1. What is Music Therapy?

The American Music Therapy Association defines music therapy as “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional. It is essentially an established health profession in which music is used within a therapeutic relationship to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals”.

2. Who can music therapy help?

Music Therapy has been used to treat people with physical, mental, psychological ailments, and its benefits range from helping cancer patients and autistic children to assisting in neo-natal care. It can even be used to help relieve preoperative anxiety and can serve as a method to ease the bereavement process for people who mourn the loss of a loved one.

3. Additional resources for music therapy:

Music therapy serves as a medium through which clients can express emotions, communicate, and cope with whatever issues they are facing, whether they are physical or mental. It gives people a way to connect with and explore personal feelings and to express them in a way in which words are unable to convey. Contrary to what may be thought initially, patients do not need to have any musical abilities to benefit from and engage in music therapy because whether it be through singing listening to music, or playing an instrument, music alleviates and reduces stress as well as elevates patients’ moods in order to help patients relax.

For example, when studies were conducted on preoperative patients, patients listened to music prior to undergoing an operation and it was discovered that there was an observed decrease in heart rate and anxiety and an increase in relaxation when patients were exposed to music therapy prior to their operations. In addition, when music therapy was used to assist in the bereavement process of children who had lost a loved one, studies indicated that after the children attended music therapy workshops, the extent to which they lost their temper and engaged in physical altercations decreased greatly. Additionally, the severity of grief symptoms and measured emotions such as guilt, sorrow, anxiety, anger, seclusion, and inability to come to terms with the loss of the deceased were less present and were observed less frequently following music therapy workshops.