What Is Music Therapy, and Why Does It Work?
Written by Alecia M. Meila, MM, MT-BC
Hang around music therapists for enough time, and you’ll start to know that every music therapist has the same reply when asked, “What is music therapy?” It starts with a breath, a moment’s thought, and then is followed by a light,
“Well…”
This isn’t because music therapy is particularly difficult to understand, per se, but more that the definition either sounds too involved and clinical and causes glazing-over of the eyes, or it seems so simple that there must be more to it than just that.
So instead of giving you the definition that is published here on the American Music Therapy Association’s (AMTA) website, and then talking you through it step-by-step (which was a favorite assignment of my professors during undergrad), let’s walk through a recent conversation I had with someone about music therapy, except this time I’ll be able to explain things with more detail and thoroughness than any “cocktail conversation” has a right to have. We’ll fast forward to after I was asked what I do for a living and I answered “I’m a music therapist” with a knowing smile.
“Oh, that sounds fun. Do you play music with kids?”
Yes, I personally do, although not every music therapist does. My area of specialty is children and adults with developmental disabilities, and so much of my job involves playing music with children. Other music therapists work in hospitals, with veterans, with individuals with addictions, in mental health facilities, in prisons, with people giving birth, in hospice, and almost anywhere you can find a person with clinical needs.
In all of these situations, though, music therapy’s power comes from the therapist’s ability to use music to address non-music goals. So, when I’m playing drums with one of my kiddos, we may be working on motor coordination, or turn-taking, or pattern recognition, or impulse control, or any other number of things. As a music therapist, I’m not concerned with proper hand drumming technique (which is a music goal), and much more concerned with, say, whether the person can understand and follow non-verbal cues for turn-taking.
“You must have so much fun at your job!”
I do! I have lots of fun at my job, but that’s the secret that makes music therapy work. Because people love music, it is naturally motivating for someone to want to engage with it, and the act of making music is fun, or in clinical language, is rewarding. So, because music is naturally motivating and rewarding, people engage in music therapy sessions and practice their skills while not even realizing they’re being therapized… or at least, they’re having fun and are motivated to keep it up!
“So, basically, you sing songs and make people feel better?”
This question makes me laugh, because, well, I sort of do. My clients and I make music together, and they make progress toward their non-music goals. So, yes, we sing songs and things improve for my clients.
But, cute turns of phrase aside, there is a lot of science going on behind all of those fun songs. Music therapy has been shown to address pain management; improve memory, social skills, and communication skills; assist in substance abuse recovery; address the needs of veterans and military service members; provide care to older adults with dementia and to individuals receiving hospice care; and many other clinical uses. For fact sheets on specific clinical needs, the AMTA has a good resource here.
The IRL conversation ended after this, but we never really answered Why does music therapy work?
There are many different approaches to music therapy, just like there are many different approaches to traditional/talk therapy (aka Freudian, cognitive behavioral therapy, etc.), and so there are many different ways to explain why music therapy works. But the way the human brain processes music, and the way the brain naturally “tunes in” to music and aligns itself with music (in addition to music being motivating and rewarding) is a general answer to the “why” question. The same reasons you subconsciously tap your toes to a song on the radio, or why you find yourself walking to the beat of the music playing in the supermarket, or why you sing the ABC song in your head when you need to alphabetize something, or why you can remember almost all the words to your favorite song from high school but not the grocery list you left in the kitchen an hour ago, is why music therapy works.
Colloquially, we are wired to be musical beings, and music therapy taps into that in order to help us learn or re-learn the non-music skills we need to be independent adults.
As Dr. Clive Robbins once said, “Almost all children respond to music. Music is an open-sesame, and if you can use it carefully and appropriately, you can reach into that child’s potential for development.”
So, why does music therapy work? Because it’s one of the most human experiences we can have, and it transcends anything that might otherwise block our paths.
