Music therapy can be understood as a healthy re-enactment of the parent-child dyad, where music stimulates both familiar "me" experiences and unfamiliar "not-me" experiences. The Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) process begins with a "me" experience and moves beyond it to the "not-me." Classical music in GIM creates a transpersonal experience through altered states of consciousness and the transcendence of time, loosening the client's boundaries so they become "one" with the music and its healthful structures.
Performing at the memorial services of a man who shot and killed two others before killing himself, the author describes an intense peak experience of becoming one with the music. Her years as a music therapist using clinical improvisation and studying the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music prepared her professionally and personally. She reflects on her intertwined identities as singer and music therapist. The music served as a therapeutic container for the entire service, and trusting where the music led was a powerful and humbling experience, similar to Helen Bonny's peak experience during a violin performance.