Who is it for?
Music therapy is often recommended for people in their communities when the following symptoms are present:
Children and adolescents:
- Social, emotional, behavioural, and mental health difficulties, including:
- Attachment difficulties
- Depression and anxiety
- Isolation
- Poor confidence or self-esteem
- Poor concentration
- Behavioural difficulties linked to underlying emotional difficulties
- Conditions such as ADHD, OCD and PTSD
- Experiences of trauma
- Special education needs and difficulties
- Physical disabilities
- Developmental delay
- Conditions such as cerebral palsy or Down’s Syndrome
- Neurodevelopmental disorders, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASC) or Asperger’s syndrome
Adolescents and adults:
- Experience of trauma
- Mental health difficulties including anxiety, depression, mood disorders, etc.
- Communication difficulties
- Withdrawal and isolation, significantly impairing ability to relate to others
- Emotional distress
- Lack of confidence/ self esteem
- Difficulties engaging with other available therapies
- Rehabilitation of offenders in prison, correctional services or forensic psychiatry
Why is music therapy effective?
Music therapy offers certain advantages, including:
- Music therapy does not rely on talking, which can be beneficial for people who are unable to speak (due to various reasons, including disabilities, mutism, or selective mutism); children or adults with limited emotional vocabulary; and people who find putting their experiences into words too challenging or traumatic.
- Clients can control how open or defended they want to be.
- Easier to express non-verbal traumatic memories.
- Combination of music and talking supports integration of cognition and emotion generally (emotional literacy / regulation).
- Music aids a state of optimal stress, which can help clients manage emotional arousal level and cope with sessions.
- Kinaesthetic musical activities can allow for safe catharsis or soothing.
- Musical activities can make use of pre-existing competencies (such as technology).
- Fun and creativity are motivating factors (age-appropriate play).
What can a session look like?
Music therapy sessions are client-led, so what happens in the session, both musically and verbally, is up to the client. Sessions could include:
- Music-centred relaxation, such as exercises focusing on breathing or muscle relaxation)
- Improvising on instruments, with or without the therapist
- Improvised singing or singing with recordings of songs with a specific meaning to the client
- Lyric analysis of pre-composed songs
- Song writing
- Creating songs with music technology software
- Talking
- Drawing or other forms of art
Benefits of music therapy:
Music therapy can address the following needs: physical, cognitive, emotional, social, transpersonal, and community needs.
Physical
Music can aid a state of relaxation
Regulating the nervous system
Reducing muscle tension
Motivation to move
Pain management
Lowering blood pressure
Improving breathing
Helping premature babies with feeding and sleeping
Helping people with diseases such as Parkinson’s or patients undergoing stroke rehabilitation improve their motor function
Cognitive
Sustaining attention
Improving short-term memory
Supporting learning
Visual and spatial processing
Emotional
Emotional regulation
Supporting the development of one’s identity
Building resilience
Self-reflection
Learning to distinguish between different emotions
Having a safe space to express emotions
Music can recall repressed emotions or memories, which can then be worked with and through
Social
Turn-taking
Making eye contact
Interacting with others
Developing other social skills
Transpersonal
Building relationships
Feeling connected
Finding meaning (within yourself, life, etc.)
Accessing higher levels of consciousness
Community
Understanding ones standing within different contexts (cultural, social, political, etc.)
Empowering individuals
Increasing one’s sense of agency
Makhanda Music Therapy 