Music Therapy

Music therapists assess emotional and physical health, social functioning, communication, learning, and remembering through musical responses.

Our music therapists design music sessions for individuals and groups using:

• Music improvisation
• Receptive music listening
• Song writing
• Lyric discussion
• Music and imagery
• Music performance
• Learning through music

They take part in a care plan, ongoing evaluation, and follow up.

Children, teens, adults, and the elderly can all benefit from music therapy. Areas music therapy can help include:

• Mental health needs
• Developmental and learning disabilities
• Alzheimer's disease and other age related conditions
• Substance abuse problems
• Brain injuries
• Physical disabilities
• Acute and chronic pain, including mothers in labor

Music therapists work in:

• Psychiatric hospitals
• Rehabilitative facilities
• Medical hospitals
• Outpatient clinics
• Day care treatment centers
• Agencies serving developmentally disabled persons
• Community mental health centers
• Drug and alcohol programs
• Senior centers
• Nursing homes
• Hospice programs
• Correctional facilities
• Halfway houses
• Schools
• Private practice

Music can affect health and behavior. The idea of music as a healing influence is as least as old as the writings of Aristotle and Plato. The 20th Century discipline began after World War I and World War II. Musicians went to hospitals around the country to play for thousands of veterans suffering physical and emotional trauma from the wars. The patients' notable responses led the providers to request the hospitals hire musicians.

It became evident that these musicians needed prior training, growing demand for a college program. The first music therapy degree program in the world was founded at Michigan State University in 1944. The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) was founded in 1998 as a union of the National Association for Music Therapy and the American Association for Music therapy.

Persons who complete one of the approved college music therapy courses are eligible to sit for the national exam offered by the Certification Board for Music Therapists. Music therapists who pass the exam hold the music therapist-board certified credential (MT-BC).

The AMTA promotes extensive research exploring the benefits of music as therapy through publication of the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives and other sources. A large body of literature exists to support the effectiveness of music therapy.

Music is used in general hospitals to:

• Ease pain in conjunction with pain medication
• Elevate patients' mood and treat depression
• Promote movement for physical rehabilitation
• Calm or sedate, often to induce sleep
• Counteract fear
• Reduce muscle tension and promote relaxation

It is often thought that patients must have music ability to benefit from music therapy — they do not. It is also thought that one style of music is more therapeutic than all the rest — this is not the case. All styles of music can be useful in affecting change in a client or patient's life. The patient's preference, treatment needs, and goals help determine the types of music.

The AMTA is the largest professional association and represents over 5,000 music therapists, corporate members and related associations worldwide. Founded in 1998, its mission is the progressive development of the therapeutic use of music in rehabilitation, special education, and community settings.

AMTA sets the education and clinical training standards for music therapists. Predecessors to the AMTA included the National Association for Music Therapy founded in 1950 and the American Association for Music Therapy founded in 1971.

For more information, Visit the American Music Therapy Association.