Immersed in a sea of hardcore riffs and guttural screams is a place that I like to call home. I found this place when I was struggling to deal with my mothers’ death some five-odd years ago. I, for some reason, had seen this as a better alternative than to actually deal with the fact that my mother was gone. Although to this day I am still immersing myself in massive amounts of music, my personal experiences lead me to believe in what is called Music Therapy.
Music Therapy has been around in the United States since the early 1940’s when the first undergraduate degree in music therapy was accredited at Michigan State University. Just after that a graduate degree program was developed at the University of Kansas so students could continue their education to a higher level. The American Music Therapy Association was founded in 1998 as a way to combine the National Association of Music Therapy, founded in 1950 and the American Association of Music Therapy, founded in 1971. To become a licensed music therapist in the United States, you must complete all required coursework for a music therapy bachelors degree at a university or college, complete 1040 hours of a music therapist internship, and pass the board certification test for the state one wishes to practice in.
There are many ways in which Music Therapy is used and presented in the recovery process. Some music therapists prefer to use music that is nonverbal or ambient. Some think it is necessary to use music that evokes emotion in the client, produces psychological and physiological responses, and use music that increases the sensitivity of other senses such as taste, smell and sight. Most often music therapy is used in either individual patient settings or with groups of patients in which it is most often combined with other types of counseling such as motivational interviewing and mental health counseling.
Some residential mental health programs use Music Therapy even without a music therapist. In this situation Music Therapy can be used in many different modes. Music discussion is one of the modes used to help loosen people who are shy up so they can talk about their real problems and why they are at the facility in the first place. Another is music instruction. Music instruction consists of learning to play instruments, write music or playing music together. It is used to try to help patients to work together and to help build relationships amongst themselves. There is also group participatory music which is the same thing as the group practicing music together, but it can also be used for group listening–such as concert-type events.
Music Therapy is used for more than just therapy. It has been used on patients with Alzheimer’s disease, autism, multiple sclerosis and even chronic pain, but it is more commonly used on people with psychiatric disorders as well as substance abuse issues. It is thought to be helpful in people with addiction by the music provoking motivation and self esteem in the patients. The process of Music Therapy in addicts has been proven to help with their communication, expression of emotions, physical and emotional healing, and improved learning in different kinds of self-healing and coping.
One of the problems that some music therapists run into is their clients’ observations and inquiries about music under the influence of drugs. Can they better understand and treat themselves with the music only if under drugs? One therapist asked the same question when referring to Pink Floyd’s album “The Wall” and “Wish You Were Here.” Some music is hard to listen to sober and simply cannot make sense to the listener unless they are high. When exploring music that is going to be possibly used in Music Therapy it might be wise to stick to more concise styles of music such as rock, metal, indie, alternative or folk, because when you get into the progressive and post-rock such as that of Pink Floyd and Bark Psychosis, the songs get too long and complicated to make sure the listener is actually paying attention to the music.
Music Therapy is a real thing, even though some older professionals don’t recognize it for what it is. It can be used to treat such a variety of different diseases that it is widely used by multi-disorder clinics or therapists. It isn’t necessarily the best way to treat someone’s substance abuse issues or their psychiatric disorders–but if regular therapy doesn’t work or they are a music lover, then this might be a better alternative to helping them overcome their problems.
References:
http://www.nccata.org/music_therapy.htm
http://www.musictherapyworld.de/modules/wfmt/
