Jungian Music Psychotherapy

Rezensionen / Stimmen

"Joel Kroeker's Jungian Music Psychotherapy significantly helps round out the rich array of tools Jung left therapists everywhere. By reminding us that all "ideas" we have of the psyche are metaphors for energy systems, he brings us back to the elemental rhythms, harmonies, and discordances which hum beneath the surface of things. Just as Pater asserted that "all art aspires to the [wordless] condition of music," so Kroeker recalls us to re-sonate with the energies which drive our lives, and furthers the assignment of therapy to recover a relationship to those elemental soundings which resonate in our blood, our souls, and our imaginations." - James Hollis, Ph.D., Jungian analyst and author, USA As a musician and student of Jung, I have been waiting for this book all my life. Intelligently and comprehensively Kroeker explores the musical in every aspect of psychotherapy. I know that it isn't easy to write words about music, but this book handles that problem deftly. If you have any musical sense at all, you will enjoy this sophisticated way of seeing how music makes art out of life. - Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul

Joel Kroeker's Jungian Music Psychotherapy significantly helps round out the rich array of tools Jung left therapists everywhere. By reminding us that all "ideas" we have of the psyche are metaphors for energy systems, he brings us back to the elemental rhythms, harmonies, and discordances which hum beneath the surface of things. Just as Pater asserted that "all art aspires to the [wordless] condition of music," so Kroeker recalls us to resonate with the energies which drive our lives, and furthers the assignment of therapy to recover a relationship to those elemental soundings which resonate in our blood, our souls, and our imaginations. - James Hollis, PhD, Jungian analyst and author, Washington, D.C

Joel Kroeker's book is a valuable contribution to both music psychotherapy and Jungian psychology. It is the first book to unite the two fields and bring a depth psychology approach to the growing field of music and vocal psychotherapy. Singing can give us access to the invisible world: the world of imagery, memory and association by giving a voice to aspects of the self normally not heard from. In Jung's words: "Music reaches the deep archetypal material that we can only sometimes reach in our analytic work with patients." Music allows the image and the feelings associated with the complex to be channeled into a concrete form so that the ego can then relate to a previously unknown aspect of the unconscious and begin to integrate it into one's self-image thus assisting in the individuation process. - Dr. Diane Austin, Professor of Music Therapy NYU, Director of the Music Psychotherapy Center, music and vocal psychotherapist and author, New York City, USA

Joel Kroeker writes passionately of the centrality of music in the life of the soul - and brilliantly! All in the key of Jung. To stir and to cure and to help the soul endure, there is nothing like music. This book is a most welcome addition to the library on the theory and practice of contemporary Jungian psychoanalysis. - Murray Stein, PhD, author of Soul: Treatment and Recovery

Joel Kroeker's book is an incisive roadmap to Jungian archetypal music psychotherapy. An inspiring book that beautifully takes you to the journey of symbolic listening, intrapsychic soundscape, and the endless stream of sound-based metaphors - another avenue to understand music therapy processes. An indispensable and lucid guide to Jungian theory, providing coverage of an approach and number of techniques not commonly taught in most music therapy trainings or textbooks. I recommend this book as a core text to every music psychotherapist. If there is only one book you buy on Jungian music therapy, this is the one. - Dr. Heidi Ahonen, Professor of Music Therapy. Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

Like psyche, this book sings; as such it is an instantiation of creativity. There are echoes of the Spirit that groans for redemption without words. As I read the book, a flood of memories were evoked where the word-less Spirit was transformative and creative: a woman nurtured to health by listening to Dvorak's Stabat Mater and a therapist who began the day of writing and therapy by listening to Brahms. Kroeker's book exemplifies the wisdom of Chinese sage, Lao Tze, who believed that the true Tao (Way) is unspoken. Thanks Joel for helping me hear the music of the spheres in the stories of my clients. - Al Dueck, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Cultural Psychologies, Fuller Graduate School of Psychology, Pasadena, CA, USA

