Music has long been a tool for art therapists, but can it be used to analyze the therapeutic process? A recent study opens up new possibilities for professionals in dealing with depression, anxiety, autism and dementia. Modern brain scanning technologies help to understand what moments in the process of psychotherapy are most effective.
During music therapy, the brains of the client and the therapist are synchronized. This was demonstrated in their experiments by researchers at Anglia Ruskin University. This discovery may be an important step towards the study and development of the therapeutic process.
A report on the project, led by Prof. Jörg Fachner and Dr. Clemens Meidhof, was published in the academic journal Frontiers in Psychology. This was the first study in music therapy using state-of-the-art hyperscan technology, which allows recording the brain activity of two people at the same time to better understand their ongoing interactions.
As part of the study, during a session, a client told a psychotherapist about a serious illness in her family. Classical music was playing in the room. Both had an electroencephalogram device on their heads. The sensors read the electrical impulses of the brain, and at the same time the session was recorded on video cameras.
The music therapist led the session to a tipping point where a special, meaningful “connection” had to be made with the client. The researchers observed how the activity of the client’s brain increased dramatically, there was a movement from experiencing negative emotions to a peak of positive ones. Moments later, the therapist realized that the session was going well, and his brain scans showed similar results.
In subsequent interviews, both confirmed that this moment was indeed very significant and effective for the therapeutic process. The researchers tested the activity of the right and left frontal lobes, which process negative and positive emotions, respectively.
They conducted an in-depth comparative analysis of the hyperscan data, video and audio transcript of the session and were able to make sure that the synchronization of the brain activity of the two participants in the experiment really took place.
Professor Jörg Fachner, specialist in music, health and brain studies, said: “This study is an important milestone in the study of music therapy. The professionals who do this report moments of emotional change during the sessions, and thanks to the results of our project, it is finally possible to confirm this.”
Scientists and psychotherapists are convinced that incorporating music into the process of working with a client can improve their overall well-being and contribute to the treatment of conditions such as anxiety, depression, autism and dementia. If earlier specialists could only rely on feedback and subjective perception of the client, now the scientific data of brain hyperscanning also speak about the effectiveness of music therapy.
“This technology shows the smallest, almost indistinguishable changes that occur in a session,” Fachner continues. “The ability to identify those precious moments when therapy works most effectively can be very much in demand. This is especially valuable when working with clients who have problems with verbal communication. But in many other cases, our discovery will help to better understand the emotional dynamics during the therapeutic process.