Using altered states of consciousness in improvisational music therapy : the potential of resonance frequency breathing

2018

Improvisational music therapy is a type of creative arts therapy in which clients are encouraged to express themselves through the symbolic and non-verbal medium of music, by creating free music improvisations together with the therapist. The present research aims at investigating whether the efficacy of this method can be further enhanced by purposefully accessing the ego-quieting properties of altered states of consciousness. This work proceeds in three main steps. First, the notions of consciousness and its alteration are examined and reformulated, resulting in a more comprehensive theoretical model. Then, existing methods for inducing altered states of consciousness are evaluated in ter…