The Pros And Cons Of Music Therapy

Depression is an illness that does not discriminate; it can affect anyone regardless of socio-economic background, class, ethnicity, occupation, and gender. Statistics from Health Canada show that 16% of Canadian women and 11% of Canadian men will experience severe depression at some point in their lives (“It’s Your Health,” 2009). As the current population stands, this equates to approximately 9.5 million Canadians being affected during the course of their lifetime. In recent decades, there has been a rise to the implementation of using music therapy as a means of aiding in treatment of those suffering from depression. Characterized primarily by feelings of hopelessness and extreme sadness, loss of energy and motivation, fatigue, withdrawal

Music therapy may also be experienced from more of a “listening” perspective, where a person suffering from depression listens to a particular piece of music and pays focus to any feelings, emotions, and images that emerge as a result. Using this as a basis, in 1970 an American music therapist by the name of Helen Bonny created what is known today as Guided Imagery and Music therapy (GIM) (Chou & Lin, 2006). GIM consists of the patient listening to therapeutic and calming music, eventually reaching a state of mental and physical relaxation (Chou & Lin, 2006). Once a patient is in this state, and with the help of the therapist, an individual explores images and feelings that arise in their mind as a result of listening to this music (Chou & Lin, 2006). This remains to be of particular importance as those suffering from depression often feel a lack of connection with one’s self and one’s feelings. Subsequently, the individual and the therapist work together discussing the images and feelings that the patient experienced, exploring the figurative meaning and themes and how they connect to the patient’s issues and everyday life (Chou & Lin, 2006). Such communication and exploration often allows for those afflicted with depression to express negative emotions more easily and bridge the gap between their internal state and expressing that state outwardly in a verbal manner (Chou & Lin, 2006), something that exclusive talk therapy at times struggles with. Mei-Hsien Chou, an instructor at I-Shou University in the Department of Nursing; and Mei-Feng Lin, who holds a PhD and is an assistant professor in the School of Nursing at National Cheng Kung University conducted a study featuring five subjects who suffer from depression and the use of GIM on their overall mood, quality of life, and personal experience. While the study is limited in terms of subject