People sometimes think that what we do with the Lost Voices kids is music therapy. It is certainly related, in that our work does completely revolve around the deeply therapeutic aspects of music. We initially developed our process back in 2006 in a facility that had an on-site music therapist, and she found that it interfaced perfectly with her treatment goals.
Lost Voices actually employs a different process than traditional music therapy. While we consistently use and collaborate with the youth in musical tones and rhythms, our real focus is on verbal expression. We concentrate on the lyrics, offering the kids a freedom to verbalize their feelings in ways that they may have rarely experienced.
A few years ago I had the privilege of attending a virtual conference on understanding and treating trauma that included Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. Dr. van der Kolk is a professor of psychiatry at the Boston University School of Medicine, director of the National Treatment Network, and one of the world’s leading experts in the field. In his book, The Body Keeps the Score, he explains how trauma can literally reshape the brain and body:
Research… has revealed that trauma produces actual physiological changes, including a recalibration of the brain’s alarm system, an increase in stress hormone activity, and alterations in the system that filters relevant information from irrelevant. We know that trauma compromises the brain area that communicates the physical, embodied feeling of being alive.
In talking about ways to deal with these changes, he points out that art, music, and dance can “circumvent the speechlessness that comes with terror.” To me, that one phrase is a great way to think about the essence of music therapy. He then goes on to quote as an example a study in which dance therapy coupled directly with written expression accomplished significantly better results than sample groups who underwent dance or written therapy alone.
Lost Voices lives in this non-judgmental intersection of musical and verbal expression, and we’ve found that it forges a powerful new road to healing from trauma. We brainstorm ideas with the groups and with the individuals, honoring wherever their feelings take them, and collaborate with them to weave those feelings into a tapestry of song. In the process they will open up and begin to build resilience around some of those trauma-altered pathways, which is why they experience significant breakthroughs in our sessions.
And that is why Lost Voices exists.
