Therapy for Healthy

Dance and Music therapy are forms of therapy wherein the participants are taught to channel constructively and express their thoughts and feelings. These are very helpful in individuals, young and old, who feel that they are unable to truly let other people know who they are inside and what they feel by just using speech and writing.

Dance and Movement Therapy

Human beings have the innate capacity to communicate and express thoughts and feelings through physical movements and body language. Dancing is common to all tribes and races of the past and present. Young children are able to express in this way without oral communication and without inhibitions. Unfortunately however, as people grow up in our modern society, they are bogged down by rules, etiquette and norms that discourage this kind of free verbal and physical expression resulting in pent up feelings. These hidden emotions can often lead to physical manifestations and illnesses.

This form of therapy can be applied to any individual from any age group who is willing. Dance and movement therapy’s goal is to enable the person to discover the physical movements he is capable of. This therapy is also intended to help individuals express and hopefully resolve deep-rooted problems through communicating and relating to others through the medium of physical movements and dance. It helps people recognize, understand and come to terms with these repressed emotions and communicating them to others at the same time.

Dance movement therapy can help relieve psychological, emotional and stress-related disorders. It can also help people who are anxious and depressed, people with addictions, problems pertaining to physical, sexual, or verbal abuse and even learning disabilities. It has been observed that children who respond strongly to this therapy are often found to have physical, mental, behavioral and intellectual problems like autism. This form of therapy is said to be most beneficial to those with psychological and emotional disturbances and those who are intellectually challenged.

Dance therapy sessions are most often done in certain day-care and ‘drop-in’ centers and hospitals. In these sessions, the therapist may suggest movements but encourages participants to take the initiative and make their own. Eventually, the participants learn to express their feelings constructively, talk recognized problems over and learn how to resolve them better.

Music Therapy

Making music has always been an essential part of all cultures as leisure, as a mode of communication as well as a medium for expression. Music is a very powerful tool and has shown great effects on human beings. Music can entice, captivate and excite. It can also stimulate feelings of sadness, fear, joy and serenity. Because of these reactions, the experience of making and listening to music can be very beneficial when used as a form of therapy.

In music therapy, the participants make music as a mode of communication and as an expression of their deepest emotions. In a session, they make use of different instruments as well as their own voices to create music. Music therapy can help people with various disorders but is especially helpful in children and adults with intellectual and learning disabilities. This can also help those who are physically limited in some way by improving breathing and muscle coordination.

These sessions are often done in certain hospitals, in residential homes and schools. Trained therapists with a qualification in music are required to conduct the therapy.

Michael Russell

Your Independent Alternative guide.

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“Laughter is the best medicine” — who doesn’t know this popular adage? Laughter is not a cure for cancer or other degenerative diseases, but doctors and the medical professionals found that it increases treatment receptiveness in patients. Scientists researching about psychoneuroimmunology are discovering that there is a crucial connection between a person’s mind and body. This is particularly manifested by the body’s ability to heal through mental stimulation. Laughter appears to change brain chemistry and boosts the body’s immune system. Through the recent development in medicine, this popular saying becomes a fact. Humour therapy aids in healing by promoting good feeling, laughter, and smiles. Sometimes called therapeutic humour, this type of therapy is fast gaining popularity among medical institutions worldwide.

Now, medical institutions are using humorous and fun activities to excite and give their patients excitement. Clowns, story-telling, puppet shows, and other fun activities are regularly presented in hospitals’ kiddie wards. These activities cheer up the sick children and — since they usually contain subliminal messages — encourage them to take medications. Humour carts also circulate in some hospitals. These carts have supplies of joke books, humorous stories, and other funny materials for the adult patients. Nurse training also includes lessons on cheering patients up.

Humour therapy provides other benefits aside from increasing treatment receptiveness and making patients happy. The therapy allows patients to see situations in a lighter perspective. The frustration of being confined in a hospital is decreased and the patients feel more in control. Other than this, the therapy enables patients to release negative emotions like fear, anger, and stress in a positive way. Although these benefits don’t cure the diseases, they make the effects bearable for those who are sick. There are also studies that prove laughter to be a preventive measure against diseases. Stress and other negative emotions are known to have debilitating effects on a person’s health. By releasing these emotions through laughter, the risks of being stressed and burned-out are minimized.

Aside from these benefits, therapeutic humour is also easy to practice. A comic book, a puzzle, or watching a funny show is enough to give patients a good time. Simply having a good laugh over nonsense qualifies a humour therapy. If these are not enough, there are joke sites in the internet that offer funny stuff. But remember that laughter cannot cure diseases by itself. It is just a complement to a traditional medical treatment.

For more valuable information on Humour, please visit http://www.2001-humour.com

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Do you have a stutter? Does one of your children have a stutter? Do you know somebody who has a stutter? This article is all about the speech impediment known as stuttering or stammering. It includes information about stuttering and also treatments which are available to help people who stutter to achieve fluency.

Stuttering is a much larger problem than many people think. Latest research suggests that as many as one percent of the population of the UK has a stuttering problem and that around eighty percent of these people are male.

I had a stutter for eighteen years. I have been informed that I started stuttering when I was only four years of age. I regularly attended speech therapy over the next fourteen years before deciding that it was unlikely to ever help me to achieve fluency.

The stutter was one huge frustration for me as at times I could talk very well. Certain situations such as when I felt under pressure or when I was very tired, was when speaking fluently became very hard for me. I had a number of words which I believed that I was unable to say and would often fear these type of sounds. I would go to great lengths to avoid having to say them, which was not that easy at times.

Some people I have met have become extremely good at hiding their own stutter. They have stated that most of the people that they know are not even aware that they have a speech impediment.

Other people are not able to hide their stutter in this way and will have what is perceived to be a much more severe stutter.

There are a number of treatments for stuttering including the normal route of speech therapy via the local doctor or hospital. Many people who stutter find this form of therapy very frustrating as there are often long waiting lists, and the sessions are normally quite short and irregular.

There is also private therapy in the form of people who have managed to overcome their own stutter. This can be on a one-to-one basis or in a group situation.

Other people attempt to seek help via hypnotherapy or confidence based courses.

I managed to overcome my own stutter after a lot of hard work and practice. It was not easy by any stretch of the imagination, however the results have totally transformed my life. I have now enjoyed speaking fluently for the last ten years.

I have met many people who stutter in that time and have been amazed to hear some of the stories of how they started to stutter. Contrary to popular belief it does not just originate in childhood but can start at any age. A traumatic event can at times trigger the start of a stutter problem in people as can certain forms of abuse.

If you have a stutter do not despair, help is available and fluency can be achieved if you have the right attitude and are willing to work hard to kill off your stuttering demons.

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