Music therapy is an evidence-based approach that promotes mental, physical, cognitive, social, and emotional well-being. Many ailments and issues, including severe mental health diseases like schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, depression, and trouble sleeping, can be effectively and safely addressed with music therapy.
A form of therapeutic intervention known as music therapy uses music to assist individuals in overcoming a variety of obstacles, such as physical ailments, mental health issues, cognitive impairments, and a decline in quality of life. Individuals, groups, and community settings can all use it. Music therapy is frequently used in medical and mental health programs, as well as rehabilitation programs. It can support you in communicating better, expressing your emotions, and enhancing your emotional health.
Utilizing Music Therapy
The application of music therapy is largely flexible. Typically, music therapists begin by evaluating each of their individual patients or the group they are treating to ascertain the most likely course of action. Throughout the course of the therapy, many interventions are frequently used. The musical modalities utilized may depend on the client-music-therapist interaction and the client’s response.
Among the many activities that music therapists do are the following:
- Playing music for clients
- Playing music for the audience to hear
- Composing music with customers
- Enabling and supporting customers to play instruments and sing
- Assessing musical compositions and providing music education
Variations in Music Therapy
Numerous activities and experiences are possible in music therapy. It is usually categorized into two groups: receptive music therapy interventions and active music therapy therapies.
Innovative Approaches to Active Music Therapy
Singing or playing instruments, writing songs, improvising music, and dancing to music are examples of active music interventions. The most popular form of active music intervention utilized in music therapy is music improvisation, which is creating sounds and music freely using instruments or your voice.
Receptive Interventions in Music Therapy
Clients using receptive therapies do not actively participate in musical activities. They are listening to the music that the music therapist is playing and reacting either vocally or viscerally. The client may experience emotional emotions while listening to the music, to which the music therapist will then react.
Why Would Someone Use Music Therapy?
Many physical and mental health issues are supplemented with music therapy sessions. It can be applied to physical rehabilitation, encourage patients to stick with prescribed drug regimens, and offer emotional support and care to anyone dealing with health, social, psychological, or physical issues.
Conditions such as the following have been treated using music therapy:
- Depression
- Spectrum disease associated with autism eight
- Drug abuse disorders nine
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Additionally, it has been employed:
- In order to lessen stress
- To aid in the psychological well-being of cancer patients
- Stroke recovery
Also, as an adjunctive therapy for Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative neurological condition that impairs motor function, mood, and cognition, it can assist in reducing discomfort and anxiety during childbirth and labor.
Is Music Therapy a Successful Intervention?
For many folks, music is everything. As an illustration:
- Both social and self-connection may be encouraged by it
- It is a common educational tool
- Music is a part of many memories
The ability of music to evoke memories, even when the music being played has nothing to do with those recollections, is arguably one of its most potent qualities. This may be due to the fact that music memory appears to function in the brain relatively independently of other memory functions. For instance, even in the later stages of the condition, many individuals with Alzheimer’s disease who experience memory loss still have an appreciation for music.
Music therapy works well to enhance the following:
- People who are suffering from severe cases of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia
- Symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, such as walking with an altered gait
- Indications of depression
- Sleep hygiene
Depression
Depression sufferers can benefit from music therapy. When combined with other forms of treatment for depression, music therapy can help patients feel better temporarily. Additionally, it can help depressed individuals perform better every day and experience less worry.
Alzheimer’s disease
With dementia, music therapy exhibits special promise and is frequently utilized in situations with older adults. Overall, music therapy helped dementia patients’ verbal fluency and reduced their symptoms of worry and depression.
Cancer
The effects of having cancer and undergoing treatment can be profoundly felt on one’s mental and emotional well-being. According to a meta-analysis of 19 research, music therapy can help cancer patients with pain, despair, anxiety, and overall quality of life, among other mental health issues.
Parkinson’s illness
For those who have Parkinson’s disease, music therapy can offer a lot of advantages. Benefits include better communication, better motor skills, and better breathing and swallowing. There is potential for music therapy to enhance mental well-being and elevate the standard of living for individuals afflicted with Parkinson’s disease.
Benefits of Music Therapy
Music therapy has the potential to benefit a wide range of populations. All ages of adults and children have used it. For those with physical or learning difficulties, mental health issues, chronic pain, or serious health concerns, it can be utilized as a supplemental therapy.
There are occasions when people can benefit from music therapy while they are giving birth. It is frequently utilized in hospice and palliative care, as well as in rehabilitation facilities. Music therapists are available in many hospitals to assist patients who are undergoing treatment for a variety of illnesses. It’s widely used to help people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Expectations for Music Therapy
Individuals, small groups, and huge groups can all get music therapy sessions. There are numerous settings in which music therapy can be used, such as:
- Educational institutions
- Institutions for mental health
- Hospitals
- Cancer hospitals
- Hospice medical attention
- Neighborhood hubs
- Senior housing complexes and centers
- Facilities for physical rehabilitation
- Programs for drugs and alcohol
- Correctional facilities
What Takes Place in a Music Therapy Session
A music therapy session depends on the needs of the community and the skills of the music therapist. You and your music therapist could partake in the following activities:
- Improvisatory music, in which you are given instruments to experiment with and perform
- Accompanying your music therapist while they sing or listen
- Writing lyrics and creating music
- Using your body to make different vocalizations or noises
- Using “found” objects to create music or sounds
- Listening to recorded or live music
- Taking in musical performances
- Playing music to unwind and practice meditation
- Combining guided imagery with music, a discussion of the components of musical craft or songwriting
- Moving your body and dancing to the music
- Creating artwork or writing in reaction to music
Is it Safe to Use Music Therapy?
According to research, there are hardly any hazards or unfavorable effects of music therapy. Hazards associated with instruments and music include the following:
- Certain musical sounds may trigger certain persons, particularly those that are loud or strong.
- The feelings that are aroused by listening to music can also be too strong.
- Loud music might be harmful to your hearing.
- When played carelessly, musical instruments can be hazardous.
Recognizing these potentialities, music therapists watch carefully to see how their patients respond to and utilize the tools. Activities may be changed as necessary.
Does Music Therapy Get Covered by Insurance?
About 20% of music therapists receive payment from outside parties for their services, according to the American Music Therapy Association. Your insurance determines what is covered. Additionally, music therapy must be deemed medically required or prescribed by a doctor. A hospital or institution’s music therapy program can be covered under your overall care plan.
Finding a Music Therapist
A board-certified music therapist (MT-BC) can be found in a number of ways, according to the American Music Therapy Association:
- Utilize the online directory of the American Music Therapy Association.
- Send an email to findMT@musictherapy.org to reach the American Music Therapy Association.
A Wrap-Up by Doc T Elliott
A therapeutic approach that can assist individuals with physical and mental health issues is music therapy. Using music for meditation, writing songs, performing music, and engaging in a variety of other unstructured, guided activities are all part of music therapy. Music therapists with board certification conduct it.
Numerous studies highlight the potential advantages of music therapy and highlight how well it works as an adjuvant treatment for a wide range of ailments. For instance, even in more advanced stages of cognitive disorders like dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease, music can aid in evoking memories.