Music Therapy Essay
Music Therapy: Is It The Cure To Mental & Physical Problems?
Music therapy is defined as the skillful use of music and musical elements by an accredited music therapist to promote, maintain, and restore mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Music has nonverbal, creative, structural, and emotional qualities. These are used in the therapeutic relationship to facilitate contact, interaction, self-awareness, learning, self-expression, communication, and personal development (Source: Canadian Association of Music Therapy).
In other words, music therapy is the use of music by a trained professional to achieve therapeutic goals. Goal areas include, but are not limited to, motor skills, social/interpersonal development, cognitive development, self-awareness, and spiritual enhancement. Music therapy is now an established health service similar to occupational therapy and physical therapy. Music therapists use music to facilitate changes that are non-musical in nature. The use of music for those with arthritis provides opportunity for pain relief, anxiety and stress reduction and positive changes in both mood and emotional state.
Music therapists are found in nearly every area of the helping professions. Some commonly found practices include developmental work (communication, motor skills, etc.) with individuals with special needs, songwriting and listening in reminiscence/orientation work with the elderly, processing and relaxation work, and rhythmic entrainment for physical rehabilitation in stroke victims.
History of Music Therapy
For centuries, music and medicine have been linked together. The Greeks believed that music had the power to heal the body and the soul, as reflected in their mythology, with Apollo - the god of music, giving rise to his son Aesculapius - the god of healing and medicine. Zenocrates, Sarpenter, and Arion were the first Greeks to use music for the purposes of calming the mentally ill. The playwright Homer believed that music could
Music therapy is defined as the skillful use of music and musical elements by an accredited music therapist to promote, maintain, and restore mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Music has nonverbal, creative, structural, and emotional qualities. These are used in the therapeutic relationship to facilitate contact, interaction, self-awareness, learning, self-expression, communication, and personal development (Source: Canadian Association of Music Therapy).
In other words, music therapy is the use of music by a trained professional to achieve therapeutic goals. Goal areas include, but are not limited to, motor skills, social/interpersonal development, cognitive development, self-awareness, and spiritual enhancement. Music therapy is now an established health service similar to occupational therapy and physical therapy. Music therapists use music to facilitate changes that are non-musical in nature. The use of music for those with arthritis provides opportunity for pain relief, anxiety and stress reduction and positive changes in both mood and emotional state.
Music therapists are found in nearly every area of the helping professions. Some commonly found practices include developmental work (communication, motor skills, etc.) with individuals with special needs, songwriting and listening in reminiscence/orientation work with the elderly, processing and relaxation work, and rhythmic entrainment for physical rehabilitation in stroke victims.
History of Music Therapy
For centuries, music and medicine have been linked together. The Greeks believed that music had the power to heal the body and the soul, as reflected in their mythology, with Apollo - the god of music, giving rise to his son Aesculapius - the god of healing and medicine. Zenocrates, Sarpenter, and Arion were the first Greeks to use music for the purposes of calming the mentally ill. The playwright Homer believed that music could