Читать книгу The Creative Arts in Counseling - Samuel Gladding T., Samuel T. Gladding - Страница 58

Try writing a four- or five-line prosocial lyric to music you already know. How easy or difficult do you find writing such lyrics to be? Do you think writing negative lyrics would be easier?

Music may also be used to punctuate and emphasize points in teaching a variety of materials. For instance, song lyrics provide students with a way to relate course material to their lives, “which helps to facilitate higher retention and comprehension of material” (Louden-Gerber & Duffey, 2008, p. 322). Thus, in learning about Enneatypes (a model of personality types), a student with Enneatype 3 (achievement) may come up with the theme song “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better).” Likewise, in an abnormal psychology course or a mental health center, song lyrics may highlight important concepts and provide concrete examples. Think, for example, of Don McLean’s song “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)” about the life of Vincent van Gogh and how the melody and words of this work depict the difficulties of mental instability. In a similar fashion, the lyrics of Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen” portray some of the transitions adolescents experience in forming their identities and establishing romantic relationships. The possibilities of using music as a background to understand thoughts and emotions throughout the life span and in different cultures are limited only by the imagination of instructors and their knowledge of different types of music.

Supervision may also be enhanced through bringing music into the process (Pearson, 2002). For example, counseling students could listen to music outside of class that demonstrates certain concepts or bring into class music with or without lyrics that elicits specific emotions or ideas the instructor wants conveyed. For example, Jewel’s “Pieces of You” is a powerful representation of hatred and fear associated with prejudice. Likewise, Dar Williams’s “When I Was a Boy” portrays the process of gender role socialization and the losses involved for women and men. It fits well into discussions of social and gender identity development and how that plays into difficulties people may have that could bring them into therapy. The point is that music can enhance supervision by helping sensitize supervisees to messages being sent through music that are a part of popular culture and that may promote health or pathology.