For Those About to Rock (With Your High School Students), We Salute You: School Counselors Using Music Interventions

Abstract

Music has a significant impact on the daily lives of adolescents. This article provides music interventions that school counselors can use with adolescents: music listening/sharing, lyric revision, improvisation, and use in classroom guidance lessons. Also provided are the benefits, limitations, and ethical considerations for using music interventions while considering issues of imposing or validating values, confidentiality, and duty to warn with students. A case illustration demonstrating the integration of music interventions into a school counseling session with a student experiencing academic and behavioral problems is provided. Recommendations for school counseling practice are presented.

Music as a healing methodology amongst adolescents in a disadvantaged community, in South Africa

“…One participant shared that she had a song book, which served as a journal within which she could write down her feelings. Similarly, another expressed that by writing songs, she could feel a sense of calm as song writing helped her to feel happy when she felt suicidal Kimbel and Protivnak (2010). argued that song writing can increase adolescents' self-esteem and self-expression.…”