What Is Music Therapy?

Music Therapy is the use of music to treat a range of conditions either physical or mental (Questia, 2017). It can be used to help a range of conditions such as: autism, mental health (for example anxiety and depression), learning disabilities and neuro disabilities (British Association for Music Therapy (BAMT), 2017). This could be proven useful due to its variety of conditions it can help with, it is a very different idea to help people and music in general is very enjoyable and uplifting. It can also be useful for it is a way people can express themselves, there are many cases in which people do not know how to communicate with others or do not like talking about their conditions or how they feel and communication is very important. However,

Music Therapy began in the early twentieth century after World Wars one and two. This was due to the fact many veterans had developed post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), and musicians would visit hospitals to perform music to the patients (BBC Radio 3, 2017). Clive Robbins, was a special educations teacher developed a new form of collaborative music-making along with an American composer and pianist called Paul Nordoff in 1959 which was the engage and interact with children who are considered vulnerable and alone, they called it therapy in music (Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy, 2011). Clive Robbins went on to

Developing a Theoretical Framework for the Use of Psychodynamic Music Therapy in the Treatment of Selective Mutism in Children with English as an Additional Language: A Heuristic Case Study” (BAMT, 2017). Her research was to look at selective mutism, “a severe anxiety disorder where a person is unable to speak in certain social situations” (NHS, 2016). In this research study Kate Jones talked about how the children with selective mutism would come into a room which contains many instruments, in which they will pick up any instrument of their choice and start to play it. Music therapists will play along with the children and have what is considered as a “musical conversation” through the instruments. This gradually develops the confidence of the children and gives the children an alternative way to converse and interact with people (BBC Radio 3,