Healing Drums

An iconic older building at Woodbourne Center.

Here in Baltimore, we have an interesting type of therapy for youth with psychiatric disorders. At WOODBOURNE CENTER, which runs a residential treatment center for boys ages 12 to 18, one of the therapies in which the boys can participate is drumming. Drumming can be utilized as a form of therapy and has been utilized in SHAMANIC TRADITION to heal, expand consciousness, and build community.

At Woodbourne, the tradition comes from Africa, not only providing healing but helping these troubled boys to connect with ancestral tradition. Drumming facilitates meditation and is strongly connected with African-American music tradition. The program was created by Dorothy Adamson Holley, known as "Dr. Dot". At one time Dr. Dot was a clinical director at the facility, but for the past eight years, she has been returning as a clinical consultant. She runs her own company, RHYTHMIC HEALING CIRCLE - NYAME NTI HEALING ARTS THERAPY, INC, which specializes in drummetry, the combination of drumming and poetry.



Much of the therapeutic drumming provided at Woodbourne utilizes chants of love and encouragement, sort of musical affirmations. When residents repeat the chants out loud or to themselves, those chants become part of their inner conversation, and gradually replace the negative self-statements that so many of them have incorporated into the views of themselves.

When Dr. Dot decided to incorporate drumming into her therapeutic practice, it was an instant match. She said. "The decision to integrate drumming into clinical practice was a direct result of having personally experienced the healing power of the drum. African drumming offered a perfect balance to my tendency to intellectualize, to analyze, to plan, and to control. African drumming took me out of my head, into my body, and into my feelings, inviting me to release pent-up emotions and helping to restore much-needed balance. Understanding and experiencing the therapeutic benefits of drumming, I felt compelled to share this ancient, sacred art practice to clients who might also benefit from the drum's healing potential."

"Dr. Dot", Dorothy Adomson Holley

When teaching drumming at Woodbourne, Dr. Dot strives to create a safe environment where residents feel they can share their creative and emotional responses. This is important for these boys in treatment, since they find it very difficult to trust when their lives have given them very little experience in trusting others. She talks about the use of drums in treating traumatized youth, "When our experiences and emotions are allowed full creative expression, we give voice to our pains, our fears, our suffering, and our hope, opening ourselves in ways never before imagined. Giving creative voice to our experiences and emotions reduces our potential to express them in harmful, destructive ways.,,[I]t can be brought into individual and group therapy sessions to serve as a meaningful support to the treatment process."

We, in Baltimore are so lucky to have Dr. Dot, and the boys at Woodbourne are fortunate to have her interest and commitment.

Drumming therapy at Woodbourne Center.

Thanks to this article from Cornerstone, a publication from Nexus, which runs Woodbourne and other treatment centers: http://www.slideshare.net/fullscreen/nancybaldrica5/july-2015-cornerstone/3.

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