Working institution
Dr Hanna Hakomäki, Music Therapist, Psychotherapist, Supervisor, Family and Couple Psychotherapist (12/2017)
Working institution of the Author: Private practice Säveltarinoita
Abstract
Storycomposing® is a therapeutic songwriting method of improvisational character. It is based on musical innovations, interaction, and communication. A concert or a performance is one of the four steps that Storycomposing method follows. The concert session enables and supports the equal agency of family members in a therapy session and respects the participants’ different ways of self-expression.
Storycomposing provides the opportunity to express feelings and experiences that have significance for an individual with the help of music and stories. The many meanings of this have been seen both in practice and in research, especially when working with young children and their families (Hakomäki 2013). A child’s voice is literally heard through storycompositions which are performed in concert sessions. This way child’s experiences, emotions and thoughts are shareable with other family members. Emotions, bodily experiences and thoughts that music arouses supports the dialogue between the participants. In addition, music itself encourages and allures diverse expression of all participants.
In recent years, there has been Storycomposing projects in care homes for older people. A professional musician has provided moments of equal, shared communication between the storycomposer – an old people suffering from dementia and the co-composer – a musician. Because of this, new target group has evoked fresh perspectives for family therapy with Storycomposing method. A patient with dementia finds a way of expression which is shareable and understandable as music – this creates a new kind of bridge between the patient and family members.
A concrete artifact, a storycomposition, supports the variety of agency of family members when meeting in music: an active agency of individuals of all ages, to literally hear each other’s voice, to sense the story that music tells, to share the meaning in music, to have new roles of family members.