3rd EAMI Conference in Denmark

Keynotes

DISLOCATION, DISPLACEMENT AND RE-CONNECTION: GIM DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

by Denise Grocke, Australia

Abstract: As we enter year 3 of the Covid-19 pandemic there is much to reflect on. We have lived through the experience of dislocation within ourselves and for our loved ones; and a displacement of the normal rhythm of the day, week, month and year. The restrictions placed on us have provided time to reflect and appreciate the privileges and freedoms of our previously enjoyed life. Our collective experience has elements that are similar to the Hero/Heroine’s journey, in which there is a descent into the nadir. Through the lived experience of the nadir lie the gifts of the journey, which prompts the question: what are the gifts from this extraordinary period of time? What can we learn about the power of music and GIM in catastrophic times? What is the music that accompanies the nadir? This presentation will capture some of the lessons of the descent and, drawing on studies within the GIM literature and beyond, we will trace the resilience of GIM therapists in meeting the demands and challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic to support GIM clients and ultimately ourselves.

BIO: Dr Denise Grocke AO, PhD, RMT, RGIMT, FAMI is Professor Emerita in Music Therapy at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne, where she founded the music therapy course in 1978. She retired from teaching in 2012 and in 2016 was awarded the Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) for her pioneering work in music therapy as a practitioner, researcher, author and teacher.
Denise has been a Primary Trainer in the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) since 1994 and has published extensively on music therapy and GIM through articles, book chapters and texts. Recent publications are as editor of Guided Imagery and Music: The Bonny Method and Beyond 2nd edition (2019); co-author of Receptive Music Therapy (1st edition 2007, 2nd edition, 2022), and co-editor with Torben Moe of Guided Imagery & Music and Music Imagery Methods for Individuals and Groups (2015).

TOGETHER IN MUSIC: PHENOMENOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS OF MUSIC MATERIAL

by Simon Høffding, Denmark

Abstract: In this talk, I present some key findings from my phenomenological investigations on musical expertise as summed up in my monograph A phenomenology of Musical Absorption. For the last 8 years or so, I have been touring with, interviewing, and conducting experiments with The Danish String Quartet (DSQ) – one of the world’s leading classical ensembles today. Having performed together as a tightly knit group for 10-15.000 hours has, I show, changed the structure of their consciousness. Their minds have become resilient to stress, robust yet flexible, but also subject to mental experimentation into zones of dissociation, out-of-body experience, hyper-reflection, amnesia, and sleep-like or blackout-like states. After presenting a general topography of such musical absorption, I focus on the DSQ’s sense of togetherness and analyze the different ways in which they partake in a single performance and a single mind. Here it becomes evident that processes of cognitive empathy, of “putting oneself in the other’s musical shoes” cannot essentially explain the constitution of such a shared mind, which is better understood through analyses of pre-reflective bodily self-awareness and a sense of resonant affect.

Finally, I ask whether we can find any important structural similarities between the musical journeys of such an expert ensemble and that of therapist and client’s relation and development over the course of GIM-interventions.

Simon Høffding is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Southern Denmark. He obtained his PhD from the Centre for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen in 2015 and has since held positions at the Interactive Minds Centre, University of Aarhus, and at the Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen. His main interests are in phenomenology, 4E cognition, (bodily) self‐awareness, aesthetic experiences, musical absorption, expertise studies, shared minds, and improvisation. He pursues these interests through interdisciplinary methodologies combining phenomenological analysis, ethnographic field work and psychophysiological experiments. This work is published in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Journal of Consciousness Studies, Topoi, Synthese, Mind & Language, and Musicae Scientiae and in his first monograph, A Phenomenology of Musical Absorption (Palgrave Macmillan).

IS MUSIC A HIDDEN THERAPIST IN PSYCHEDELIC THERAPY?

by Dea Siggaard Stenbæk, Denmark

Abstract: Serotonin 2A receptor stimulation with the psychedelic compound psilocybin is emerging as a promising novel therapeutic for treating depression and other neuropsychiatric illnesses. The psilocybin-induced psychedelic experience (i.e., altered state of consciousness, sensory distortions/synesthesia, mystical type experiences and ego dissolution) lasts ~6 hours and is in current best practice supported by carefully selected music. However, we need a better understanding of the proposed synergy between music and acute effects of psilocybin, and whether music can also be used to prepare research participants for the psilocybin intervention. Such knowledge would critically inform us about the clinical utility of music in psychedelic therapy. In my presentation, I will present a series of five studies, where we 1) evaluated the emotional response to music induced by psilocybin as compared to serotonin 2A receptor blocking with ketanserin, including 2) underlying functional changes in brain dynamics of this emotional response, and 3) the association between participant’s perceived effects of music during the acute effects of psilocybin and other prototypical psychedelic experiences such as mystical type experiences and ego-dissolution. I will also 4) present an ongoing study of a novel GIM-inspired music exercise which we are currently testing as part of the preparation for the psilocybin intervention, and I will 5) briefly describe a novel music program which we developed for use during psilocybin interventions. During my presentation results from other of our psilocybin studies at Rigshospitalet will be also presented.

CV: My name is Dea Siggaard Stenbæk, I am a licensed clinical psychologist with a PhD in neuroscience. Currently I am employed at Institute of Psychology, Copenhagen University, and Neurobiology Research Unit, Rigshospitalet, as Associate Professor and head the Psychedelic Psychology Group at Center for Psychedelic Research. In addition, I am currently finishing my four-year training as GIM therapist.

