Music through the ages has been regarded as having supernatural power to affect the human soul and psyche. Sound tracks are used in movies to prompt our emotions to feel beauty, joy or impending doom. It's truly amazing just how much music can affect our emotions and thoughts.

Try going back to the time in your life when you were completely swept away by music. Music seemed to reach deep inside you, assuring you, instilling confidence and reinforcing your ideas about yourself. Most would conclude that the period from early adolescence into our 20s was the time in our lives when music had the most power to make us feel. If true, why shouldn't we look into ways to utilize this unseen but powerful force to help our kids when they need it? Maybe it's because when most parents and professionals think of music and young people, what first comes to mind is all the damage that results when you combine the two.

It is phenomenal how completely some young people get caught up in the ideas and lifestyles of the current peer music culture. Many kids who are sucked into the world of skulls, blood and vampires walk around with their ears hooked up to their iPods playing a continuous succession of Death Metal bands like Slayer, Rob Zombie and Cannibal Corpse. Some of this music is so unpleasant to the uninitiated, that the FBI and other police agencies have been known to broadcast this music in order to break down the resistance of people in certain stand-off situations.

It's common to meet upper middle class 15 year old boys who speak with black gangster-style accents. Many have spent hundreds of hours or more with their heads wired to the sounds of rappers glorifying the rude and crude lifestyle of the urban, black pseudo-gangster. This round-the-clock immersion reinforces a rap fantasy life which these kids play out in the suburbs with real life props like baggy clothes, drugs, "bitches" and sometimes even firearms. Some of the luckier ones caught up in this end up in good programs.

There are countless examples of how music reinforces an array of the bad ideas packaged and presented to young people, perpetuating an ever evolving peer culture projected by the modern media. In addition to music which inspires suburban gangsters and the death metal heads, there is also is music to support the delusions of young punks, skaters, head bangers and ravers, to name just a few.

Acknowledging music as a powerful force in the lives of young people begs the question of how we can do more to reverse the music polarity from negative to positive. Empirical science has tended to overlook treatment modalities labeled as "right brain." Methods more difficult to quantify and analyze have often been considered quackery and unscientific even when shown to be beneficial.

Not long ago, medical science scoffed at the notion of treating disease with diet. In the last two decades, meditation has been gaining acceptance as a practice for treating anxiety and depression. More recently, "New Age" ambient music has been used to as a meditation enhancer to induce brain wave changes in the mind. Daniel Pink, author of Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, contends the future belongs to those who look for holistic solutions using intuition and imagination. The left-brain analytical thinking that has dominated since the industrial age has started to lose its grip, Pink contends.

Music as a deliberate mode of therapy for "at risk" students in programs has not been widely utilized, possibly because it could be regarded as a hard to measure "right-brain" approach. Or it hasn't been fully developed into enough programs for the benefits to become widely recognized.

When young people are sent off to an intervention, whether a wilderness program or special boarding school, their iPods are usually taken away as soon as they arrive.

Students then begin a long "fast" from their music. While a necessary and important first step, in many cases, it is the only step taken regarding music. Guitars or hand drums are sometimes available with nonthreatening neutral music, but there are ways to use music proactively.

Providing instruments and lessons, and assisting students with performing, composing and recording, can bring about numerous long-term benefits. To present these opportunities effectively to at risk youth requires a certain investment in equipment and expertise. A well thought out music appreciation program can be wonderfully effective in opening up young people, reversing the mind numbing effects of the music that has dumbed them down.

Young people's mental, physical and spiritual bodies are still developing. At a time when they are most sensitive to the effects of music, they are particularly open to assimilating new types of music after undergoing an extended period of no music at all. If you've ever fasted for a day or two you might remember the surprising burst of sweet flavor that came from the first bite of a simple carrot! Re-introducing music is similar to breaking a fast.

It's best to go slowly and focus on one genre of music at a time. If Jazz is the initial focus, early Jazz could be explored first. As the guided audio tour progresses, movies and books should be made available. With a few students engaged, questions and discussions naturally begin to flow, drawing other students into the process.

