ healing processes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Unlike conventional psychotherapy, music is never about why,” he says. “It is about who, what, when, where, how. ‘Why’ can take over a situation and keep you caught up in the analysis instead of taking action.”<\/p>\n
Ortiz tells the story of a former patient, Charisse Lavelle (name changed for obvious reasons), a 45-year-old marketing executive with a severe case of depression. She had no energy, insomnia, trouble concentrating and had lost interest in her friends and family.<\/p>\n
She had begun to overeat, which only depressed her more, and she was caught in a vicious cycle. Her MD sent her to a psychiatrist, who put her on antidepressants, which made her inorgasmic and only fuelled the depression. Eventually she found her way to Ortiz.<\/p>\n
“Find three songs that sound like your depression, three that feel like you want to feel and three in between,” he instructed her. Then he had her make an “entrainment” tape of all nine. She was to fill the rest of the tape with her favourite music.<\/p>\n
“Just thinking about it made her mood lift,” Ortiz recalls. Since she didn’t have all the songs at home, she went to the mall to get the others – something she hadn’t done in months. Shopping for the music and making her own tape restored her sense of having some control in her life.<\/p>\n
Her next tape was music to exercise and dance to, which got her moving again. Within a matter of months of psychological and sound therapy, Charisse was feeling significantly better – and off antidepressants.<\/p>\n
What might we expect in the future, then: Tonal spas to rejuvenate our vibrational fields? Chanting centres in schools, workplaces and doctors’ offices? Self-teaching CD-ROMs for retoning? Goldman says the possibilities are limitless.<\/p>\n
When we drum and chant and sing together, feelings of joy and friendship develop. We feel positive and our self-esteem shoots up. And if we’re really lucky, we may even have a mystical experience or unleash unrealised creative talents.<\/p>\n
More than 50 years ago, Edgar Cayce, the “Sleeping Prophet” who healed thousands of people while in a trance state, said that “music is the medicine of the future”. From the sound of things, he was probably right. But hey, that’s stale news to the likes of Pythagoras and Confucius!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Ortiz, PhD, a “psycho-musicologist” based in Pennsylvania, is a trained musician and psychologist as well as the author of The Too of Music (1997). He uses a combination of techniques to speed up patients’ healing processes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-therapy"],"yoast_head":"\n