Using Music in Emotional Regulation

In a previous post, I described about a new method I learned to deal with emotional regulation called, הפרוטוקול הגמיש. This method teaches people how to understand, and control their various emotions in a fun, interesting and controlled method. One aspect that I particularly connected to, was the ability to use music, art and drama as part of the program. Other CBT methods that I had seen didn’t use the whole array of creative tools that this method used. While some people don’t need or want the various creative means, other people don’t respond well without them. I find it particularly useful to use various creative tools when working with kids, young adults, and people with special needs (though not exclusively ).

One component of emotional regulation, is learning in depth about each emotion. We learn about the purpose of the emotion, how it expresses itself for that particular person, when it most often arises, to what degree do we feel the emotion, and how can we control it. When learning about the various emotions, we can for example, listen to different songs about an emotion, and use the songs lyrics to further analyse the emotion. We can write our own song that personalizes how to relate to a particular emotion. We can also use improvisation (which requires no previous musical knowledge) to explore the emotion and how it affects us on an unconscious level. These are just a few small examples of ways in which music can be used.