The hunger for music gradually evolves into a hunger for knowledge and experience as students begin to realize that Herbie Hancock, a meditation advocate, Jazz icon in his 60s, is actually quite cool.

World Music in all its forms is wide open for discovery and offers an array of intelligent, healthy music directions. A concentrated focus on a foreign genre can lead students toward broadening their view of the world. With a huge selection of innovative music coming from Africa, South America, Europe and Asia, emerging styles often fuse different genres of music together, resulting in refreshing and intelligent new sounds. An exploration of World Music rarely fails to arouse the curiosity of students and can lead toward reading new books, watching movies, looking at maps and great conversation.

Another genre generating enthusiasm is Electro or Nuevo Tango, combining classical forms and instruments of tango with techno and jazz. It's hip, sophisticated music which goes great with sipping yerba mate tea from a gourd. The rich history of Tango and the tumultuous political history of Argentina in the last century can be fascinating and intriguing especially when originating from a music focus which can be traced as events unfolded.

The wonderful thing about introducing fresh new genres of music to students is that it teaches them that listening to music intelligently can lead to a new way at looking at the world, sparking intellectual curiosity and an enthusiasm for learning about people from different cultures and histories. This process can lead students toward a healthier perspective of themselves and their place in the world which contributes to real growth and self-discovery.

About the author:
Rich Simpson was a professional musician in his younger years. He is the director of Pathways Abroad, Coeur d'Alene, ID. See www.pathwaysedu.net or contact him at pathwaysedu@yahoo.com or 208-676-1275. Look for his next article about how music recording studios can be used in numerous creative ways to help young adults develop.

Creating and establishing a specialized program such as this for a child that has musical talents, skills, interests, and abilities is a positive and novel approach in emotional-growth, experiential-education.

Much of the chaotic, rebellious, anti-social, depressing and other forms of music or other entertainment that many struggling teens identify with is music which is written and composed by very dysfunctional and irrational thinkers of other struggling teens or adults who have some very serious problems of their own. The radical music and entertainment they listen to and seek out is a form of identity they seek and nurture because of their own irrational beliefs and thoughts that stem from a lack of healthy emotional development. And, they seek out other dysfunctional and unhealthy peers who share their common thoughts, beliefs, feelings and behaviors.

A program that specifically targets these youth who have a common interest of having musical talents that fosters learning new music and exploring new horizons and vistas in music can and will give them a positive outlet as they become more and more emotionally stable while developing their academic skills as well as their musical skills and talents. More interest in positive peer interactions and interest in academics will increase as they see that their lives will be much improved in all areas and that to further pursue their musical talents and futures, they will need to have the academic skills to learn more as they pursue life after high school which might include going on to college or university or into the music business as an artist, to create a band, to be a studio musician, etc. and that they will need the social and academic skills to enhance their chances at success in the future, and more importantly, they will begin to experience success, joy and happiness now. The natural state of human beings is to be happy. Most of us started out happy and joyful as children, and had we all developed "perfectly" in emotional development, our natural state throughout life would include being joyful and happy. But, as we all know, we do not live in a perfect world, and we all, for the most part are just doing the best we can given our own circumstances.

If your child is experiencing serious emotional and or behavioral problems, and you have a serious concern for his or her well being, and if your child is also a child who has a natural musical talent and interests, but is exploring and demonstrating it in such a way as to create chaos and self-destruction, or to fall into deep depression and seeking out others who are withdrawing into a sub-culture, I would highly recommend that you place your child in a program such as the one that is being presented here.

With a program that is going to target their musical interests, talents and skills as part of the emotional growth and experiential education curriculum, you will find that your child is going to be much less resistant to the idea of having to leave their peers and family behind which is needed, and in fact, most struggling teens really want to get away from it all, and much of their resistance will be feigned as a way of saving face with their peers and with their family, because if they appeared "compliant" or "obedient" their "cover and front" would be blown. Remember, your struggling teen, is doing whatever he or she has to do to make sense out of chaos and are developing defense mechanisms and identities that works for them, albeit not too effectively.

M. Jerome Ennis, MA/MLAP
Addiction Therapist and Teacher of Students with Serious Emotional/Behavior Disorders
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
jeromeennis@aol.com