About Music Therapy

What is Music Therapy?

The short answer?: Using music as the medium in evidenced-based way to make people feel better.

The long answer?: Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program. [From musictherapy.org]

Music therapy can be utilized with anyone. The goals that are accomplished within music therapy are similar to other therapies – addressing the emotional, physical, cognitive, spiritual, and psychological needs of an individual or group. Goals will look different among different individuals and the music can be adapted in various ways to meet these goals.

Music therapists can be found in the following settings: private practice, hospitals, hospice care, special education/school systems, psychiatric facilities, nursing homes/assisted living facilities, correctional facilities, and more.

Music interventions may look like the following: songwriting, music assisted imagery and relaxation, movement to music, lyric analysis, music listening, music and counseling, improvisation, learning instruments, music performance, and iso-principle.

Some of the outcomes of music therapy include: decreasing anxiety, emotional expression, increasing relaxation, non-pharmacological pain management, positive coping skills, sensory stimulation, increasing communication skills, reminiscence, bereavement, and more.

For more information about music therapy or how to find a board-certified music therapist, please visit the American Music Therapy Association or Certification Board for Music Therapists