Music Relaxation Exercise
Preparation:
- Determine where this exercise will take place within the session (beginning, middle or end) or if this will be the focus of the session and for how long it will last
- Take into consideration the adolescent’s ability to concentrate when determining the length of the relaxation exercise
- Prepare a relaxing and calming space to conduct session
- Dim lights, quiet, comfortable chair/couch or yoga mat to lie down
- Introduce the experience by preparing the adolescent physically and emotionally about what is going to happen
Music Selection
- Familiar, self-selected music is always best with adolescents, though for imagery guided sessions, instrumental versions of songs should be used
- Sample contemporary & relaxing instrumental songs include:
- “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve
- “Photograph” By Ed Sheeran
- “Just the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars
- “Someone Like You” by Adele
- Meditative and instrumental trance music is also suitable for this age group
Procedure
- After the exercised has been introduced and you have allowed the client to get comfortable in the space, begin playing the music at a low volume and ask the adolescent to close her eyes and relax their mind and body
- Guide the adolescent into a state of mental and physical relaxation by talking them through an ‘imagery script’
- *Excerpt of an imagery script:“Become aware of your breathing. Feel what happens when you breath in…and breath out…Feel the flow of your breath entering your body and leaving it again, like a wave washing up onto the beach and then back down into the ocean…As you breath out, you let go…and relax..Now you begin to feel very light, with soft breathing helping you to relax more and more…”
- Examples of full guided imagery scripts can be found here
- Gently bring adolescent back to their body, and the here and now
- “The music has finished now…become aware of your body lying on the couch/in the chair/on the mat…become aware of the sounds around you…give your body a stretch…stretch your arms…your legs…and take a deep breath in and out…and in your own time sit up nice and slow, gently opening your eyes.”
- Debrief about the experience: you might ask the adolescent to draw the experience or you can engage in a discussion about how that experience was for them. Were they aware of the music, and was it helpful? Were they relaxed? How do they feel now?
*Receptive Methods in Music Therapy: Techniques and Clinical Applications for Music Therapy Clinicians, Educators, and Students by Denise Grocke and Tony Wigram (p.86, 87).