Jaakko Erkkilä, Suvi Saarikallio, and Olivier Brabant, University of Jyväskylä, will present their previous and current research focussing on integrative improvisational music therapy in the treatment of depression.

Integrative improvisational music therapy (IIMT) is a model that has been developed in Jyväskylä and has been successfully applied in an RCT for depression (see Erkkilä et al. in British Journal of Psychiatry, 199).

Seminar participants will gain knowledge about the theoretical background and working principles of IIMT, and about ways of applying this model as a means for accessing preconscious experience and emotions in clinical practice.

The seminar is free, but since it includes lunch we need you to register.

Register now, registration closes September 20.

Jaakko Erkkilä and colleagues have recently also developed two enhancements that can be applied within IIMT in addition to improvisations and verbal reflections:

1. Home-based listening to recorded improvisations from MT sessions to facilitate integration of therapeutic processing into daily life; and
2. resonance frequency breathing, a breathing exercise at the beginning of each session to facilitate emotional expression and processing.

In Norway IIMT, with these enhancements, will be applied in a pilot study jointly conducted by AFE, Uni Research Health and GAMUT, Uni Research Health.  The study will take place autumn 2018 using the infrastructure provided by the newly developed regional research network in primary care, PraksisNett Vest.

Dr. Jaakko Erkkilä is professor of music therapy at the Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä (UJy), Finland. Currently he runs the music therapy master’s training (UJy) and two clinical music therapy trainings (Eino Roiha Foundation).

At the moment his research focuses on improvisational music therapy for depression and anxiety and he runs an Academy of Finland project (2016-2020) called ”No Pain No Gain – Integrative Improvisational Music Therapy for Depression» on the topic. He has published several chapters and articles on theory, practice and research of psychodynamic, and integrative music therapy, recently mainly focussing on clinical improvisation

Dr. Suvi Saarikallio is a Docent of Music Psychology, working at the Center for Interdisciplinary Music Research, at University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She is an internationally well-known expert of music as a part of emotionality, wellbeing, and adolescent development. In her research, she combines approaches from music psychology, music therapy, and music education to investigate music as a part of emotional health, using methods from qualitative theory development to motion capture, neural measures, and psychometrics.

Olivier Brabant holds a Master’s degree in Music Therapy. He is currently finishing his doctoral studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. His research interests include non-ordinary states of consciousness and their therapeutic benefits, as well as the promotion of insight, creativity, and emotional regulation in music therapy through the use of methods derived from heart rate variability biofeedback.