Review:
"She Will be Loved" was on Maroon 5’s Songs about Jane album released in 2002. The lyrical content includes a man’s profession of love to a young woman despite she is in another relationship and despite her imperfections. Furthermore, he describes the lengths he will go to in order to show his love for her.This song can be used in a Cognitive Behavioral Technique known as lyrical analysis. The goal of the exercise is to increase a client’s mindfulness of how external stimuli influences thought. This technique is to be used after the concept of positive vs. negative thinking has been introduced to the client. The counselor will print the lyrics out and provide the client two different color highlighters. One color to be used to highlight lyrics the client believes would influence their thoughts positively and one color to be used to highlight lyrics they believe would influence their thoughts negatively. The client would have time to do this while the counselor plays the song in session or may complete it as a homework assignment. The counselor may then engage client in a discussion of which lyrics were associated with positive thoughts, negative thoughts, as well as how media influences thoughts in general.

 

The lyrical content of this song may elicit any number of interpretations from clients. It is important to note that the goal of the exercise is to elevate the client’s mindfulness of thought processes, not that they have a correct interpretation of the song.