Ayelet Dassa

Bar Ilan University | BIU · Department of Music

Previous studies have demonstrated the benefits of music therapy in Alzheimer's patients, focusing either on improvement of healthy cognitive and social skills, or reduction of agitation symptoms. The present study examined the effect of background music on both positive and negative behaviors, during a time in which patients were not occupied with...

Studies on the job satisfaction of music therapists are needed for the growth of the profession and their findings may help to improve the well-being of practitioners. The aim of this cross-sectional survey was to explore the levels of satisfaction of music therapists with their profession and to identify the factors influencing their job satisfact...

Seventy-six-year-old Rose was referred to me for music therapy with a diagnosis of residual schizophrenia. Rose was very passive and only wanted to listen to French chansons. After two years, I ended the therapy out of a belief that our music therapy sessions were not meaningful for her. About a year later, I took on more work hours and Rose surpri...

Music therapy has been found to be an effective intervention for persons with dementia (PWD) and their primary caregivers (PC), yet the implementation of musical strategies to improve daily care in the home environment requires further exploration. This study developed and examined a home-based music therapy (HBMT) work model that offers weekly joi...

The current study explores how online music therapy contributes to helping people with dementia and their relationships to their spouses. Fourteen couples participated in eight online music-therapy sessions that also included musical strategies for use between the sessions. A qualitative content analysis of the music therapists’ reports and summari...

Coping with cancer requires both physical and emotional fortitude, and various intervention programs attempt to address these needs. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many interventions have transitioned from live to online settings. Balance-Space is a music therapy intervention, which includes listening to original composed music, follo...

(1) Background: Throughout their career, music therapists make decisions regarding the clinical population they choose to work with. Though such decisions can have broad implications on the professional development of the music therapist, not much is known about the reasons for making these decisions and whether they are affected by demographic or...

This study examined the associations between nursing aides’ mentalization, expressed emotion, and observed sensitivity towards their residents with dementia. The study also explored whether nursing aides’ mentalization and expressed emotion are relational constructs that vary with residents’ characteristics and behavior. To assess mentalization and...

In a growing global trend, individuals are migrating to other countries to live with and care for older adults with dementia. Although this trend addresses the geriatric workforce shortage, workers and older adults often experience distress. In a pilot study in Israel, six migrant care workers participated in a six-week group intervention in which...

Background: Vocal improvisation is known as beneficial in promoting well-being, yet not much is known about using vocal improvisation with healthy older adults. While the emphasis in music therapy on studying interventions with clinical populations of older adults is important, the challenges and stressors facing healthy older adults require more i...

Objectives This study examined the emotional availability of nursing aide-resident with dementia dyads in a long-term care-facility. Emotional availability refers to the nursing aide’s sensitivity toward the resident, structuring their interactions in a non-intrusive and non-hostile manner and the resident’s responsiveness to and involvement of the...

In recent years, HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) have become more common as people with HIV live longer due to advances in anti-retroviral medications. The symptoms of HAND are often associated with mild-to-severe cognitive impairment and depression, which may lead to burden and burnout among the certified nursing assistants (CNAs) o...

While singing in music therapy with people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is vastly documented, scarce research deals with the impact of singing on their language abilities. This study addressed the issue of language decline in AD and explored the impact of group singing on the language abilities of people with moderate to severe-stage AD. Participa...

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic globally enforced safety precautions were implemented resulting in increased social distancing and isolation especially among people with dementia and their caregivers. This critical situation intensified the need to reach and support this already vulnerable population. Music therapists have answered the challenge by pr...

Primary caregivers (PCs) of people with dementia deal with stressful daily living, especially spouses whose care recipient is at home. Several programs have been developed to aid caregiving by providing musical strategies, yet successful sustainable implementation of music in the daily lives of the couples awaits further research and development. T...

Music therapy was formalised in Israel in the early 1980s with the opening of academic training programmes, and has developed tremendously since then, with approximately 700 music therapists listed. While still fighting for legislative status as a profession, music therapists work with diverse populations in different settings. The latest national...

Music therapy was formalised in Israel in the early 1980s with the opening of academic training programmes, and has developed tremendously since then, with approximately 700 music therapists listed. While still fighting for legislative status as a profession, music therapists work with diverse populations in different settings. The latest national...

A collaborative music and drama therapy initiative with performing arts students and people with dementia yielded an innovative framework. Twelve people with dementia residing in a nursing home and twelve students from a performing arts school took part in two consecutive groups (6 residents and 6 students in each group). Each group was 10 sessions...

This article presents an intergenerational music and drama therapy groups comprised of twelve people with dementia residing in a nursing home and twelve acting students from the community. The qualitative research aimed to explore the students’ attitudes towards elderly people, and to understand the role of creative arts therapies in facilitating i...

This study presents a technique that is used to create an elderly person’s musical autobiography in a one-on-one interview format as a means of promoting well-being and enabling a different connection between the elderly person and the interviewer. Forty-three interviewers’ essays documenting these meetings and written in the past 4 years (2012–201...

Background: Family members play a critical role in caring for people with dementia, and their involvement in care continues even after their loved ones are placed in long-term care facilities. The dynamics of family involvement following institutionalization are complex and challenging. The strain on caregivers does not cease and communication diff...

Background: Studies of connected speech of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) report significant impairments relative to the language of cognitively intact participants. Considerably less research has focused on the association between dementia severity and language features. Aims: The current study examines how scores on a dementia screenin...

In the present study we conducted a first of its kind online survey of music therapists (MTs) in Israel. Though this field has been growing rapidly and to date includes about 700 MTs, there was not yet a survey conducted to adress their fields of interest, and their clinical and theoretical orientations. A total of 107 MTs, 48 of which had more th...

In the present study we conducted a first of its kind online survey of music therapists (MTs) in Israel. Though this field has been growing rapidly and to date includes about 700 MTs, there was not yet a survey conducted to adress their fields of interest, and their clinical and theoretical orientations. A total of 107 MTs, 48 of which had more th...

Background: Music has long been used to ease symptoms of dementia. Several studies have shown the therapeutic benefits of music therapy to decrease symptoms of agitation in people with dementia (PWD). Other research has demonstrated that the use of music during caregiving can ease agitated behaviors. However, few studies have shown the clinical ben...

Background: Music has long been used to ease symptoms of dementia. Several studies have shown the therapeutic benefits of music therapy to decrease symptoms of agitation in people with dementia (PWD). Other research has demonstrated that the use of music during caregiving can ease agitated behaviors. However, few studies have shown the clinical ben...

Background: Since the early 1980s, when the first music therapy training programs in Israel were founded, music therapy in this country has developed tremendously and includes approximately 700 music therapists working in an ever-growing number of educational, medical, and mental health institutions.Objective: In this presentation, findings from a...

Background: Language deficits in people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) manifest, among other things, in a gradual deterioration of spontaneous speech. People with AD tend to speak less as the disease progresses and their speech becomes confused. However, the ability to sing old tunes sometimes remains intact throughout the disease. Objective: The...