What Really is Music Therapy? No, Really...What Exactly Does it Mean?

This is by far the most frequent question we get asked!  So, if you are wondering this, you’re not alone.  A series of blog posts with this title will be posted from time to time that will shed light on an answer to the question, “what really is music therapy.”  

Recently, music therapy has had quite the spotlight in the media. We’ve all heard the reports, read the articles, and talked about the role music has played in Gabby Gifford’s recovery. We’ve seen the news articles talking about how music can help babies in the NICU, grieving children, older adults with Alzhiemers, and almost any population in between. But what exactly is music therapy?

As a music therapy student, the clinical definition of music therapy was drilled into our heads. We were taught that is was the only acceptable answer to “What is music therapy?”. But it wasn’t until we started practicing as a professional music therapist that we truly understood the meaning behind the big words and complicated sentences.

So what, really, is music therapy?

Good question!  One way to answer this question is not describing "what" it is, rather describing "how" it is.  

Music therapists receive unique training to manipulate and use the elements of music to target specific goals. They use music to draw upon a person’s strengths to target their weaknesses. Although it may look like a music therapist is just singing, performing, or playing instruments with a client, they are actually creating a unique, one of a kind experience specifically designed to target the client’s needs. Here is the amazing part, the music intervention is facilitating the heavy "therapeutic" lifting so to speak for the client. Because of this, music creates unique responses in individuals that may not be seen through any other therapeutic medium, making it a dynamic form of therapy. It takes a lot of the work out of the therapeutic process, making it more like play. I mean really, who wouldn’t want hard work to be more like play for 30 minutes a day?!?!

How does music play a role in making your everyday life easier?