preview

The Benefits Of Music Therapy Essay

Good Essays

The Unbeknownst Benefits of Music Therapy Music therapy, a clinical use of music interventions to accomplish therapeutic goals, involves a broad range of activities including playing an instrument, singing, or listening to music. Similar to occupational and physical therapy, this expressive arts therapy remedies psychological conditions, such as depression, anxiety, or hypertension to maintain the well-being of an individual. Likewise, music has been a therapeutic tool that has shown positive effects to parts of the brain including regions involved in emotion, sensation, movement, and cognition. Although music therapy is a somewhat new-found treatment, it is used prominently today. Administered by a trained therapist, this type of therapy is used in correctional facilities, nursing homes, hospices, and special education schools. Although music therapy is a somewhat modern discovery, its formation was many years in the making. In the early 1800s, the therapeutic value of music appeared in two medical journals by Edwin Atlee and Samuel Mathews. Both contributors were students of physician and psychiatrist, Dr. Benjamin Rush, a strong advocate of music therapy for medical diseases. However, during the 1800s, the first recorded music therapy intervention in an institutional setting occurred, as well as the first recorded systematic experiment in music therapy. Nonetheless, music therapy was formally instituted in the United States in the 1920s when musicians played for

Get Access