Music therapy is used naturally on a daily basis – when we unwind or enliven our moods by listening to our favorite pieces. Music shapes us while we are still in our mothers’ womb, helps us learn throughout childhood, alleviates suffering, guides us to overcome adversity, and engages our eldering brains. But music goes further, too: It holds the key to still mysterious mental illnesses and disorders like autism, schizophrenia, or dementia.
What is Music Therapy?
Musical therapy is an allied health practice that focuses on the physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic, spiritual, and creative sides of music. It has been proven that music enhances thinking processes and patterns by stimulating fundamental functions like cognitive, motor, emotional, or social. Therapy with music is a proven stress and anxiety reliever for mentally healthy people, too; However, professional musical therapy courses are more expensive than other therapy tools.
The History of Music Therapy
Variations of musical therapy have been used throughout history to create ambiances people felt reflected their moods. Music has also been associated with healing thousands of years ago:
In Greek mythology, Apollo is the god of music and medicine – among many other things. Plato stated that music influences our emotions and character, while Aristotle believed music can impact and purify our soul. Egyptians are also known to have used music in their temples.
The Roman emperor Aulus Cornelius Celsus introduced running water and cymbal sounds to treat mental disorders. Hippocrates used music to improve the mood of his mental patients around 400 BC. By the thirteenth century, many Arab hospitals introduced their patients to music rooms. Music theorists like al-Farabi, Robert Burton, Athanasius Kircher, Michael Ernst Ettmüller, or Friedrich Erhard Nielsen praised the importance and benefits of music therapy over the following centuries.
After the World War II, musicians from the United Kingdom and other areas would play for veterans with emotional and physical war-related trauma.
How Does Music Therapy Work?
There are many centers in our brain that can be engaged by music. It is generally accepted that music has a comforting or stimulated effect on our mood, what is this therapy thing about?
Music therapists apply psychological and musical knowledge to their patient’s background to create assessments and interventions. Using sounds that are familiar or challenge patients to be creative/assertive/meditative help them learn or develop mental skills and processes in patients with mental and developmental disorders or psychological illnesses.
These are meant to reduce anxiety or agitation, improve speech, help patients express themselves, reduce instances of isolation or negative behaviors, and help the patient reach mental comfort.
Types of Musical Therapies
Over time, different psychological theories, concepts, and operations evolved into standalone musical therapy practices.
For a comprehensive recovery or treatment, therapies involving auditory stimuli should be complementary to other methods. Here are the most common auditory and musical techniques in therapy:
Neurologic Music Therapy
The neurologic approach to musical therapy uses musical perception and production to institute permanent changes in brain centers. NMT enthusiasts claim music has the ability to shape, change, and develop the brain in unique ways.
Guided Imagery and Music – the Bonny Method
Music therapist Helen Lindquist Bonny developed a guided imagery method which used music to help patients with physiological or psychological issues. Those who participate in musical imagery therapy are asked to focus on the image certain music pieces inspire and discuss further issues. The music selection is particularly important since it shapes patient’s mood, the overall atmosphere, and outcome of the session.
Dalcroze Eurhythmics
Originally a music teaching method, the Dalcroze practice can be applied in therapy. It focuses on patterns, rhythm, and movement expression which can help patients with physical awareness and motor issues.
The Kodaly Approach
This new philosophy in therapy with music focuses on cadence and sequencing to improve intonation, induce a sense of rhythm, and aid learning and healing. It registered positive results for patients with perceptual function, concept formation, learning, motor skills, or speech deficiencies.
The Nordoff-Robins Approach
Composer Paul Nordoff and therapist Clive Robbins worked together for more than 15 years to explore the effects of musical therapy and took an interest in disabled children. They conducted music therapy sessions with patients who suffered from developmental or emotional afflictions and mental disorders. Official health organizations and reliable studies recognized the benefits of the Nordoff-Robbins approach to therapy with music in children and adults alike. This method focuses on curiosity, learning ability, and communication with the outside world to help the patient better interact with their environment.
The Orff-Schulwerk Method
The Orff-Schulwerk approach to therapy combines music, movement, drama, and speech courses. It addresses the needs of children and adults with developmental issues/delays and learning deficiencies. It focuses on interaction and has a humanistic approach to psychology, which makes it well-received by patients.
