Music therapy: what is it and what can it cure?

Listening to or creating music and using sounds or vibrations, guided by a therapist, are useful in psychotherapy and rehabilitation.

According to the definition of the World Federation of Music Therapy (WFMT), music therapy is the use of music and / or musical elements (sound, rhythm, melody and harmony), with an individual or a group, by a qualified music therapist with the aim of facilitating and favoring communication, relationship, learning, motor skills, expression, organization and other relevant therapeutic objectives, in order to meet your physical, emotional, mental, social and cognitive needs.

Music therapy is placed in the context of “complementary medicines” or “unconventional” and takes place mainly in the educational-preventive, rehabilitative and social integration fields: through music therapy it is possible to induce changes in the person at an intrapsychic and interpersonal level.

His approach is in fact defined as “holistic”, since it concerns the sphere of emotions and experiences of the sick person.

What tools do you use?

In the field of music therapy, musical instruments are used, but also a set of sound products that go beyond the art of music, such as environmental or bodily noises and rhythmic vibrations.

The choice of sound/musical material depends on the assumptions of the music therapy intervention and the users for whom it is intended. “The basic assumption of music therapy – explains Livio Claudio Bressan, neurologist director of the ASST-Nord Milano and adjunct professor at the Universities of Milan and Bicocca – is that music is able to act on neuronal circuits that stimulate neuronal plasticity”.

“Music can promote thinking and behavior in both health and pathological conditions. Sensory input can facilitate, through the structures of the temporal lobe, the processes of attention, observation and learning managed by the frontal lobe. Musical stimulations, in fact, can produce pleasure (both conscious and unconscious) able to act on neuroanatomical structures responsible for attention, learning, thinking and behavior».

Practical applications

Music therapy is suitable for different types of patients, both children and adults, with emotional, physical, mental or psychological disabilities or handicaps. It is used for cognitive disorders in Alzheimer’s disease or senile dementias, to soothe acute and chronic pain, for the physical and mental rehabilitation of those who have abused alcohol or drugs. It can even be used during labor. Therefore, in particular, in the psychotherapeutic and rehabilitative field: in the first sector, music is a channel of non-verbal communication that favors interpersonal relationships; in the second the sound acts as a stimulus for a specific motor or cognitive function.

The musical choice made by the music therapist must be targeted on the listener: from time to time, in fact, those who conduct the music therapy session can choose to play instruments or write songs or sing them, to implement a guided listening path or to leave the field to improvisation and personal performances.