Carers, mothers, and family caregivers often lack the time and opportunity to take care of their own physical and mental health. Especially now during these uncertain and stressful times of the pandemic, when no social events are allowed. Having worked as a carer myself, I felt the need for supporting the carers and therefore I organised an online music therapy workshop within the Conscious Ageing (in Hungarian Tudatos Öregedés) project's Art-For-Care Programme.
My aim was twofold: to provide hands-on experience of the music therapy techniques and to show them how they can use music at home for their own and their families/clients' well-being.
I have started the workshop with a body percussion warm-up, which was followed by a short (I mean it :) ) presentation about music therapy just to give a framework for the three music therapy techniques that we tried: the drum circle, and singing, which also gave the participants an opportunity to talk about their everyday life as a carer, and finally the receptive music therapy for relaxation purposes. Participants were from four countries, and despite the challenges of the online platform, it also opened the channel to reach out to those who I couldn't have met otherwise. I would like to create a music therapy group for carers in the future, I think my insight into the profession gives me a unique understanding of the needs of these people, who I feel so compassionate towards.
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