Music Therapy for Wellness

by Prof KR Sethuraman. MD,PGDHEVice-chancellor,

Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, Pondicherry

Part -1 From chasing Pathogenesis to fostering

SalutogenesisPart 2 –

Music Therapy &Optimal Healing

This is a 2-part talk:

Peace versus Anti-war

“- I will never participate in anti-war demonstrations. “But if you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.”

• Mother TheresaIf not at war, are you at peace?

If not ill, are you well; if no disease, is it health?

And Not merely the absence of disease

Salutogenesis Pathogenesis

Salutogenesis

• Derivation of Greek + Latin• Latin: salus = health• Greek: genesis = source

• In combination = Sources of health

‘Father’ of Salutogenesis• Aaron Antonovsky • (1923 – 1994) - Austria• Medical Sociologist• Coined term in 1968 to explain

Why did some manage to avoid illness and do well even under extreme stress? (Nazi Holocaust survivors)

It is appropriate to that an Austrian Scholar of international repute, Dr Gerhardt Tucek is our chief guest!

SALUTOGENESIS versus PATHOGENESIS…

Pathogenesis • What causes diseases?• About Avoiding Problems• Disease/Illness an anomaly• Reactive - Absence Disease• Against pain or Loss• Prepares one to live

Salutogenesis• What causes Health?• About reaching Potential• We are inherently flawed, • Proactive - Presence Health• For Gain or Growth• Discover how to live fully

AND

Salutogenesis = Foster Wellness

• Medicine is increasingly focused on the origin of illness• Equally important to ask:

"what is the origin of health & wellness?" • Aaron Antonovsky:

“Relatively unstressed people were more resistant to illness.” • He proposed: “the experience of well-being is

based on Sense of Coherence.”

Sense of Coherence

“My world is understandable”

“My world is manageable”

“My world has meaning”

Part 2 – Music Therapy for Wellness & Optimal Healing

• Healing: “the processes of recovery, repair, renewal, and reintegration that contribute to a person’s physical, mental, social, and spiritual health and well-being.”• Healing and Cure are mutually complementary, and

both are essential.• Adopt Healing-oriented practices and environments

to create an optimal healing environment (OHE)

4 domains of Optimal Healing Environment

(OHE)

*OHE: 1-Internal Domain

• Music therapist attends to the internal factors

• Mindfulness = Focus

• Wholeness

* optimal healing environment

PERSONAL

OHE: 2-Interpersonal Domain

• Music-therapist attends to the interpersonal factors

• Therapeutic relationship for wellness • Promote Holistic healing

OHE: 3-Behavioral Domain

• Music-therapist attends to the behavioral factors

• Promotion of “healthy lifestyle through music”

• Integrates well with “Western Medicine”

OHE: 4-External Domain

• Music-therapist attends to the external factors

• Foster Equanimity, Joy &symbiosis with Naturethrough music and sound vibrations

Summing up…• Preventive and promotive practices protect against

pathology• Health goes beyond mere absence of pathology• Up to 40% of illnesses have no pathological basis (MUS)

• Lifestyle-based wellness choices can maximize positive life experiences (salutogenesis)• joy, vitality, serenity, happiness, self-actualization, and

other qualities, which make life worth living• Music therapy promotes wellness and healing by

creating optimal healing environment.

From: “what did I do today to treat disease / illness?”

To Asking this too: “what did I do today to create health/wellness?”

Thank You All !

Music washes away from the soul, the dust of everyday life.

-- Berthold Auerbach