OVER THE EDGE March 14, 2007

Creative Healing
Through Music
Therapy

“Your personality has to match -- musical and personal
-- the population you work with.” - Johanne Brodeur

ALAN PIGFER
Nexus (CAMOSUN COLLEGE)

VICTORIA (CUP) -- Many
philosophic and scientific dis-
cussions have taken place about
the healing powers of music, but
music therapists get to see real re-
sults.

“T think it’s important to realize
that music has a great impact on
our lives,” says Johanne Brodeur,
head of the music therapy depart-
ment at the Victoria Conservatory
of Music (VCM). “Rhythm, har-
mony, and sound -- it’s just part of
our life, period.”

Music therapy is a process
where musical instruments are
used in a manner that will strength-
en people’s cognitive, physical, or
social abilities.

The VCM’s music therapy
program offers help to a wide
range of clientele, from autistic
children, to street youth, people
with physical disabilities, and
elderly patients. Sessions are done
either at the conservatory or at a
client’s home, depending on their
mobility. Methods of therapy can
vary greatly.

“There are different models,
depending on the population you
work with,” explains Brodeur.

Working with children’ in-
volves a particular process. “First
of all, you have to engage the in-
dividual into music-making, and
once the child is engaged, then
you draft some goals,” explains
Brodeur.

These could include the de-
velopment of auditory skills, per-
ception, motor skills, attention
span, social skills, self-esteem, or
impulse control. “The skills they
work on in music therapy must be
transferable outside the room; it’s
crucial,” says Brodeur.

Jeff Smith, another music
therapist at VCM, makes sure to
use musical instruments that are
familiar to the client in his therapy
sessions. “I try to keep it cultur-
ally appropriate. If a child’s par-
ents listen to folk, rock, or country
music, I’m going to work on their
range of motion with a guitar or a
banjo,” says Smith.

Music therapy also util-
izes new technology, such as the
Soundbeam. With this device,
people without the use of conven-
tional physical motion can move
in relation to an invisible beam to
compose their own computer-gen-

erated music.

In order to become a music
therapist, a students need to com-
plete a bachelor of music therapy
degree and a one-year internship
before being able to apply for
accreditation. Students also re-
quire more than just an interest in
music.

“Your personality has to match
-- musical and personal -- the
population you work with,” says
Brodeur. ,

Having the right personality
for the job is a crucial aspect of
being a music therapist. “It’s im-
portant that you’re here for the
client, not for yourself,” says Bro-
deur. “If you have any worries,
you have to leave them outside the
door, because you cannot bring
them in here.”

Smith offers his own perspec-
tives on becoming an effective
music therapist. “The people that
are the most successful are best
able to really be open to where
somebody’s coming from,” he
says. “That isn’t always something
that can be learned in school.”

Michelle Lawrence, an intern
at the VCM, sees the benefits
music therapy offers to clients.
“They have a chance to com-
municate,” she says. “They have
a chance to reach out and be phys-
ical, where maybe they couldn’t
before.”

Brodeur points out the posi-
tive impact that music therapy has

- in the case of street youths. “They

realize that music can be an outlet
for them that could compensate
for other needs. We’re trying, in
all cases, not only for the youth,
but for everyone, to find them a
healthy outlet.”

Brodeur has also found great
results from playing music with
children who have communica-
tion difficulties. “The inter-music-
al relationship gets stronger as
the interpersonal relationship gets
stronger,” says Brodeur, “I don’t
have to follow them anymore, and
they’re not really following me.
We’re playing music together.”

Breakthroughs in therapy ses-
sions often provide many reward-
ing and emotional moments, not
only for therapists but for their
clients’ families.

“Every single day I will laugh
hysterically, and every single day
I’m going to cry hysterically,”
says Brodeur. “There’s a lot of
emotion in the room.”

: Cory STRAKER
THe CARILLON (UNIVERSITY OF
ReGina)

REGINA (CUP) -- From a
perspective rooted in pro-pot-ac-
tivism and action, award-winning
journalist and author Ian Mulgrew
explores the marijuana industry
through its many characters and
offshoots in his book; “Bud Inc.”

A very practical and human
side of the pot trade.is portrayed
when explained through the law,
morality, health, and ‘economics.
Inside is the pungent account of
Vancouver’s revolutionary Da
Kine cafe (which openly sold
weed, easily raking in $30,000 a
day). Mukgrew argues marijuana
regulation is economically benefi-
cial and would curb the dangers of
gang-controlled drugs.

Beginning in Mulgrew’s home
of Vancouver and spanning the
U.S. and Europe, the book pro-
vides both a local and global feel
for the dimensions of the debate.
From the primary product and the
people who plant it, to the bottom
line and what that can mean for

PRIZE.

unbc.ca

ject.

Canada, “Bud Inc.” has a relaxing
effect on the entire argument.

Already hailed by critics as
eye opening, “Bud Inc.” is well
written, easy to read and en-
gaging. Millionaire drug deal-
ers, innovators, and businessmen
speak candidly as they succeed
and struggle when some who sell
to those in pain. (and those who
are not) deal with SWAT teams,
court dates and deportation. This
is an enlightening and civil look
at a product that could potentially
be a Canadian asset.

Early on, Mulgrew says “the
international debate, in my view,

s... coloured by ideology rather
than insight.”

This statement is further ex-
plained by an economist describ-
ing similarities to the prohibition
on alcohol during the 1930s: “The
alcohol prohibition ended because
it was impossible to enforce.
Booze was available everywhere;
as a consequence, Prohibition had
an acidic influence on people’s at-
titude toward police and the courts
because the law was often ignored
or treated as a misdemeanor. The

This Bud’s For You

A Review of Pro-Pot Book ‘Bud Inc.’

dirty money generated by the ac-
tivity was equally caustic.” Can-
adian booze served the public
back then. Today it’s marijuana.

Mulgrew uses the examples of
countries that have legalized pot
to defiise the idea of societal dis-
array if the same drug that fueled
“Reefer Madness” were to be un-
leashed on the public.

In the final chapter, a former
president of the Yale Young Re-
publicans says, “you can’t have a
serious conversation about [ma-
rijuana]. The headlines condition
you to think whatever follows is a
joke. So, when you read that there
is no fatal dose of pot, that mari-
juana is a medicine, that it is more
benign than Aspirin, it’s a joke,
you don’t take it seriously.”

This is a well-organized pro-
pot read. You can expect a ser-
iously thoughtful and potent look
at the effectiveness of the policies

of the Canadian government. But

be aware, “Bud Inc.” may make
users loses their inhibitions and
encourage further exploration of
the topic -- for better or worse.

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