We can be grateful for this book, which fills a chattering void in the Jungian literature with authentic soundings of the depths of individuals' musical experiences. To the way he listens to his patients' listening, the author brings the same kind of surprising sensitivity that enabled Jung to convey the importance of recalling what we actually see when we imagine. Taking us through the changes and chords of moments that have managed to score the reveries of people he has attended to, Joel Kroeker demonstrates that what people spontaneously hear from the music in and around them can amplify the successes and the pitfalls of their psychological growth processes every bit as reliably as their autonomous visualizations. - John Beebe, author of Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type: The Reservoir of Consciousness

This outstanding book is an excellent addition to the discourse on music and analytic psychology. As a Jungian psychotherapist Joel explores the connections between music and its potential to act as a psychic space. By intertwining clinical case vignettes within the book Joel invites the reader into a fascinating narrative, elucidating the unique qualities of music and its potential to act as a symbolic therapeutic force. This book is articulate, well considered, and should be read by all psychotherapists and those who wish to understand the connections between music and the psyche. - Colin Andrew Lee, PhD, Professor of Music Therapy, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

Kroeker has a deep grounding and understanding of Jung, psychoanalysis, music theory and practice but he goes beyond all of these into our relationship with sound itself. I listened to every piece he mentioned in the book and how much that enriched the reading experience! Paradoxically Jungian Music Psychotherapy opens up areas that words alone cannot reach, pointing directly at the Nature of Mind where listening and perception become creative acts in and of themselves. Enjoy! - John Allan, PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; Jungian analyst, author of Inscapes of the Child's World: Jungian Counselling in Schools and Clinics

Kroeker articulately levels his argument squarely at the primordial nature of music itself, as a kind of first language. He illustrates the essential point that this musical field as a location can take us beyond our current one-sided logos orientation to a more balanced and relational symbiotic musical ecosystem and even to the transpersonal level. Or as Kroeker puts it, the right music at the right time within the appropriate relationship can put us back in accord with nature. The implications of Kroeker's main thesis here could be substantial on the collective level since he seems to imply that music is a liminal temenos for this necessary shift from the old order of logos-oriented dominion into a more liberated eros-oriented attitude. - Jerome S. Bernstein, Jungian analyst and author of Living in the Borderland: The Evolution of Consciousness and the Challenge of Healing Trauma

"An experienced performing musician, therapist and psychoanalyst, Joel Kroeker has the credentials, knowledge and expertise to meld these genres into a unique approach for human healing and psychological growth. And this is just what is to be found within the pages of Jungian Music Psychotherapy. The insights expressed here are not confined to the practice room: the attitudes and exercises introduced in this book, like music itself, are universal." - Robert Hinshaw, PhD, Jungian Analyst and founding publisher at Daimon Verlag

"Jungian Music Psychotherapy introduces a ground-breaking approach,Archetypal Music Psychotherapy (AMP), which focuses on the healing power of sound and music. It brings to life the soundscapes of our lives which are full of symbolic, pre-conceptual ways of knowing, beginning in utero when we attune to our mother's heart beat and the melody of her voice. Kroeker's book documents the dimensions of his pioneering work, including an improvisational approach that he calls 'first sound, best sound' (as inspired by the teachings of Choegyam Trungpa), which involves 'spontaneous improvisatory musical dialogues between various inner characters'. We become more aware not only of the subtleties of the sound-symbols in our experience but also of the parts of our psyche that are frozen in silence. Kroeker aptly states that 'the current collective roar of a physical-only perspective is a deaf spot (i.e. intrapsychic blind spot) that cuts us off from hearing the music of the inner world and thus from any location where un-represented content can emerge'. Applying the insights from his experience as a meditation instructor as well as an analyst, Joel illuminates healing pathways: 'listening directly from the core of the perceptual mechanism itself as opposed to getting tangled up in habitual discursive ways of listening'. Throughout human history, rhythm, sound and music have accompanied story telling as rituals for personal and communal healing, and now Kroeker's book provides a valuable addition to our understanding of music as a bridge to deep psyche." - Acharya Susan Chapman, MFT, Author of The Five Keys to Mindful Communication