What is Music Therapy?

 

The American Music Therapy Association defines music therapy as a clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.

 

According to neuroscience research, music therapy has been shown to support clients’ ability to regulate their emotions and to decrease negative affect and depressive symptoms. These changes can be seen through brain scans of individuals who participated in music therapy sessions.

 

In addition, neuroscience research has shown that music therapy supports learning through a double encoding process, where information is processed both verbally and musically. This strengthens the memory trace during learning. 

 

Whether the goal is to reduce stress and anxiety, regulate emotions, improve communication skills, or increase the ability to self-express, this modality of therapy has been proven to increase the efficacy of therapy, whether used alone or as a complement to other therapeutic modalities.

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Get In Tune's Approach

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Music, when used actively and intentionally, is a uniquely impactful healing tool. However, most of us do not inherently know how to use music to move towards healing–we might even be using music in a harmful way, to isolate and stay stuck in a dysregulated or negative emotional state. Our board-certified music therapists have extensive expertise in both psychology and music, meaning they can strategically manipulate elements of music to reflect where a client is at, and supportively move them forward in their recovery. 

 

Through this process, we can show our clients how to take their connection to music and effectively use it in their healing journey. Therapeutic music experiences guide clients to identify and feel their emotions, and then create something that will communicate what is going on inside to themselves or others. And no musical ability is needed! We break down creative barriers and make the basic expressive aspects of music accessible to all.

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Inclusivity is important for our sessions, so we touch on all learning styles in our music therapy sessions: kinesthetic, aural, reading/writing, and visual. We ensure each week is a different experience so each learner can engage in music in a way that works best for them. We do this through using music listening, songwriting, music-assisted creative arts, music-assisted meditation, and active music making.