[Voice--mood: psycholinguistic therapy with psychiatric patients]

The voice is the result of a complex network between mental condition, mood and cognition of a person. The voice not only serves as a means of communication, it has also an effect on the person who is uttering the sounds. Language development phases and the emotional development phases form the theoretical base for therapeutic interventions. The way the therapist proceeds depends on the momentary mental state the patient is in. The structuring of the intervention levels depends on the degree of the disorder. In patients with pronounced inhibitions the therapist tries to activate the patient's feelings by means of passive breathing exercises and kinaesthetic awareness exercises which are accompanied by low music (awareness phase). Once a patient is successfully activated, she/he is asked to actively breathe and use her/his voice for reading and reciting purposes. The texts are accompanied by appropriate music (instrumental phase). This intervention is meant to lead the patient away from his/her egocentric state towards social interaction. After an amelioration and/or stabilisation of the psycho-pathological state, therapeutic activities are continued in the setting of group work. Patients with disorders primarily in the social area take part in this group work right from the start of therapy. The patients learn social strategies in that they get practice in creatively working with texts in the form of readings and theatre performances. They also learn how to throw a party together. In this phase they realise their abilities but also their limits (communicational phase). Due to the playful character of the work in the group the patients experience themselves independently; they leave the passive role of the patient and become active human beings. That way this form of therapy provides a bridge between the "biotope" of the stationary area and everyday life.