In a perfect world, psychiatric patients would go into therapy with practitioners who were “issue free” so they could present their problems to an expert who also is a blank screen. But in reality, therapists approach each patient with their own emotional baggage that may inadvertently leak into the patient-practitioner relationship. Both therapists and dual diagnosis patients are involved in internal “emotional dueling,” which often hinders both the quality of the therapeutic relationship and the desired results.

At a Drumming for Your Life (DFYL) Workshop, using the drum as a therapeutic vehicle, therapists are provided the opportunity to explore the parallel process that occurs in the addict with his/her psychiatric illness and in the therapist (or any practitioner) with his/her underlying emotional issues. Within each of us, there is a “protector” that seeks to create a barrier between our dark side and our conscious mind. For the patient, the protector is “the addict” who shelters the patient from his/her mental illness. The act of being a healer serves to protect the therapist from his/her own emotional issues.

The DFYL process uses the drum journey as a way to gain access to and integrate the conscious and unconscious mind. We travel into the body using the drum and first work with the identity of “the therapist” in the chest and heart area, awakening the energy and emotions connected to that area. Once “the therapist’s” identity has fully come alive and is fully expressed, we move the energy down into the lower stomach and pelvic area where the emotional history/issues of the therapist are awakened. The drumming awakens these feelings and breaks through the barrier the therapist has with his/her own feelings.
Connections are made through the drumming because the conscious/unconscious mind is innately integrated with the body.

In the group process, there are times when it sounds like complete chaos. This phenomenon occurs because each person’s issues and how they handle them are unique. Each person independently plays the expression of individual emotions and discoveries. There also will be times in the drumming when everyone in the group starts playing the same rhythm at the same time. This is a reflection of the plateaus of healing that take place among all the participants, and they happen simultaneously.

The final stage of the journey is in connecting the energy of “the therapists” with the energy of their emotional issues. The drumming is the vehicle of integration. At first, there can be struggles between these two aspects of the therapist (conscious awareness of issues coming up and the attempt to keep these issues down). There is an adjustment phase in developing greater intimacy between these two aspects of self. The need to control may arise, or a state of confusion in relation to identity may occur. The drumming takes the participant inside these controlled or confused areas. And through the expression of deep feelings, a new understanding emerges. Greater compassion is realized as the emotional/psychological energy integration is embraced.

Throughout the journey the drum is the vehicle of travel from conscious to unconscious mind. It opens the passageways into each person’s history and connects the therapist to his/her own healing process. The drum’s energy is circular, releasing energy out of the body and then bringing it back into the body. The drum connects within the body what is necessary to awaken the healing powers inside.

Because participants are always playing the drum during a workshop journey, the energy is always moving. This movement takes people deeper into trust, allowing new relationships to find one other. The trust attained becomes a major part of the healing process. It is in trust that “the therapist” aspect can let go of the reigns of control because the relationship to control changes. The intimacy of trust through this healing process deepens the therapist’s rhythmic ability to connect with patients. Traveling with greater ease between conscious and unconscious realms gives the therapist greater access to those same places in the patient. Ultimately, this state of awareness leads to the integrative healing desired by both.

Sidebar
The drumming therapy work of the Drumming for Your Life Institute began more than seven years ago, when Steven Angel, a child drumming prodigy, began to explore using drums as a way to help others confront the emotional issues that stood in the way of fulfilling their potential.

The first sessions were conducted at detention camps, where at-risk youth were struggling with deep emotional wounds, drug issues, and mental illness. Success there led to an invitation to bring this work to the Genesis House treatment facility for hard-core addicts and to other detention camps and rehabilitation facilities. At the Mary Lind Foundation, a rehabilitation facility for the homeless, emotional improvements were documented by The Beck Depression Inventory.

Building upon this early foundation, the therapy has been expanded to service patients at a variety of facilities and to group workshops for therapists who work with patients with addictions and/or mental illness. Most recently, the therapist workshops have been presented at dual diagnosis conventions in Los Angeles and Knoxville, both of which received outstanding evaluations by participants. The group sessions have been shown to be transformative both for patients with addiction and/ or mental illness and for the therapists who work with them.

Steven Angel, president of the nonprofit Drumming for Your Life Institute in Santa Monica, California, facilitates drum therapy sessions at a number of dual diagnosis rehabilitation centers in California. He also leads workshops across the nation, upon request, for psychotherapists and health educators. To learn more about the work of the Institute, visit www.dfyl.org.

This article is published in Counselor,The Magazine for Addiction Professionals, December 2005, v.6, n.6, pp.68-69.

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