Music Therapy for Chronic Pain Management (6 credits)

Chronic pain is complex. It can affect the body, emotions, relationships, identity, and nearly every aspect of daily life. Supporting someone living with pain requires more than simply helping them relax.

In this course with Joel Kroeker, you’ll explore how and why music can be used within pain management and learn practical music therapy approaches for working with the many dimensions of the pain experience.

You’ll develop a clearer understanding of the neurology of pain, including sensory pathways, neurotransmitters, sensitization, and the relationship between pain and trauma. More importantly, you’ll explore how that understanding can inform the music therapy interventions you choose.

Through research, case material, clinical examples, and practical application, you’ll examine approaches including musical improvisation, mindfulness, imagery and imagination, sensory-based experiences, and other music therapy strategies that can be adapted to individual client needs.

You’ll also consider the emotional and psychological experience of adjusting to injury or chronic pain and explore ways to collaborate effectively with other healthcare professionals as part of an interdisciplinary approach.

Rather than leaving with a collection of disconnected techniques, you’ll learn to think about why an intervention may be appropriate, what you are trying to accomplish, and how to tailor the musical experience to the individual client and setting.

In this workshop, you will learn:

How pain works neurologically and how understanding the pain cycle can inform music therapy practice.
How sensory pathways, sensitization, neurotransmitters, and musical perception relate to the experience of pain.
Music therapy approaches for supporting clients adjusting to injury and living with chronic pain.
How musical improvisation can be used to explore somatic and emotional experiences related to pain.
Mindfulness-based musical experiences for supporting stress management and coping.
Ways to incorporate imagery and imagination into music therapy interventions for pain management.
How pain and trauma may interact and important considerations when working with clients experiencing both.
How to translate pain-management concepts into purposeful musical processes and interventions.
Ways to collaborate with other healthcare professionals when supporting clients experiencing chronic pain.
How to develop individualized music therapy interventions, goals, and objectives appropriate to your population and clinical setting.

You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of pain and a broader set of music therapy tools for responding to it with greater clinical intention.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will be able to create at least 1 effective intervention for pain management
Participants will be able to describe how music therapy fits within a given pain management setting
Participants will be able to identify at least 2 relevant goals and objectives within a specific clinical context
Participants will be able to list at least 1 way to explore pain through somatic vocalization.

Schedule

Introduction and Overview

1 hour: Background, Theory and History of Music Therapy in Pain Management

We’ll discover where pain management is situated historically and theoretically in relation to music therapy and the therapeutic models that you are most familiar with.

1 hour: Overview of Music Therapy in Pain Management Through clinical examples and discussion we’ll explore the most essential principles and how you can immediately incorporate these into your own work. 1 hour: Pain management interventions that work! We’ll discover step-by-step how to work with specific therapeutic goals and objectives through performing, composing, improvising and listening in relation to a wide range of situations including individuals, groupwork, non-verbal somatic communication and working with all ages across the entire life cycle.

1.5 hours Q&A and Wrap up Evaluate by feedback form

1 hr Homework Assignment Self-Study

CBMT Domain areas:

III.A. Task Statement 32 Identify and implement potential modifications and adaptations throughout the treatment process to support accessibility

IV.A.6 Evaluation of the treatment plan related to the client's determined goals; Task Statement 44 Regularly review treatment plans by analyzing progress and outcome data to determine the effectiveness of therapy and modify as needed

II.D.7 Goal-directed music and non-music experience/intervention design; Task Statement 27 Establish client goals and objectives within domains of health/wellness and determine an appropriate system for tracking client progress, outcomes, and exit criteria as needed

II.D.1 Collaboration with the client and/or family/care partner and other professionals for treatment planning (e.g., goals, treatment preferences)

Music Therapy for Pain Management is approved by the Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT) for 6 CMTEs-Continuing Music Therapy Education credits. . The Spiegel Academy, CBMT Approved Provider #P-106, maintains responsibility for program quality and adherence to CBMT policies and criteria.

Class Description