MUSIC THERAPY
INTRODUCTION
Music
can be beneficial for anyone. Although it can be used therapeutically for
people who have physical, emotional, social, or cognitive deficits, even those
who are healthy can use music to relax, reduce stress, improve mood, or to
accompany exercise. There are no potentially harmful or toxic effects.
Music therapists help their patients achieve a number of goals through music,
including improvement of communication, academic strengths, attention span, and
motor skills. They may also assist with behavioral therapy and pain
management.
Alvin (1975) defines music therapy as "the controlled use of
music in the treatment, education, training and rehabilitation of children and
adults suffering from physical, mental or emotional disorders".
Bruscia
(1993) describes music therapy is an inter - personal process in which the
therapist in all of its facets – physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic
and spiritual – helps clients to improve or maintain a state of health. He
observes further that music therapy is a systematic process of intervention
wherein the therapist helps the client to achieve health, using musical
experiences and the relationships that develop through them as a dynamic force
of change.
Mereni
(2004) indicates that the word
therapy comes from the Greek word "therapeia" which means "healing", in the same sense
as treatment of a disease: "a curative intervention for the purpose of
healing a sickness or restoring health." Music therapy has to do with
musical intervention.
Mereni however, remarks that music therapy is
not listening to music for relaxation, to relieve boredom, and/or to relieve
pain or physical aches, or to listen to music to induce sleep. In his view such
instances offer proof of the power of music and such a power can then be
involved when we set out to employ music as the tool of therapeutic
intervention. In most cases in Nigeria,
music and dance are closely knit.
Mereni (1997) identified some healing aspects
of music/dance as restorative agents and they are:
1. Anxiolytic music therapy – aims to free one from fear,
fright or anxiety.
2. Tensionlytic music therapy – aims to relieve one from
physical and mental tension resulting from manual or spiritual labour.
3. Algolytic music therapy – aims to relieve physical
pain.
4. Psycholytic music therapy – aims to loosen a person
from the group of evil spirits.
5. Patholytic music therapy – aims to relieve the grief
of bereavement.
GOALS OF MUSIC THERAPY
The goals of music therapy are
dependent upon the purpose of music therapy for each individual case. Drug and
alcohol centers and schools may use music therapy and behavior changing may be
an important goal. Whereas, nursing homes may use music therapy in more of a
support role or to relieve pain. Some of the goals of music therapy may
include:
- Improving the patient's
communication skills
- Helping the patient
take their focus away from their grief or pain
- Improving the patient's
ability to move
- Altering the patient's
behavior
- Improving the patient's
social skills
- Allowing the patient to
think creatively and develop their imagination
- Helping the patient
deal with a rehabilitative process
TYPES OF MUSIC THERAPY
There are different types of
music therapy that are used according to the patient's needs. Although music
therapy should not be labeled, as each patient is different and should be
assessed on an individual basis, understanding some of the different types of
music therapy can help us appreciate the different uses of music therapy. Music
therapy activities can be loosely divided into the following categories:
- Music therapy to help
develop communication, language and intellectual development
- Music therapy as
support, for people who are grieving, going through a crisis time or who
are in pain
- Music therapy to lower
stress and tension
- Music therapy as a
motivation for rehabilitation
- Music therapy to
encourage movement
- Music therapy as a
means to identify with cultural and spiritual identity
- Music therapy to assist
memory and imagination.
PURPOSE OF MUSIC THERAPY
Physical
effects;
· Brain function physically
changes in response to music.
· The rhythm can guide the body
into breathing in slower, deeper patterns that have a calming effect.
· Heart rate and blood
pressure are also responsive to the types of music that are listened to. The
speed of the heartbeat tends to speed or slow depending on the volume and speed
of the auditory stimulus.
· Louder and faster noises tend to raise both
heart rate and blood pressure; slower, softer, and more regular tones produce
the opposite result.
· Music can also relieve
muscle tension and improve motor skills. It is often used to help rebuild
physical patterning skills in rehabilitation clinics.
· Levels of endorphins,
natural pain relievers, are increased while listening to music, and levels of
stress hormones are decreased.
· This latter effect may
partially explain the ability of music to improve immune function. A 1993 study
at Michigan State University
showed that even 15 minutes of exposure to music could increase interleukin-1
levels, a consequence which also heightens immunity.
Mental
effects:
· Depending on the type and
style of sound, music can either sharpen mental acuity or assist in relaxation.
· Memory and learning can be
enhanced, and this is used with good results in children with learning
disabilities.
· This effect may also be
partially due to increased concentration that many people have while listening
to music. Better productivity is another outcome of an improved ability to
concentrate.
· The term "Mozart
effect" was coined after a study showed that college students performed
better on math problems when listening to classical music.
Emotional
effects:
· The ability of music to
influence human emotion is well known, and is used extensively by moviemakers.
· A variety of musical moods
may be used to create feelings of calmness, tension, excitement, or romance.
· Lullabies have long been
popular for soothing babies to sleep. Music can also be used to express emotion
nonverbally, which can be a very valuable therapeutic tool in some settings.
How Does Music
Therapy Work?
Music therapy works in
conjunction with a music therapist. The music therapist will assess the
emotional and physical health of the patient through musical responses and then
design music sessions based on the client's needs. Music therapy works in a
number of different ways as music helps the patient do different things and
provides different benefits. Some of the ways that music therapy may help
patients include:
- By keeping the
patient's attention
- By structuring time
- By providing an
enjoyable method of repetition
- By helping memory
- By encouraging movement
- By tapping into
memories and emotions
Where Do Music Therapists Work?
Music therapists work in a
variety of different places. Some of those places include:
- Psychiatric hospital,
working with the mentally ill
- Medical hospitals,
working with all types of patients
- Rehabilitative
facilities
- Day care treatment
centers
- Community mental health
centers
- Drug and alcohol
programs
- Nursing homes and
senior centers, working with music therapy and the elderly
- Correctional facilities
- Schools
Research review:
1. Music therapy and depression
Music therapy may help some patients fight depression, according to review
published in 2008. Researches sized up data from five previously published
studies, four of which found that participants receiving music therapy were
more likely to see a decrease in depression symptoms (compared to those who did
not receive music therapy). According to the review’s authors, patients
appeared to experience the greatest benefits when therapists used theory-based
therapeutic techniques, such as painting to music and improvised singing.
2. Music
therapy and stress
Music therapy may help ease stress in pregnancy, according to a 2008
study of 236 healthy pregnant mothers. Compared to a control group, the 116
study members who received music therapy showed significantly greater
reductions in stress, anxiety, and depression. The music therapy involved
listing to a half-hour soothing music twice daily for two weeks. In research
review published in 2009, investigators found that listening to music also
benefit patients who experience severe stress and anxiety associated with
having coronary heart disease. Results showed that music listening had a
beneficial effect on blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and pain in
people with coronary heart disease.
3. Music
therapy and Autism
Music therapy may help improve communication skills in
children with autistic spectrum disorder, according to a review published in
2006. However, the review’s authors note that the included studies were of “limited
applicability to clinical practice” and that “more research is needed to
examine whether the effects of music therapy are enduring”
4. Music
therapy and Cancer
Research suggests that music therapy
may offer a number of benefits for people coping
with cancer. For instance, music therapy has
been shown to reduce anxiety in patients
receiving radiation therapy, as well as ease
nausea and vomiting resulting from
high-dose
chemotherapy.
