I am challenged by having to explain Altshuler's Iso-Principle to someone who is a music therapist, but who has never heard the term before. This challenge is one that I will undertake, mainly because I think the Iso-principle is one of the most essential tenets in music therapy theory. It amazes me how many music therapists have never heard of the principle or who have not heard about Altshuler.
The iso-principle, as I understand it, explains that people will pay attention to music that best matches the mood they are in at any given time. An agitated person will respond better to music that he or she associates with agitation (e.g., "angry music") better than music that does not have an association with that particular emotion. Engagement in the music therapy procedure or technique will be quicker if the therapist shapes the music to the individual's emotion rather than attempting to shape the individual's emotion to music the therapist thinks will be best. Once you engage the individual in attending to the music, you can change elements of the music to vector the first emotion into a different emotion.
I use this idea often with my students on the Autism Spectrum. An agitated student may come to me wandering around the music room, unable to sit down, and having difficulty attending to external stimuli (my voice, for example). To engage the student, I often stop talking altogether and sit down at the piano. I improvise a song that has a tempo matching the speed and rhythm of the client's movements around the room. When the client stops, I stop. I am attempting to engage the client in recognizing my presence through the music - external stimulus. Once the client starts to show signs of engagement, I start to change my musical contribution to the environment. I play different patterns when the client moves in different manners. I change my meter to see if the client will change his or her movements to match. I change tonal centers, melodic contour, and dynamics to further engage the client in the environment. This pattern of engagement and adaptation continues until the client is less agitated and paying attention to the music and, by extension, to me.
I often find that the choice of music is not as important as the form of the music. My clients do not engage in music more if the music is familiar to them if the form of the music does not match their internal tempo or emotion. If clients do respond best to a particular song, the song presentation has to change to initially engage their attention. A client who responds to A Whole New World from the Disney movie, Aladdin, will often respond more quickly when agitated when the therapist sings the song faster than the recording.
Maybe we call the iso-principle engagement these days. I think that engagement requires conscious participation on the part of the client rather than the iso-principle which may not require as much conscious awareness.
Comments
Post a Comment