Couch at the Piano

Couch at the Piano: Tales of Demons and Redemption at the Keyboard is a book-in-progress. It invites the reader to consider the powerful interplay between psychology and music, both in its theoretical and experiential aspects.

When is an inability to play legato – smooth and connected playing -  a result of inadequate or faulty learning, an inability to stay grounded in one’s life, or the result of having had a life filled with losses?

Why is relaxing often fraught with anxiety? What happens when it leads to a breakdown?

How  can one reconnect to the passion one feels for music, the place of one’s refuge, when one has been beaten physically or emotionally for having spoken up as a child?

What is the relevance of breathing out of sync with the music?

How does someone learn to ‘come out,’  be heard, at the piano, while struggling to come out in life: as a woman with strength of her own, as a gay or lesbian seeking liberation from the closet?

Ms. Elson has worked with these and other issues debilitating musicians. In this book you will read actual dialogue and interplay at sessions with several of her clients. By subtly moving between the ‘couch’ and the ‘piano,’ both emotional and musical problems are uncovered, addressed, transformed and integrated back into the fabric of these clients’ lives.