What is Music Therapy?

If you don't know what music therapy is, you're not alone! When you think of the term, you probably get an image of someone singing Kumbiya around a hire or kneeling on a yoga mat surrounded by crystal singing bowls talking about how the music makes you feel... And I'm gonna tell you that you're not completely far off :p

Music therapy is the clinical use of music by a Certified Music Therapist (MTA) to support personal growth and overall wellbeing. Music therapists use music safely and ethically to address challenges within cognitive, communicative, emotional, musical, physical, social, and spiritual domains.

Common areas that music therapy is used for are:

Mobility (i.e. re-training gait as part of stroke recovery)
Grief
Pain relief
Addiction
Anxiety
Identity exploration
Relaxation
Emothional expression
Memory
Dementia care
Oncology
Trauma processing/recovery
Palliative care/hospice
Lanquage aquisition
So. Much. MORE!!

Music therapy can be used in a variety of ways and settings. In some sessions, we may be using songwriting to process an harmful experience or feelings around something specific, other sessions we may be listening to music and talking about the imagery it makes us think of or how we connect to the song's lyrics.

Some other interventions that may pop up in sessions are:

Improvization
Sound inventory (what are all the sounds that you can hear in the space you are in?)
Singing
Learning/playing instruments
Musical games
Rewriting lyrics of popular songs to make them "fit" your situation better
Moving to music
Drawing to music
Making specific and intentional playlists
Recording

It's important to note that NO MUSICAL EXPERIENCE is needed for music therapy. Just a willingness to try something new and see whether the creative process supports what you are looking to achieve.

For more info, check out the Canadian Association of Music Therapists or the Music Therapy Association of BC.