Brain music therapy tunes into trouble
Music of the mind helps with stress and insomina
Bob Groves ; The Record (Hackensack, N.J.) KRT
Issue date: 10/19/05 Section: Life
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HACKENSACK, N.J.- On her compact disc, the music of Jennifer Depaws' mind sounds like a determined child plunking methodically away at a piano lesson.
Depaws, 22, is a dancer, not a pianist. Nor is she a composer; but her mind is filled with soundless, endless melodies that move her. She can't sing or hum the tunes going through her head.
She never even heard them until undergoing a novel treatment for stress and insomnia called "brain music therapy."
In one brief session, Dr. Galina Mindlin, a New York psychiatrist, recorded Depaws' brain waves and converted them to mood-altering musical notes, which were later transferred to a CD.
The idea is that the music so complements Depaws' basic mental state that she can listen to the CD to calm her down when she is anxious or to get her going when she needs energizing.
Neither New Age nor white noise, brain music therapy is similar to biofeedback but quicker and "more complex," said Mindlin, who has treated 300 patients with the technique.
"Brain music therapy works right away. For biofeedback, you need to come to the office for a series of EEGs. That requires a lot of sessions," she explained recently during a break between patients at her Madison Avenue office.
An electroencephalogram, or EEG, records the brain's electrical activity on a graph and is often used to detect a tumor or diagnose epilepsy. EEG biofeedback is a technique people learn to help control involuntary processes such as heartbeat and blood pressure.
Brain music evaluation and recording is brief, but the patient must use it on a regular basis to reap any subliminal therapeutic value, Mindlin said.
"You must be consistent; treat it like medicine," she said.
Brain music, in fact, can be used in combination with more serious medicine, such as psychotropic drugs, for patients being treated for bipolar disorders, Mindlin said.
The therapy can help autistic children become calmer and sleep better, she said.