Music Therapy Through Music

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Therapy Through Music: Inventive Genius Music is inseparable from emotion. Through music, every kind of person is able to see through the shroud of sorrow and suffering to a life worth living. The art, in which sound is the medium, music, is a universal language that spans all corners of the globe that creates profound insights and self-knowledge. Over several decades, this phenomenon has been recognized by psychologists and neuroscientists across the world. Now today, a practice of psychoanalysis has been developed with the utilization of music; thus, music therapy was born into this world. Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within the therapeutic relationship …show more content…

Depression is the persistent feeling of sadness and a loss of interest in things that used to evoke happiness in them. Music therapy has been applied to teens and adults as a form of lessening these depressive symptoms that essentially control their lives. The goal of the therapist is to increase the self-esteem of the patient and help reduce the depressive symptoms. When assisting depressed patients, there are two main types of therapeutic techniques that music therapists use. Receptive techniques involve pre-composed music such as music you could hear on the radio or music that the patient is familiar with. This music induces guided reminiscence, relaxation, reflection, and most frequently, a change in mood. The other form of technique is active technique which is used when the patient cannot articulate testing feelings. They will improvise on instruments or the voice using help of the therapist. The therapists’ job is then to listen and analyze the patients’ improvised songs to entice a withdrawn person to engage in the relationship. Using and learning to play an instrument requires purposeful physical movement which averts attention to an individual’s depressive symptoms. Doing so helps them experience themselves as human beings (Maratos, et, al.). A study done in Finland in 2002 suggests improvement in mood and global functioning of people with depression. This study took children between the ages of …show more content…

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is affecting one in 68 children in the United States today. Some of the hallmark characteristics of this disorder are: social and communication deficits, problems keeping and establishing relationships, and abnormal communication behavior. There is no cure for this disorder, so music therapy is an “evidence-based” treatment method that is utilized to alleviate symptoms and quirks of the patients. Music therapy encompasses elements of “meaningful and flexible” treatment modality, as music experiences are inherently structured, yet creative. ASD persons demonstrate enhanced pitch and/or melodic perception, so they understand and appreciate music more than the average human being. Most ASD patients ages 5-22 had strong activations of cortical speech and auditory areas when exposed to song. These areas coincide with a greater activation of frontal-posterior networks, suggesting that ASD people can better process musical stimuli and that music can help assist the learning curve of deficits, including social skills, which is often the most difficult side effect to progress with. The structural rhythmic component to music provides the skills to help ASD kids organize, predict, and respond to the environment.

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