All About Music Therapy
What is music therapy and how does it work? This article will feature the definition, history and origins as well as how music therapy can benefit anxiety, depression and children.
Music therapy is the practice of implementing music in all forms from, playing, singing, listening and moving to all types of music to encourage positive mood changes and a greater sense of well-being.
The power music has on the brain and our minds has been an area of interest by the medical community for years through observational analysis. A variety of different genres of music can affect sadness, excitement, calmness and introspection. Music can help us process grief and other emotional information more quickly.
Music can have a lasting effect on our mental health in general. It’s been used to help facilitate mood and emotional changes more rapidly in people whom suffer from anxiety and depression.
Music Therapy
Music therapy with it’s powerful imagery can be used as a replacement or an addition to other currently used therapies like Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or counseling.
Music therapy uses the sounds created in the instruments being played or listened to, to encourage a more positive mindset and overall mood. The goal is to improve awareness, independence, focus, communication, attention skills and confidence.
A main feature of music therapy involves improvisation or making music “in the moment” to reflect your given mood. Choosing the right instrument(s) to help to express more fully what one is feeling and how they want to feel is done through the help of the music therapist.
Music Therapy and the Brain
Music effects the brain in a very complex and involved manner. The tones, pitches, melodies and tempos used are all processed in different regions of the brain.
As an example; the frontal lobes deal with decoding the emotional content of the music, the cerebellum processes the rhythm and the pitch of the music is decoded by a section of the right temporal lobe.
Have you ever felt so emotionally charged by a song or piece of music that you had goosebumps? This takes place in your reward center of the brain, the nucleus accumbens.
The idea of utilizing the deep physical reactions we have while listening to or performing music to help heal people with mental health challenges is the goal of music therapy.
History and Origins of Music Therapy
Music has been an important part of human expression since our beginning. Anthropologists have discovered musical instruments dating back over 40,000 years ago. The need to express ourselves musically is at the very core of who we are. Because we are creative beings and music satisfies that basic need.
Musical healing and therapy began in ancient Greece. The first ever reference to music therapy was in an article in 1789 entitled, “Music physically considered”.
Music used as a therapeutic tool first began in the 20th century (late 1940’s).
Throughout the 1800s there was an upsurge of medical research taking place in how music could be used for healing of our mental health. It wasn’t until the 1940’s, established universities and colleges offered music therapy classes.
Only after it began to be promoted and organized by one of the three founders of music therapy, E. Thayer Gaston did music therapy finally become established and then accepted as a credible type of therapy.
Today, music therapy is used as a legitimate practice in areas of education and private practice.
Benefits and Features
One of the benefits of music therapy is that it is suitable for people who have difficulty or can’t communicate. So, it can benefit a people with dementia, TBI or brain injuries and other neurocognitive diseases.
Also, music therapy can replace other type talking therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), counseling and psychotherapy when verbal communication is at the core of it’s success.
Music therapy can make it easier for those who can’t travel or get out of bed. Making it easy to come to ones home and perform in a recognizable and comfortable environment. Which makes it ideal for children.
A side effect of music therapy can be used for everyday self healing by the patient, once the necessary skills are learned. It can be used as a coping activity for trying situations in life.
The skills one learns can even interest a patient to learn to play an instrument. Which then can be put into practice for self healing and mood improvement.
Benefits of learning music can include, increasing memory, physical coordination, comprehension and math skills, lyrical content and emotional expression.
Music therapy benefits can include:
anxiety reduction
improved social connections
improved self esteem
increase of motivation
improved verbalization
releases emotions
Anxiety
Music therapy can have a calming affect on the stressors of the body that are responsible for anxiety. Stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol have been shown to be reduced.
Studies also suggest that music therapy can help reduce the anxiety related to having cancer, being in the hospital and undergoing surgery or any work related anxiety.
It directly affects the nervous system and can help someone recover from a panic attack.
Depression
Listening or playing music has been shown to work directly on the hormone dopamine, which activates brain centers to relieve stress and make one feel happy and reduce pain. When music therapy is added to conventional therapies for treating depression, symptom reductions are made quicker and improvements in short term endorphin activation prove to be a good coping activity.
Children
Music therapy can benefit children by:
building self esteem
building better communication and interaction
building better listening skills
improving concentration
improving coordination
encouraging creativity
improving self awareness and in others
bonding with family and friends
Music used as therapy can be a wonderfully successful and simple solution to add to other therapies when dealing with many mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.
Music can effectively and rapidly take you to another place far away from your troubles while you participate in a creative activity that stimulates your coordination, concentration, memory and emotional well being.
Whether you listen to music or play an instrument, the overwhelming positive affects music has on the human brain is undeniable. I encourage anyone to utilize music as a therapeutic way of improving your mental state of health.
-A Balanced Brain is a Musical Brain-