Event name: Music in Therapy
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Levent Ozturk(Trakya University)
Venue: Yunus Emre Institute London
Date: Thursday 1st December
Time of the event: 19:00-20:30
Refreshment: 18:30
The use of complementary and alternative medicine is still a controversial area due to paucity of scientific evidence in most of the health conditions. Recently, Ministry of Health has started to construct the issue and taken several important steps in Turkey. First, the Code of Traditional and Complementary Medicine Applications which confines these interventions within the limits of scientific evidence was issued in 2014. This was followed by formation of scientific boards for each field to establish the standards of education. Music therapy certification will lead to reanimation of a forgotten area of expertise.
We know a lot about how music affects individuals and how we can use it for therapeutic purposes. From pain killing to stem cell transplantation, music therapy has a wide range of application areas. By the date March 1st 2016, a search with the key words “music therapy” resulted in 4683 publications indexed in PubMed. Considering the type of music, only several of these studies used traditional Turkish music mainly for anxiolytic purposes. As cultural background of a patient is important for music therapy, we should establish and provide scientific evidence for traditional Turkish music as well as other types of music in Turkish patients.
Prof. Dr. Levent Ozturk(Trakya University) is one of the renowned sleep researchers in Turkey. His major area of interest is sleep physiology and pathophysiology. He is one of the cofounders of sleep society and his last two decades dedicated to the development of sleep medicine as a separate specialty in Turkey.
For the last decade, another area of interest for him has been music therapy. He is the author of book entitled “Makamdan Şifaya (From Musical Modes to Healing)” which is accepted the first evidence-based music therapy book in Turkey. He is also a member of Music Therapy Scientific Board which was established in 2016 by the Ministry of Health. Dr. Öztürk is the founder and the lead chair of Society for Applied Music Therapies (UMTED) in Turkey.
Dr. Öztürk received his bachelor degree in medicine from the İstanbul University İstanbul Faculty of Medicine and completed his PhD work at İstanbul University Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine. And then he started to Kadir Has University for two years as a lecturer and research associate. From 2003 to 2009, he worked at Trakya University as associate professor. During this time, he founded sleep disorders unit and sleep laboratory and served as the chair. In 2009, he became full-time professor.
He was awarded distinguished researcher in İstanbul University (2001), the best published paper award of Turkish Sleep Research Society (2004), the best scientific research award of The European Academy of Otology and Neurotology (2008), and several best presentations in various congresses. He received young scientist award of Trakya University Senate (2008).
He directed Balkan Medical Journal as the editor-in-chief until 2012. During this time, the journal was started to be indexed in many international indexes. He published 3 books, 9 book chapters, 48 peer review articles, presented more than 100 communications in congresses, received 17 awards and honors.
Dr. Öztürk is currently working at the department of physiology at Trakya University Faculty of Medicine.
