Benenzon music therapy

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Rolando O. Benenzon · 1965 · Buenos Aires, Argentina

What it is

No published phase model with numbered stages and transition criteria, and no fixed within-session sequence (warm-up, sound dialogue, closing or similar), appears in Benenzon's papers or the secondary sources used, so none is given here. The 2005 paper refers to a chapter titled "Los 15 pasos…

Format

• No published phase model with numbered stages and transition criteria, and no fixed within-session sequence (warm-up, sound dialogue, closing or similar), appears in Benenzon's papers or the secondary sources used, so none is given here. The 2005 paper refers to a chapter titled "Los 15 pasos…
• Version followed: the classic Benenzon model of music therapy (musicoterapia / "musicopsicoterapia") as Rolando O. Benenzon set it out in his 2005 clinical paper on Alzheimer's disease (ISO typology, intermediary objects, holding/setting, energetic exchange cycle). His 2019 reformulation as…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Session format the sources describe: patient and therapist sit facing each other, surrounded by the instruments available to them, and play together. The room holds a plentiful, varied set of instruments that need no musical training, a way to play recorded material, and audio-visual recording of sessions. Each therapist assembles their own set of instruments, the GOI (see 4.20). The sources used give no session…
• Professional frame. This is a named school or model within music therapy and psychotherapy. It is not a separately regulated profession. Benenzon trains people through his own institutions. In 2019 the full route was described as five years in the online Benenzon academy, across seven levels, with personal individual and group Benenzon therapy and ongoing "co-corporeo-percepción" (group case work). In Italy, a Turin…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Falls, dizziness and orthostatic drops in older adults. Keep the floor clear.
• Self-hitting that turns harmful. If so, redirect to a drum or a softer surface.
• Rituals becoming mechanical, or serving the therapist rather than the patient. Tailor them to each case.
• One member monopolising the object. If so, introduce a second or larger object that more people can play at once.
• Passivity being mistaken for contemplation when a patient needs safety action. Clinical risk duties always come first.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.