Often when working with addictions, if I know that someone can play an instrument I would offer them a challenge. Which they have always taken up without exception.
I have used various instruments in this way, namely piano, guitar and saxaphone. The challenge is that when playing thier instrument they would not be allowed to play any known score, the music would have to come from the heart. Of course this is a trust issue I would entirley trust that they would not play any known score.
With the piano one sernario would be to tell the story of the tree that the panio was made from, for example from when it fell as a seed to the ground to taking root and sprouting into a sappling and then growing into a fully grown tree,. They could tell the group through the music if anything had happened to the tree, had anyone carved his girlfriends name into the bark, had a deer rubbed up against it, were birds nesting in it and so on, right up to even telling us how it felt when the woodcutter had come to cut it down. To being driven away in a truck to the woodmill and then how it felt being made into a panio to now were it can create some amazing music.
One of the people taking part in this exercise said to me at the end "by the way Geoffrey the tree was taken away by a horse and cart" now thats what I call being connected.
Another person played his guitar and as always with this exercise I get them to connect with thier higher power and ask them to see a white light entering through the top of thier heads helping them to create the music from thier heart.
At the end of his experince I would asked them to remain silent, its at this point I turn to the group who have been sat around in a semi circle supporting them on an energtic level and ask them what was their personal experince of the music?
On one occasion a woman responed by saying that the person playing was playing his life story which in deed is what I asked him to do. Often the music will transport each indivdual to an experince they have had to do with thier addicition and it is at this point we open up the group process. I would also be watching the group to see if anyone is having a reaction to the music, this is another way in for me to help address their issues.
Some of the storys they have to tell just from connecting to the music are simply quite amazing.
I have used various instruments in this way, namely piano, guitar and saxaphone. The challenge is that when playing thier instrument they would not be allowed to play any known score, the music would have to come from the heart. Of course this is a trust issue I would entirley trust that they would not play any known score.
With the piano one sernario would be to tell the story of the tree that the panio was made from, for example from when it fell as a seed to the ground to taking root and sprouting into a sappling and then growing into a fully grown tree,. They could tell the group through the music if anything had happened to the tree, had anyone carved his girlfriends name into the bark, had a deer rubbed up against it, were birds nesting in it and so on, right up to even telling us how it felt when the woodcutter had come to cut it down. To being driven away in a truck to the woodmill and then how it felt being made into a panio to now were it can create some amazing music.
One of the people taking part in this exercise said to me at the end "by the way Geoffrey the tree was taken away by a horse and cart" now thats what I call being connected.
Another person played his guitar and as always with this exercise I get them to connect with thier higher power and ask them to see a white light entering through the top of thier heads helping them to create the music from thier heart.
At the end of his experince I would asked them to remain silent, its at this point I turn to the group who have been sat around in a semi circle supporting them on an energtic level and ask them what was their personal experince of the music?
On one occasion a woman responed by saying that the person playing was playing his life story which in deed is what I asked him to do. Often the music will transport each indivdual to an experince they have had to do with thier addicition and it is at this point we open up the group process. I would also be watching the group to see if anyone is having a reaction to the music, this is another way in for me to help address their issues.
Some of the storys they have to tell just from connecting to the music are simply quite amazing.
When I next try this exercise I would like to get two people with a drum each and one will tell the story of them as an addicit about to buy some drugs from a dealer or being found out about thier alcohol addiction by thier spouse, the other drummer will take on the oppisite role and play out the events that may occour from this experince and then maybe move onto how they would like it to be now, i.e. the dealer offers them a fix and they respond by turning it down by playing how they would feel and actully feel about this...
Then the group process steps in again to work though thier story. So you can see just from this one exerecise there is so much that could be achieved.
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