Drum Circles India, Music Therapy Sessions, Sound Healing Sessions, Full Moon Drumming and Dance Sessions, Ecstatic Dance Sessions Sound Baths, Drum Meditations, Djembe Workshops… These are all sessions and workshops that we may have come across on Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp announcement groups but what are these sessions all about? And how does one understand the difference between one another? Honestly, they can be confusing… I am very often perplexed with the various, rather creative, names of these workshops. But there are some basic points that you as a consumer or participant of these sessions can keep in mind so that you are not swayed too much by the marketing, click-baity nature of today’s marketing and advertising experts out there… 

What makes an activity a Therapy? 

In the arts & health space, when we participate in an activity that is a one-off session and we are urged to explore or express our feelings, this kind of a session is called a ‘therapeutic’ session. The session may or may not have an objective or a theme which you as a participant will know beforehand. There may be a fee for this session or it may be a free / gift-economy concept session where you pay what you feel at the end of the session. In such an open-ended session the facilitator’s focus is usually inclusion, interaction and managing the flow / energy graph of the session such that all the participants are able to have this individual yet collective experience. A community drum circle, or an open canvas mandala painting workshop, are all good examples of such a one-off (potentially) therapeutic session. I say potentially because this behavioural or emotional secondary gain is not guaranteed. In fact, participating in a drum circle India event can offer similar benefits — a collective rhythm-based experience that fosters emotional release and social connection, even if the therapeutic outcome varies for each individual. It is encouraged but there is space for each and every one’s individual experience. The most important thing for the facilitator is acceptance and non-judgement; also one of the foundation stones of group therapy. 

When does an activity become a ‘Therapy’?

Let’s say that you went for a drum meditation session once just to try it out and loved it so much that you go back over and over again. Does this become a drum meditation therapy session? Yes & No! There’s no easy one word answer for this but I will try anyway. If the facilitator of the group rhythm meditation session is not a psychologist or a psychotherapist or a mental health practitioner trained in the science of working in the space of therapy then NO, the session will not qualify as a therapy session in the strictest way of speaking. Say you are in a traditional therapy relationship with a counselor / psychologist and are intentionally going for these ‘Drumming for healing’ sessions and tracking your internal shifts with a qualified professional, then YES, this activity can be called a drum therapy session for you. Having said this in the above example you may be drumming with new participants in each session which once again loosens the entry criteria for this session to be called a therapy a bit. If, however, many like you decide to go to this session repeatedly and all agree that each will attend these session for at least 6 months to work on a particular goal (such as deep relaxation or catharsis) then we would all (as a group) be entering into a group drumming therapy session. There would be a protocol to measure how we feel before and after each session to be able to compare these feelings over time. Needless to say, many researchers (such as myself) would rush towards such a session to be able to document these changes and write a paper about it. Why? So that we can further spread the benefits of group drumming, movement, arts and craft activities as a therapy. This paper would in turn influence someone to try it out in their vicinity and city or country. In this way, we would be contributing toward the furthering of the credibility of Arts & Health.  I hope this example helps break down the many variables at play for an activity to be called a therapy or not. Today, it is rather fashionable to call an activity a therapy. It looks and sounds good. But as a leader and a participant in and of these sessions, it’s important to know what it is and what it is not… Even sometimes when the organisers themselves may not… 

How does this information help me?

Knowledge is power and I sincerely hope that by reading this you are a bit clearer about what makes an activity a therapy, what makes it a fun session that is also therapeutic, what makes it a serious training session and what makes it a sham! If this blog has sparked a question, I would be happy to start a discussion here or via email on ta*****@***il.com

What’s your reason to drum?
Come. Drum. Be One.
Varun Venkit
Taal Inc.