Drug rehabilitation

Music Therapy as a part of drug rehabilitation

From adhering to treatment to integrating the levels of experience

Marko Punkanen

Abstract

Addiction is an interesting and in some ways also slightly mystical phenomenon. What makes a person become addicted to something? And how can one release oneself from an addiction? These questions have intrigued me for many years. As a clinician, I see drug addiction as a problem in a person’s emotional life. It is important how a person is able to face, tolerate, name and handle his or her emotions. In my experience it is important to understand that addiction is both physical and psychological. Therefore treatment and care should have effect on both levels as well as offer the client comprehensive experiences. Additionally in my clinical experience, drug addicts quite often have traumatic experiences in their history and they will get in touch with their traumatic memories during therapy process. Therefore as a music therapist we have to know how to work with our clients so that we will help them to achieve more integration within their levels of experience. In this article I will make some suggestions about how to integrate music therapy practices into the current practices of drug rehabilitation. My suggestions are based on results of my research (Punkanen, 2006a), where I interviewed four experienced Finnish music therapists who have worked in drug rehabilitation for many years.

http://www.musictherapyworld.de/modules/mmmagazine/showarticle.php?articletoshow=212