Healing through Music - Music therapy in child neuropsychiatric setting and psychiatry

Many mental health problems are linked to emotional, relational, social and low motivation issues. It is, therefore, not surprising that music, a highly rewarding social art related to emotions, has been used to promote mental health. Systematic reviews of random controlled studies have shown that music therapy has beneficial effects and also highlight the limitations of current research, especially the lack of diversity in results. Music therapy differs in terms of activities, settings and goals. We, therefore, need more detailed research to understand better which kind of music therapy (from listening to different types of active music therapy approaches) is conducted by whom and in which setting is most valuable for specific patients and aims.

Speaker:

• Christian Gold, professor at NORCE Bergen (NOR)

Testimonial:

• Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells, researcher at CBPU and ICREA Barcelona (ES)

Discussant:

• Andrea Raballo, USI professor in psychiatric medicine

Christian Gold

He graduated in music therapy from the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and completed a PhD in music therapy at the University of Aalborg (Denmark). He is a lecturer at the Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE) in Bergen, the University of Bergen and the University of Vienna and has carried out a wide range of studies on promoting mental health through music and psychosocial programmes. He has recently focused on the use of brain imaging to improve our understanding of action mechanisms and processes.

Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells

He obtained his PhD from the University of Barcelona. In 2004 he became a research chair at ICREA (the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies) and subsequently created his own research group (the Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit) at the Biomedical Research Institute of Barcelona University’s Bellvitge Hospital, focussing on the study of the learning process and brain plasticity in healthy patients and those with brain injuries.

Andrea Raballo

He graduated in medicine and surgery in 2000 from Parma University, specialising in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. In 2011, he obtained a doctorate from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). In 2022, he was appointed head of academic training and research at the Canton Sociopsychiatric Organisation with clinical responsibilities and became a tenured professor of psychiatry at the USI Faculty of Biomedical Sciences.

Music programme

NoaNoa for flute and live electronics - Kaija Saariaho (1952*)
Performed by: Letizia Caspani (flute) and Danilo Gervasoni (live electronics)

Find the complete course programme here