Event Title
The Brain on Music: How Music Therapy Principles Shape Worship Practice
Location
Community Room, Christopher Center Library (CCLIR), Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN
Start Date
9-4-2013 11:15 AM
End Date
9-4-2013 12:15 PM
Description
Throughout history and across all human cultures, music is omnipresent as a means of mediating the divine, expressing emotion and enlivening social interaction. Music serves a central role in Christian Worship and is at the center of the therapeutic discipline, music therapy, that optimizes the ways the brain processes music in order to advance therapeutic goals in the areas of communication, learning, motor skills, emotions and social interaction. This workshop will illustrate the foundations of music therapy as they pertain to the use of music in worship and explore how worship practice can be shaped by this understanding.
The Brain on Music: How Music Therapy Principles Shape Worship Practice
Community Room, Christopher Center Library (CCLIR), Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN
Throughout history and across all human cultures, music is omnipresent as a means of mediating the divine, expressing emotion and enlivening social interaction. Music serves a central role in Christian Worship and is at the center of the therapeutic discipline, music therapy, that optimizes the ways the brain processes music in order to advance therapeutic goals in the areas of communication, learning, motor skills, emotions and social interaction. This workshop will illustrate the foundations of music therapy as they pertain to the use of music in worship and explore how worship practice can be shaped by this understanding.
About the Presenter
The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Phelps Ollikainen holds a Bachelors of Music Therapy and worked as a board certified music therapist before seminary. She also holds a Master of Divinity, Sacred Theology Masters in New Testament studies and Doctor of Ministry in Worship from the Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia. She is the Director of Ministries at Liberty Lutheran Services, a social ministry organization of the ELCA located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Editor of CrossAccent, the journal of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. Previously, she served as the Associate for Worship Resources in the Worship Office of the ELCA and as Associate Pastor at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Springfield, Pennsylvania.