Music+Therapy

1: Description of Strategy a) Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program. It is an interpersonal process in which a trained music therapist uses music and all of its facets: physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic, and spiritual, to help clients to improve or maintain their health. Music therapy for children can be one-on-one or in a group setting. Music therapy can help children with communication problems, attention, motivation, and behavioral problems. [|Music Therapy Session] [|Music Therapy and Autism]

b) This method is designed for children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly with mental health needs, developmental and learning disabilities, Alzheimer's disease and other aging related conditions, substance abuse problems, brain injuries, physical disabilities, and acute and chronic pain, including mothers in labor. Music therapy can help children with communication problems, attention, motivation, and behavioral problems.This method has been extremely successful for children with disabilities and it has been used with persons of all ages from preschool to late adulthood and with many types of disabilities whether congenital or adventitious.

c) Qualifications for individuals who use this method include completing one of the approved college music therapy curricula, including an internship. They are then eligible to sit for the national examination offered by the Certification Board for Music Therapists. Therapists who successfully complete the independently administered examination hold the music therapist-board certified credential (MT-BC). The National Music Therapy Registry (NMTR) serves qualified music therapy professionals with the following designations: RMT, CMT, ACMT. These individuals have met accepted educational and clinical training standards and are qualified to practice music therapy.

d) Music Therapy sessions come at many different price points, mostly depending on location and experience of the therapist. If the cost of living is high in your geographic location, then the price of music therapy services will be higher than in an area with a low cost of living. Since 1994, music therapy has been identified as a reimbursable service under benefits for Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP). Falling under the heading of Activity Therapy, the interventions cannot be purely recreational or diversionary in nature and must be individualized and based on goals specified in the treatment plan.

e) There are no known risks associated with Music Therapy. However, there are some misconceptions about this particular method. One of them is that the client or patient has to have some particular music ability to benefit from music therapy- they do not. Another misconception is that there is one particular style of music that is more therapeutic than all the rest, when in fact this is not the case.

f) There is a benefit in using music therapy to help cancer patients, children with ADD, and others. Hospitals are beginning to use music and music therapy to help with pain management, to help with depression, to promote movement, to calm patients, to ease muscle tension, etc. Research has shown that music with a strong beat can stimulate brainwaves to resonate in sync with the beat, with faster beats bringing sharper concentration and more alert thinking, and a slower tempo promoting a calm, meditative state. Music can also be used to bring a more positive state of mind, helping to keep depression and anxiety down. This can help prevent the stress response from wreaking havoc on the body, and can help keep optimism levels higher. Music has also been found to lower blood pressure, boost immunity, and ease muscle tension, and more.

g) Some settings that are appropriate for music therapy use include hospitals, nursing homes, schools, psychiatric facilities, rehabilitative facilities, outpatient clinics, day care treatment centers, agencies serving developmentally disabled persons, community mental health centers, drug and alcohol programs, senior centers, hospice programs, correctional facilities, halfway houses, and private practice.

h) Attitudes towards the music therapy method are positive. With so many benefits and no known risks, music therapy can be very beneficial for people of all ages. The future of music therapy is promising because state of the art music therapy research in physical rehabilitation, Alzheimer's disease, and psychoneuroimmunology is documenting the effectiveness of music therapy in terms that are important in the context of a biological medical model.

2: Research Study Aldridge, D., Gustoff, G., and Neugebauer, L. (1995). A Pilot Study of Music Therapy in the Treatment of Children with Developmental Delay. Complementary Therapies in Medicine. 3, 4. 197-205.

a) Researchers at the Institute for Music Therapy in Germany conducted a pilot crossover study involving 12 children between 4 and 6.5 years of age with developmental ages of between 1 and 3.5 years to monitor the effects of music therapy on the children's mental development.

b) The children were randomly selected to one of two groups. The children in the first group received individual music therapy for a period of three months, and the children in the second group were, during that period, used as a control group. But, for the subsequent three months, the children in the second group received music therapy while the children in the first group were used as controls.

c) The Dependent Variable is that one group is receiving music therapy for three months and not receiving music therapy for the subsequent three months.

d) The Independent Variable is the music therapy being used on these two groups of children.

e) The results after the first three months revealed significant developmental improvements including better hearing and speech, improved eye-hand coordination, and improved communications skills in the children in the music therapy group which were not seen in the control group. Further, when the groups were reversed for the following three months, the second group who were then receiving music therapy improved in those areas of development. The researchers concluded that music therapy seems to have an effect on personal relationship, emphasizing positive benefits of active listening and performing, and this is turn sets the context for developmental change.