Effects of Music Therapy
Mental therapy disciplines reported positive results in treating many mental disorders and conditions. Here are the most common uses of therapy through music:
Prenatal Music Therapy
Listening to music throughout pregnancy benefits the mother and the baby. 16-week fetuses are able to hear their mother speak or sing and respond with movements. A fetus that just entered the second trimester has a fully-formed, functional ear and can hear external sounds.
Prenatal stress can be alleviated by listening to music, which also reduces risks of anxiety, mental retardation, autism, or depression for the fetus. Singing and listening to music while pregnant also strengthens the bond between the mother and her child(ren), develops the nervous system, and prompts the fetus to produce endorphins.
Music Therapy for Children
Music can be used to regularize respiratory patterns in premature infants and stimulate a sucking reflex. Newborns who underwent musical therapy sessions demonstrated better auditory, vestibular, visual, and tactile development. Certain music pieces are also scientifically linked to better sleep patterns and a balanced metabolism. Long-term musical therapy is linked to better cognitive functions and faster synaptic connections in children aged 4 or older.
Depression (major depressive disorder, also known as clinical depression)
Trials among people with depression found that listening to music is linked to improvements in mood and overall outlook on life. Furthermore, it has been observed that patients generally better express themselves while listening to sad or relaxing music during music therapy for depression sessions.
Heart Diseases
Several studies revealed some music can improve heart and respiratory rate or blood pressure. This naturally leads to improvements in the overall mood.
Autism
Music creates a non-threatening and non-verbal environment for children with autism, which improves their social behaviors, language abilities, and motor skills. Listening, singing, and creating music increase attention and help children with autism focus, reduce anxiety, improve coordination, and awareness.
Amnesia
Interacting with a wide variety of music has been proven successful in patients with amnesia recalling key information to their identity and past.
Aphasia
Speech deficits caused by aphasias can be treated with a technique called MIT (Melodic Intonation Therapy). This method incorporates words and speech patterns into songs which redefine core speech models which help patients speak normally. Although proven as effective, this method is believed to succeed due to repetition and rhythm – it’s not yet sure what effects, if any, the background music has.
Dementia: Alzheimer’s and Other Disorders
Comparison between a healthy brain and an Alzheimer patient’s brain
Musical sense is among the longest-lasting function in patients with Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia. Therefore, music can be one of the few things a patient is familiar with. Playing music can make a patient’s environment agreeable and shed some clarity in the blurry state of mind that comes with these unfortunate disorders.
Enhanced social behavior factors like interaction, conversation, or awareness. Listening to music has been proven by many studies to reduce agitated or dangerous behaviors like wandering. It has been also discovered that music engages multiple centers in different parts of our brain; Furthermore, affected sections of a patient’s brain can be supported and even consolidated by therapy programs. However, the results vary from patient to patient based on treatment length and frequency, patients themselves, or other factors.
Schizophrenia
Patients with schizophrenia who followed music therapy sessions show improvements in speech, overall conversation ability, sociability, cognitive functioning, and interest in the environment. Meta-studies confirm that music can be beneficial when used with proper care for this disorder; However, results heavily depend on the sessions’ number and quality.
Stroke Victims
Patients who suffered a stroke and underwent musical therapy sessions showed improvements in basic functions that have been affected by the attack. This prompts a faster and more thorough recovery if used as a complementary treatment to other methods.
How to Become a Music Therapist
Many state universities and colleges have musical therapy full-time and part-time courses for musical passionates that want to help their peers. You can even acquire a music therapy degree online.
Being a Music Therapist
Having a desire to help others and know their stories is a basic requirement for a successful music therapist. Musical skills are also essential, together with versatility and a good-natured attitude. This includes patience, empathy, flexibility, creativity, and tact. In practice, musical therapy involves working with patients, other physicians, and medical care providers to design the best therapy plan for a patient.
Music Therapy Salary
The 2014 average yearly salary for a music therapist was $50,808, with a median of $46,000. In the same year, the lowest yearly salary in musical therapy was $20,000 and the highest was over $200,000.
The American Music Therapy Association
The AMTA was founded in 1950 and is currently governed by a 15-member board of directors. The association supports advancements in educating, training, and supporting musical therapy professionals. Their official website offers memberships for music therapists to access publications and other research materials, as well as technical assistance and other services. The AMTA also offers scholarships and grants to students or graduates who qualify for certain learning programs. Given AMTA’s extensive network, participating in conferences and programs can help graduates find music therapy jobs.
Scientific resources:
- AMTA (American Music Therapy Association);
- Bureau of Labor Statistics;
- The American Psychological Association;
- US National Library of Medicine.
