Computational elucidation of nonverbal behavior and body language in music therapy.

Music therapy has shown efficacy in serious and chronic conditions, mental disorders, and disabilities. However, there is still much to explore regarding the mechanisms through which music interventions exert their effects. A typical session involves interactions between the therapist, the client, and the musical work itself, and to help address the challenges of capturing and comprehending its dynamics, we extend our general computational paradigm (CP) for analyzing the expressive and social behavioral processes in arts therapies.

Music Therapists' Job Satisfaction and Related Factors: A Cross-Sectional Survey in Five European Countries and Israel.

Studies on the job satisfaction of music therapists are needed for the growth of the profession and their findings may help to improve the well-being of practitioners. The aim of this cross-sectional survey was to explore the levels of satisfaction of music therapists with their profession and to identify the factors influencing their job satisfaction in several countries where this topic is under researched (Israel, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic, and Austria). Descriptive and inferential statistics of data obtained through an online survey of 439 practicing music therapists found the highest levels of job satisfaction were reported in Spain and the lowest levels were reported in Germany.

Creating musical life reviews with older people: a community case study.

Older people living in their homes might experience growing loneliness, detachment from their social environment, and decreased functional ability. In this , we report on a project we initiated to enhance the functional ability of older people by creating musical life reviews (MLR) with them. We connected seven of our music therapy graduates (MT) to older people living in the neighborhood across the street from campus.

Home-based music therapy for persons with dementia and their spouses as primary caregivers.

Music therapy has been found to be an effective intervention for persons with dementia (PWD) and their primary caregivers (PC), yet the implementation of musical strategies to improve daily care in the home environment requires further exploration. This study developed and examined a home-based music therapy (HBMT) work model that offers weekly joint music therapy sessions, and additional bi-weekly phone-counseling sessions with the PC. This was followed by an additional 12-week support period that included 3 therapy sessions and 3 phone counseling sessions once every other fortnight, so that the same type of session occurred at a frequency of once a month.

Improvised herding: Mapping biobehavioral mechanisms that underlie group efficacy during improvised social interaction.

Improvisation is a natural occurring phenomenon that is central to social interaction. Yet, improvisation is an understudied area in group processes and intergroup relations. Here we build on theory and research about human herding to study the contributions of improvisation on group efficacy and its biobehavioral underpinnings.

Why Music Therapists Choose to Work with a Clinical Population: An International Pilot Survey.

(1) Background: Throughout their career, music therapists make decisions regarding the clinical population they choose to work with. Though such decisions can have broad implications on the professional development of the music therapist, not much is known about the reasons for making these decisions and whether they are affected by demographic or professional factors. (2) Methods: In this pilot study, we surveyed 439 music therapists from six countries (i.

The ""-A Group Music Therapy Treatment for Developing Preschool Children's Social Skills.

(1) Background: Several music therapy treatments have been developed to assist children with social skill deficiencies. They lack reference to emotions and their connection to social skills and they don't deal with group dynamics and its impact on the group. We conducted a preliminary examination of the "" treatment, which was developed to improve the social skills of children of various client populations, with the social deficiency originating from different sources; (2) Methods: 24 children in four groups went through the year-long "" treatment.

Music Therapy with Neonatal Intensive Care Unit-Discharged Mother-Infant Dyads: Developing a Method for Nurturing Communicative Parental Efficacy (CoPE with Music).

While much advancement has been documented in the practice of music therapy in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) environment, there is currently a shortage of music therapy-based methods for NICU-discharged dyads. Back in their homes, mothers might feel alone, lacking guidance, and possibly losing their parental efficacy and their ability to communicate with their baby. In this article, we present a method for nurturing the communicative parental efficacy (CoPE) that was successfully practiced with several NICU-discharged dyads.

Adaptation of Music Therapists' Practice to the Outset of the COVID-19 Pandemic-Going Virtual: A Scoping Review.

: In the midst of a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, music therapists previously not involved in telehealth had to develop effective remote forms of music therapy. The objective of this review was to systematically explore how music therapists previously working in-person adapted to the transfer to remote forms of therapy in the context of the coronavirus outbreak. : We searched Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, CINAHL, Medline, ProQuest Central, PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO and PsyARTICLES, grey literature (to October 2020), and websites of professional organizations.

Towards sustainable implementation of music in daily care of people with dementia and their spouses.

Primary caregivers (PCs) of people with dementia deal with stressful daily living, especially spouses whose care recipient is at home. Several programs have been developed to aid caregiving by providing musical strategies, yet successful sustainable implementation of music in the daily lives of the couples awaits further research and development. To promote this, in this pilot study we proposed a music therapy program that included 12 weekly sessions with the couple in their home environment.

The relationship between physiological synchrony and motion energy synchrony during a joint group drumming task.

Coordination with others in groups is crucial to group cohesion and function, yet only scant research addressed behavioral and physiological interpersonal synchrony in groups during shared activities. We present data from 39 triads instructed to drum together. Based on video-recordings of the task and participants' electrocardiograms, we computed physiological synchrony in cardiologic interbeat intervals and behavioral motion energy synchrony among group members as they were drumming together.

Computational Paradigm to Elucidate the Effects of Arts-Based Approaches: Art and Music Studies and Implications for Research and Therapy.

Art therapy and music therapy, as well as other arts-based approaches and interventions, help to mitigate symptoms in serious and chronic diseases and to improve the well-being and quality of life for both healthy individuals and patients. Artistic creation is also researched and practiced intending to empower and understand individuals, groups, and communities. However, much research is required in order to learn how arts-based approaches operate and to enhance their effectivity.

Physiological and Behavioral Synchrony Predict Group Cohesion and Performance.

Interpersonal synchrony contributes to social functioning in dyads, but it remains unknown how synchrony shapes group experiences and performance. To this end, we designed a novel group drumming task in which participants matched their drumming to either predictable or unpredictable tempos. Fifty-one three-person groups were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: synchronized or asynchronized drumming.

Computational elucidation of the effects induced by music making.

Music making, in the form of free improvisations, is a common technique in music therapy, used to express one's feelings or ideas in the non-verbal language of music. In the broader sense, arts therapies, and music therapy in particular, are used to induce therapeutic and psychosocial effects, and to help mitigate symptoms in serious and chronic diseases. They are also used to empower the wellbeing and quality of life for both healthy individuals and patients.

The impact of relaxing music on prisoners' levels of anxiety and anger.

Listening to relaxing music was found to reduce state anxiety and state anger among various populations. Nonetheless, the impact of relaxing music in prisons has not yet been studied. The current study examines the impact of relaxing music on levels of state anxiety and state anger among a random sample of 48 criminal prisoners.

Accuracy of pitch matching significantly improved by live voice model.

Singing is, undoubtedly, the most fundamental expression of our musical capacity, yet an estimated 10-15% of Western population sings "out-of-tune (OOT)." Previous research in children and adults suggests, albeit inconsistently, that imitating a human voice can improve pitch matching. In the present study, we focus on the potentially beneficial effects of the human voice and especially the live human voice.

Emotional communicability in improvised music: the case of music therapists.

Musical improvisation is considered an efficient way to express emotions in music therapy. We examined the ability of music therapists (MTs) to convey emotions and their ability to accurately decode the emotional content of musical improvisations. Twenty-one MTs improvised on emotions they found difficult or easy to express in life, using or not using an emotional imagery technique.