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Katie Norflus

3/5/17

ENC 2135-016

Professor Gilchrist

Music Therapy and its Impact on Modern Day Therapy

Music therapy is a relatively new form of medicine, compared to traditional styles such

as pure medication or regular visits to a psychologist, that is being used around the country. It is

a multidisciplinary field that works to incorporate music in a therapeutic way in order to help

patients physically, mentally, and emotionally. According to the American Music Therapy

Association, Through musical involvement in the therapeutic context, clients' abilities are

strengthened and transferred to other areas of their lives. Music therapy also provides avenues

for communication that can be helpful to those who find it difficult to express themselves in

words. Music therapy has been proven to be helpful to patients with all kinds of disorders from

depression to autism to recovery after a surgery.

Its important to first look at what music therapy is composed of. At its core it is a type

of psychological therapy. Psychology is defined as, the study of mind and behavior in relation

to a particular field of knowledge or activity. Psychology is a unique field of medicine because

it looks at the how and why for a certain situation. There is a lot that is known about the field of

psychology but there is even more that hasnt been discovered yet because the brain is a difficult

organ to study. The brain is incredibly powerful and small defects can cause major problems for

people. A psychologist is trained to diagnose and treat psychological disorders like depression or

obsessive compulsive disorder. They use different types of techniques such as meditation or

simply providing someone to talk to in order to help people overcome psychological disorders.
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Music therapy is a relatively new field in the world of psychology and it takes special

training in order to become certified in the field. According to the American Music Therapy

Association, The undergraduate curriculum includes coursework in music therapy, psychology,

music, biological, social and behavioral sciences, disabilities and general studiesStudents learn

to assess the needs of clients, develop and implement treatment plans, and evaluate and

document clinical changes. These unique skills are what allows music therapists to create plans

that incorporate music into a medical setting. They are not only responsible for creating

personalized treatments for each patient, but also being able to evaluate whether or not the

strategies they are implementing are effective. This is what sets music therapy a part from a

hospital hiring a musician to play in their lobby. The music might have calming effects on the

patients and visitors, but it is not being used in a clinical fashion. The base level of education

needed to become a music therapist is a bachelors degree and just like with a normal

psychologist, in order to truly be considered well experienced its almost necessary to obtain a

masters or even doctoral degree. Currently there are only three schools in the entire state of

Florida that offer a music therapy program, Florida State University being one of them.

Music has a very special effect on the brain. According to The Power of the Brain by

Oliver Sacks, One of the most dramatic effects of music's power is the induction of trance

states, which have been described by ethnomusicologists in nearly every culture. Trance

ecstatic singing and dancing, wild movements and cries, perhaps, rhythmic rocking, or catatonia-

like rigidity or immobilityinvolves both motor and gross emotional, psychic and autonomic

effects, culminating in profoundly altered states of consciousness This ability to, in a sense,

wake the person up from a catatonic state is rare and unique to music. It is what allows music to

be beneficial to patients with neurological diseases because the effect that music has allows the
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patients to be able to experience stimuli that they normally wouldnt be able to receive because

of their condition. For example, patients with Parkinsons Disease can greatly benefit from this

because it gives them a structure. Patients with parkinsonism, in whom movements tend to be

incontinently fast or slow or sometimes frozen, may overcome these disorders of timing when

they are exposed to the regular tempo and rhythm of music. (Sacks, 2006). Music helps these

patients to time their movements, allowing them to become more rhythmic and precise. This can

help people with Parkinsons Disease function because it will regulate their movements giving

them the ability to do every day tasks much easier than they were able to do before. Music also

plays a strong effect on mood regulation in people of all ages and music able to do this because it

causes an increase the amount of dopamine released in the brain. Dopamine is an important

neurotransmitter that regulates the reward and pleasure centers in the brain (Goldstein, 2017). .

Musics ability to affect peoples mood is the main reason it is so beneficial therapeutically.

Music Therapists are able to use this to their advantage when treating patients with mood

disorders. They are able to correlate music with the reward and pleasure centers of the brain

allowing people to correlate the musical activities that they are doing with feelings of happiness

or joy. This is beneficial to people who are overcoming grief or traumatic life experiences, as

well as helping someone who has a disease like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

One effect of music therapy is its ability to help people who have difficulty

communicating. Music has often been thought of as a language in its own and this is

demonstrated when it is used to help children with autism. Scientists are using a new technique

called Auditory-Motor Mapping Training in order to help create a link between sounds and

articulatory actions (Wan, 2011). Wan also states that, Auditory-Motor Mapping Training as an

Intervention to Facilitate Speech Output in Non-Verbal Children with Autism: A Proof of

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Concept Study. The study that Wan and her colleagues focused on six children within the autism

spectrum that had no intelligible words. They worked with these kids for two months and had

overwhelming success. Every child showed a significant amount of improvement in their ability

to speak (Wan, 2011.) This is extremely important as Wan puts it, Because these children had no

or minimal vocal output prior to treatment, the acquisition of speech sounds and word

approximations through AMMT represents a critical step in expressive language development in

children with autism. These children wouldnt have been able to effectively communicate

without the help of music. The therapy they are receiving is allowing them to express themselves

in ways that some medical professionals never thought possible.

