The author tells her experience at performing at the memorial services of a man who shot and killed two others before killing himself. She describes how her many years of working as music therapist with psychiatric patients, using clinical improvisation and through her study of the Bonny Method of Guided and Imagery prepared both professionally and personally for this experience. She also...
Music therapy is seen as akin to the healthy re-enactment of the parent-child dyad in which the music stimulates “me and not-me” experiences (Winnicott). Sympathetic music structures stimulate the “me” state, whereas the “not-me” state is stimulated through music that is unfamiliar, evocative, and contains significant tension. The GIM process begins with a “me” experience and then moves beyond...