COURSE AT-A-GLANCE
| TYPE | Self-Care CPD Training |
| TIME COMMITMENT | attendance at eight 2-hour face-to-face sessions the completion of the Reflective Workbook 8-weeks in total |
| LOCATION | OmNomIslington Square 116N Upper StreetLondonN1 2QP |
| TEACHERS | Mr. Risenga Makondo Dr. Gabriella F. Buttarazzi |
| SESSION DATES | TBC |
| SESSION TIMES | 10am—12pm each session is followed by a delicious vegetarian lunch from 12pm |
| FEE | £444 |
| ACCREDITATION | Yoga Alliance Professionals (YAP) |
COURSE AIMS
By the end of the course, attendees will be able to:
Understand the connection between music as therapeutic and music as meditative.
Explore a range of culturally diverse musical instruments, body movements and voice.
Experience guided meditations on natural sound and music and how they relate to the practical and philosophical elements of music therapy in the sessions.
Gain practical insight in combining music therapy and meditation—in an accessible and inclusive manner—into their personal and professional practice.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Training, accredited by both British Association of Music Therapists (BAMT) and Yoga Alliance Professionals (YAP), while also aligning with the five principles of CPD of the Health and Care Professional Council (HCPC).
The value of direct first-person experience
The eight sessions offer direct first-person experience into some of the ways that music therapy and meditation can be integrated coherently to diversify and amplify personal and professional practice. The curriculum has been carefully designed for two purposes:
- As Self-Care: to support the personal development and social-emotional wellbeing of education, and health and social care professionals who can experience burnout from their often physically and emotionally demanding professions.
- As CPD Training: to enable both music teachers/therapists and yoga therapists/yoga and meditation teachers to use what they learn and practice as part of their personal and professional repertoire, as well as for their annual CPD requirements.
Music Therapy and Meditation: A mutually enriching relationship
Music has an intensely immersive power. Heard by the ear yet felt throughout the entire body, music has a powerful impact on our mood and state of being. Music therapy and meditation are disciplines with practices and techniques that are both receptive and active. Both have a certain flexibility and openness which can support an accessible and inclusive space for self-exploration and self-understanding, whether individually or in groups.
Traditions of sacred sounds, musical instruments and words of power that can unlock the therapeutic and transcendental dimensions of being have always existed across time and space. All cultures across the world have adopted diverse aural modalities for creative expression, meditation, introspection and the healing of trauma. The tradition of the transformative power of sound is universal. Therapeutic practice requires a particular disposition that is intentional, attentional and attitudinal, a disposition which can be finetuned when it is approached with the presence and expansiveness that a meditation practice cultivates. Likewise, engaging with music both actively or receptively itself can be an expressive, generative, stillness or movement meditation.
As far back as historical data teaches, both music and meditation have played an important role in direct first-person human experience. Scientific evidence coupled with some proven efficacy of integral modalities is being more widely used to help health and social care professionals, therapists and teachers to craft effective music-based individual and group therapies, sessions and treatment plans that encourage both individual and collective physical/mental health and psychological wellbeing. Ancient beliefs and practices concerning music creation, natural sounds, moments of ‘no-sound’ or silence, voice and vibration are beginning to converge with scientific knowledge and technology.
These beliefs and practices are in turn influencing the development of new theories in neuroscience, psychology of wellbeing, transpersonal psychology, intrapersonal and interpersonal development, and human flourishing, which is precisely what this course aims to explore experientially and reflectively with attendees.
Week-by-week overview of the course topics
Weeks 1—2 Everything is Music
Weeks 3—4 The Roots of African Voices
Weeks 5—6 Earth, Water, Fire and Air
Weeks 7—8 An Integral Approach
What is included in the course fee
All attendees receive a hard and soft copy of the Reflective Workbook and a CPD certification upon successful completion of the course. All refreshments and lunchtime meals are included in the eight face-to-face sessions.