STUDIES AND RESEARCH OF THE HARTUNGCENTERS TREATMENTS

BODY SELF DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM HAS PARTICIPATED IN SEVERAL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES.

Including a 2-year experiment at Rigshospitalet (the university hospital of Copenhagen) studying the system’s voice effects, and a general study carried out in 1994 by Centre for integrated medicine at the Royal Danish School of Pharmacy, Copenhagen.

1994 study by the Royal Danish School of Pharmacy, Copenhagen – THE ROYAL DANISH SCHOOL OF PHARMACY – INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL PHARMACY – Universitetsparken 2

2100 Copenhagen Ø – c/o Elsebeth Hofmeister

Research fellow, sociologist:

”The Hartung Centre is one of the six centres that were included in the study carried out by Centre for integrated medicine, in the research report from The Royal Danish School of Pharmacy (Institute for Social Pharmacy) 1994. The centre-study includes a user survey covering 577 respondents. 271 respondents from the Hartung Centre are included, 164 women and 105 men. More than half (64 %) of those receiving therapy at the Hartung Centre indicate being discontented with the established therapy since they do not think medicine will help. That users perceive and appreciate the service they get at the Hartung Centre is seen from the fact that no less than 30 % started using the centre without previously seeking out treatment by the medical treatment establishment. So for a number of people, there is a trend for alternative treatment options to become a core service, with the treatment options of the medical establishment merely being used as a supplement. Three out of four respondents believe that physical and mental aspects are interconnected, which accords with the treatment model of the Hartung Centre, in which treatment will always address the ”whole” individual. In this context, a large majority of respondents emphasize the Hartung system as being an effective and healing form of therapy that both targets the physical and mental dimensions of the individual. The most frequent health issues presented by users at the centre are musculoskeletal and psychological complaints, while a minor group (10 %) present with a view to well-being and sickness prevention. In conclusion, it can be said that users of the Hartung Centre are perfectly satisfied. Thus, 20 % indicate that they have been cured, while 77 % indicate that they feel better (their replies were given at a random time during their treatment courses, and not when their treatment was concluded).”

Adduction problems in singers
Anne Rosing-Schow, Associate professor, The Royal Danish Academy of Music – Nina Lange, Associate professor, Academy of Music, Aalborg – Niels Rasmussen, Consultant, Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology, Copenhagen University Hospital

Ole Kåre Føli, Body Self Development´s System – therapist, Karlslunde

Correspondance to:
Anne Rosing-Schow, Associate professor

Caroline Amalie Vej 42B, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby

E-mail: anne.rosing-schow@post.tele.dk

Summary

Among the functional voice issues found in singers, adduction insufficiency, i.e. failure to close the vocal labia to the sounding position, a particular issue, since largely involving compensatory tensions of an inappropriate and function-disturbing nature.

“The immediate effect of Body SDS therapy was a consistent change of the singers’ basic frequency, Fo, either upwards or downwards. Changes followed the individual issues of the relevant singer, since greater changes were indicative of her or his natural voice level.”

SPI, Soft Phonation Index expresses the relative energy of overtones and mirrors the degree of airiness in a voice. In the rhythmic singers, SPI values showed a total reduction after treatment followed by vocal coaching. By contrast, classical singers responded with an increased SPI value.

Jitter (short term variability of base frequency) showed no consistent changes, neither as a result of Body SDS therapy, nor as a result of the therapy course as such. With one exception, shimmer (short term variability of volume) showed a reduction of the shimmer value in all singers without a consistent pattern in response to Body SDS therapy.

In conclusion, the study seems to indicate that Body SDS therapy directly uncovered the natural voice level and implied that its combination with voice-coaching intervention produced a reduction of compensatory tensions. Moreover, the study supported the assumption that a combined primary study with Body SDS therapy can provide guidance for structuring further vocal coaching work, and can therefore be recommended in the context of admission for conservatoire-based singing studies, and more generally in singing education.

The present work should be considered a pilot study. Further work should be done to confirm the above findings. The study indicates that interdisciplinary studies could contribute to a better understanding of adduction issues and provide the basis of a physiologically correct training of adduction musculature.

“It is thus estimated that there is considerable potential in and need for further research of the intersecting fields of medicine, vocal pedagogy and alternative treatment used in the field of singing pedagogy.”