Meet Nicki
Meet Nicki. Nicki is an undergraduate engineering student at a university in a busy urban centre. She has been having a difficult time dealing with the stress associated with juggling school work, her job, as well as social and family commitments. Her RA suggested that she explore some of the programs which her student wellness centre had to offer, and this is where Nicki was connected to her music therapist. Music therapy seemed like a useful choice to her because she loves listening to music in her spare time, and has found that she can really feel the ways that music can affect her mood. After getting to know Nicki a little bit her music therapist suggested they work on a playlist together. The purpose of this playlist is to provide Nicki with something specific to use when she feels particularly anxious and stressed out. Her therapist thought that a playlist project would be a good fit because it was something that she would have control over creating and something that built upon a habit that Nicki already used to support herself - listening to music. Nicki and her music therapist worked together to figure out which musical elements supported her relaxation to music:
Calming lyrics
Acoustic guitar accompaniment
Slow speed or tempo
Gentle treble vocals
They then spent time in a few of their sessions choosing songs which fit this criteria and which Nicki liked enough to put on her playlist. The playlist has 10 songs and is saved to her phone, she can pull it up whenever she needs her playlist to support her. This activity supported Nicki in a few different ways; It provided her with a tool that she can use in her day to day life, choosing songs gave her some insights into her musical preferences and how she interacts with music, and the chats she had about the songs with her music therapist gave her some new perspective on how busy she was as a student, and why she was so stressed out. Nicki has found that going to music therapy sessions so far has not only given her some real, tangible tools to use in her day to day life, but that it has changed the way she sees her listening habits in general. She’s started listening to music with a bit of a different ear, identifying specific sounds and words that speak to her in unique ways, and while she still listens to music for pleasure of course, she’s started noticing the ways in which music supports her, and how she in turn supports herself with music. Her life probably isn’t going to become magically unstressful anytime soon, but she feels like she has one more thing at her disposal to make this time in her life more manageable.
