New modes of therapy help people cope with loss or anxiety
Briana Tomkinson, Special to the Montreal Gazette
For those grappling with tragedy or struggling to cope with social or emotional disorders, finding a healthy equilibrium can feel like an impossible challenge. But new research and techniques offer hope when traditional therapy fails.
Take music therapy; many people assume its goal is simply to cheer people up. Yet, according to music therapist Laurel Young, associate director of the Concordia University engAGE Centre for Research on Aging and associate professor in the department of creative arts therapies, music can also be a powerful trigger of cathartic expressions of anger, sadness, and nostalgia, as well as joy, happiness and peace.
In a study conducted by Young and music therapist Adrienne Pringle, singing interventions were used in a bereavement support group to understand how this could help participants work through feelings of loss and grief.
“When grieving, one is often very disconnected from oneself. You feel numb. Music therapy helped the group members to connect with themselves and to feel,” Young said. “One of the things they talked about was that it was a safe place to cry. They liked the fact that the singing didn’t stop. They could cry and they could feel the support of others’ voices around them while they expressed their grief.”
Of course, music isn’t the only way to evoke a powerful therapeutic response. Another study from Concordia researchers found that addressing internalized, negative beliefs about one’s self can significantly improve some symptoms of anxiety disorder.
Psychology professor Adam Radomsky, who holds Concordia’s research chair in anxiety and related disorders, oversaw a study of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder who felt compelled to repeatedly check that they hadn’t forgotten to take care of important things, like locking the door or turning off the stove. No matter how many times they checked, it didn’t relieve their anxiety about forgetting to take care of important details.
Typically, therapists treat anxiety disorders by urging clients to face their fears. But Radomsky tried a new approach, zeroing in on participants’ beliefs about memory. When study participants saw that they were actually very good at remembering things, they stopped checking so much.
For Radomsky, the study revealed how our beliefs about ourselves can create a self-reinforcing cycle that can feed either positive or negative patterns.
“The more you check something, the less sure you become, which is kind of counterintuitive. But in fact, the more you check, although your memory accuracy is unaffected, your confidence in memory falls,” Radomsky said. “By checking, you actually make your memory foggier, so you trust it less.”
This study is already changing how the two clinics operated by Concordia’s psychology department treat patients with anxiety disorders. By incorporating therapies designed to increase a person’s confidence in the ability to remember things and stay in control, therapists are able to help people who failed to benefit from previous therapy.
It can often take a decade or more for scientific studies to influence clinical practice, but because Concordia researchers work side-by-side with clinicians, Radomsky said they can bridge the gap between science and practice much more quickly.
“Many universities have training clinics, but we also have a research clinic where we can test out these new ideas,” Radomsky said. “When our doctoral students graduate, they have cutting-edge therapeutic training, benefiting from the latest science.”
Young also finds that maintaining a link to the clinical world outside academia enhances the quality of her teaching and research. Working with music therapy clients helps Young to understand how the latest research in music therapy, neuroscience and other related disciplines could be applied to make a real difference in people’s lives.
“It’s important to ensure that research has a practical component — that it’s more than just theoretical,” she said.
Managing stress with physical activity
Stéphane Brutus, RBC professor of motivation and employee performance at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business, knew that he felt better after cycling to work, but he was curious to see whether those good feelings could be validated in an objective study.
So he and his co-authors partnered with a Montreal IT company to survey employees about their moods and feelings of stress after they arrived at work, grouping the responses according to how people commuted.
The study revealed that cycling to work correlates with lower levels of stress. Meanwhile, drivers and public transit users reported feeling more stressed than cyclists.
Previous research has proved stress has a negative impact on everything from physical health, work performance and even personal relationships. So finding ways to effectively manage stress is important.
“In today’s lifestyle, people don’t have enough hours in the day,” Brutus said. “When you exercise on your way to work, you don’t have to exercise and go to work.”
For more health-related research from Concordia, visit concordia.ca/nextgenhealth.
This story was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of Concordia University.
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