"Afternoon" keynote:

SURRENDERING INTO THE MUSIC – A MUSICIAN´S PERSPECTIVE

by Katrine Gislinge, Denmark

Abstract: Based on her experiences as an international reknowned chamber music and solo concert pianist, Katrine Gislinge will unfold her thoughts on music and the way it touches us. She will tell how life with heart blood and crises has been interwoven with her explorations of many facets of music. She will focus on her definition of freedom of expression, and how this freedom can be heard in the music, illustrated by recordings of GIM music pieces from concerts with different musicians. She will also talk about the phenomenon of the point of surrender, opening for an experience of being one with music – with a parallel to the GIM experience. Katrine will perform the keynote presentation as a dialogue with GIM therapist Bolette Beck.

Katrine Gislinge is educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, debut concert 1992. Has played both solo and chamber music concerts all over Europe and the USA.

Over the last three decades, Katrine Gislinge has established herself as one of Scandinavia's leading and most prominent pianists, and with her formidable will to express herself and exceptional empathy for music, she positions herself as one of the most significant artists in Denmark. Katrine Gislinge's repertoire ranges from Bach to the very latest music, and has especially distinguished herself as an interpreter of Mozart's piano concsertos,

Abstract: Based on her experiences as an internationally reknown chamber music and solo concert pianist, Katrine Gislinge will unfold her thoughts on music and the way it touches us. She will tell how life with heart blood and crises has been interwoven with her explorations of many facets of music. She will focus on her definition of freedom of expression, and how this freedom can be heard in the music, illustrated by recordings of GIM music pieces from concerts with different musicians. She will also talk about the phenomenon of the point of surrender, opening for an experience of being one with music – with a parallel to the GIM experience. Katrine will perform the keynote presentation as a dialogue with GIM therapist Bolette Beck.

Katrine Gislinge is educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, debut concert 1992. Has played both solo and chamber music concerts all over Europe and the USA.

Over the last three decades, Katrine Gislinge has established herself as one of Scandinavia's leading and most prominent pianists, and with her formidable will to express herself and exceptional empathy for music, she positions herself as one of the most significant artists in Denmark. Katrine Gislinge's repertoire ranges from Bach to the very latest music, and has especially distinguished herself as an interpreter of Mozart's piano concertos.

Abstract: Based on her experiences as an internationally reknown chamber music and solo concert pianist, Katrine Gislinge will unfold her thoughts on music and the way it touches us. She will tell how life with heart blood and crises has been interwoven with her explorations of many facets of music. She will focus on her definition of freedom of expression, and how this freedom can be heard in the music, illustrated by recordings of GIM music pieces from concerts with different musicians. She will also talk about the phenomenon of the point of surrender, opening for an experience of being one with music – with a parallel to the GIM experience. Katrine will perform the keynote presentation as a dialogue with GIM therapist Bolette Beck.

Katrine Gislinge is educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, debut concert 1992. Has played both solo and chamber music concerts all over Europe and the USA.

Over the last three decades, Katrine Gislinge has established herself as one of Scandinavia's leading and most prominent pianists, and with her formidable will to express herself and exceptional empathy for music, she positions herself as one of the most significant artists in Denmark. Katrine Gislinge's repertoire ranges from Bach to the very latest music, and has especially distinguished herself as an interpreter of Mozart's piano concertos.

The preliminary culmination of Katrine Gislinge's work with Mozart's concerts came in the spring of 2018, where she - together with the Swedish ”Stenhammer Quartet – on. Next to Mozart, the main emphasis is on Katrine Gislinge's programs in the classical piano repertoire - Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy; but in recent years there has been an expansion of her repertoire including modern classical compositions. Katrine studies philosophy on Copenhagen University.

Preconference workshop:

PREVENTING BURNOUT, COMPASSION FATIGUE AND SECONDARY TRAUMATIC STRESS IN MENTALLY DEMANDING JOBS

with Rikke Høgsted, Denmark

The work of protecting, treating and helping other people is enriching and meaningful. In this often very important period of the other person's life, you are as a professional able to contribute with competence and care. However, in order to remain both professional and caring, it is important to have an eye for your own reactions so that you do not experience mental imbalance in the form of stress, burnout or traumatization etc. As a professional, you must be able to continuously create a present, trusting, and calm contact with the other person, and at the same time keep the balance within yourself between not being over-involved with the risk of becoming thin-skinned, but also not being under-involved and thus thick-skinned. Keeping the balance is not always easy. This workshop is based on the understanding that preventing burnout, compassion fatigue and secondary traumatization is a team sport that can only succeed if everyone in the organization understand their role and responsibilities. It takes a whole organization to prevent a trauma!

Rikke Høgsted is a crisis psychologist, author, lecturer and consultant with a long and broad experience in stress psychology from working as a consultant in the Danish Red Cross and the Danish Cancer Society. Rikke has furthermore worked as a military psychologist in the Danish Defense, been the Chief Psychologist of Falck Healthcare as well as Development Manager in the Regional Psychiatry. Among numerous projects, Rikke has solved crisis psychological tasks in Iraq and Afghanistan and provided Danish shipping companies emergency assistance in connection with accidents, hostage situations and other critical events around the world. In 2018, Rikke published "Grundbog i Belastningspsykologi – Forebyggelse af primær og sekundær traumatisering ved psykisk krævende arbejde". See more at Rikke's website (in Danish): www.belastningspsykologi.dk.

Your returns on the workshop:
• Insight into the psychology of mental strain - knowledge about what makes an impact and thus potentially stresses and at worst leads to mental work injuries
• A good eye for the danger signals within yourself, as well as colleagues or employees
• Ideas for sustainable strategies in the form of concrete prevention tools at multiple levels - individual, group and organizational.
• A common language that qualifies a further dialogue and work with the subject