With all of these amazing milestones that music has helped the medical field achieve, its

very surprising how there can still be debates among our government about whether arts

education in public schools is worth it. There is so much untapped potential in the field of music

therapy and it starts in the youth of country. Without arts education the majority of kids will have

no exposure to musical instruments or choir. This is something that people are taking for granted

now. There have been multiple studies showing how music can actually help students in other

subjects while they are in school. An essay written by Donald Hodges and Debra OConnell

revealed that, For example, using information from the National Center for Educational

Statistics, Morrison (1994) reported that on a sample size of 13,327 high school sophomores

those who participated in music reported higher grades in English, math, history, and science

than those who did not participate in music. The rational behind why music is so beneficial to

learning is still being determined, but it is widely known that music activates both sides of the

brain at the same time. This trains the brain to use both sides while engaging in one activity

increasing the amount of brain power that can be used not only while being involved in a musical
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activity, but also while learning. Later in the same essay it is said that, Using records from two

area high schools, Trent (1996) determined that those high school seniors who had participated in

instrumental music programs from sixth through 12th grades scored significantly higher on

standardized tests of language arts and math than their counterparts who had participated in non-

music extra-curricular activities or who had not participated in extra-curricular activities. Since

entry into upper level education relies heavily on standardized test scores, this is further evidence

of the benefit that music education can have for students.

Theres no question that music therapy is a new field and is still in the experimental

stages. There is no concrete, 100% certainty, that music therapy works but there rarely is in the

field of medicine. Each individual case is different and this type of therapy may not work well

for every person, but this is also the case with other types of medicine as well. There are new

experimental drugs being released every day and there are millions of dollars that are flooded

into funding these trials without having any idea if they will work or not. Drug companies and

their sponsors take this risk in the hopes of finding a product that works. There is no reason for

there not to be just as much effort put into building the field of music therapy. With as many

positive outcomes that music has had in multiple fields of healthcare, there is still so much that

has yet to be discovered. The more widespread that the knowledge of music therapy and its

benefits become, the more it will continue to grow and help people in unexpected ways.
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Works Cited
A. Blythe LaGasse, PhD, MT-BC; Effects of a Music Therapy Group Intervention on Enhancing
Social Skills in Children with Autism. J Music Ther 2014; 51 (3): 250-275. doi:
10.1093/jmt/thu012

"American Music Therapy Association." American Music Therapy Association | American Music
Therapy Association (AMTA). Amaerican Music Therapy Association, 2017. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

"Autism Spectrum Disorders." Music Therapy Association of BC. Music Therapy Association of
BC, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

Degli, Stefani M., and M. Biasutti. "Effects of Music Therapy on Drug Therapy of Adult
Psychiatric Outpatients: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Study." Frontiers in Psychology. U.S.
National Library of Medicine, 2016. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

Goldstein, Barry. "4 Surprising Ways That Music Changes Your Brain and Influences Your
Mood." Music and the Brain: How Music Affects & Elevates Your Mood. Conscious Lifestyle,
16 Feb. 2017. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

Hodges, Donald A., and Debra S. O'Connell. "THE IMPACT OF MUSIC EDUCATION ON
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT." The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, n.d. Web. 22
Mar. 2017.

Hutka, S., S. M. Carpentier, G. M. Bidelman, S. Moreno, and A. R. McIntosh. "Musicianship and

Tone Language Experience Are Associated with Differential Changes in Brain Signal
Variability." Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 30 Aug.
2016. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

Jasemi, M. "The Effects of Music Therapy on Anxiety and Depression of Cancer Patients."
Indian Journal of Palliative Care. U.S. National Library of Medicine, Oct. 2016. Web. 26 Feb.
2017.

Porter, S., T. McConnell, K. McLaughlin, F. Lynn, C. Cardwell, H. J. Braiden, J. Boylan, and V.

Holmes. "Music Therapy for Children and Adolescents with Behavioural and Emotional
Problems: A Randomised Controlled Trial." Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and
Allied Disciplines. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

"Psychology." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

Saarikallio, Suvi, and Jaakko Erkkila. "The Role of Music in Adolescents' Mood Regulation."
Psychology of Music. N.p., 29 June 2016. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.
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Sacks, Oliver. "The Power of Music." Brain: A Journal of Neurology. Oxford University Press,
01 Oct. 2006. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

Wan, Catherine Y., Loes Bazen, Rebecca Baars, Amanda Libenson, Lauryn Zipse, Jennifer Zuk,
Andrea Norton, and Gottfried Schlaug. "Auditory-Motor Mapping Training as an Intervention to
Facilitate Speech Output in Non-Verbal Children with Autism: A Proof of Concept Study." PLOS
ONE. Public Library of Science, 29 Sept. 2011. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.

Zhao, K., Z. G. Bai, A. Bo, and I. Chi. "A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Music
Therapy for the Older Adults with Depression." International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
U.S. National Library of Medicine, Nov. 2016. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.