The Effect Music Therapy Has On The Body

The effect music therapy has on the body is closely linked to the effect music has on people in general. Think about it. How many important moments in your life are associated with music? How many situations are transformed into something unique and special thanks to music? Music is a universal form of communication.

The positive effects music has on people’s lives are pretty obvious. Thus, it is not so difficult to think that one can use it as a therapeutic tool. Music therapy is exactly what it sounds like: A type of therapy that uses music to treat patients. In this article, we will delve deeper into this concept and describe the most important techniques of music therapy.

What is music therapy?

Music therapy is a method that uses music and sound to establish the communication and connection necessary to achieve therapeutic goals. The goal of music therapy, as with most therapies, is to improve the patient’s health and quality of life on physical, emotional, and cognitive levels. People with brain damage, terminal illness, dementia, mental health problems and autism can especially benefit from the effect music therapy has to offer.

In 1950, the American composer and pianist Paul Nordoff, together with the British teacher in special education, Clive Robbins, began collaborating with a therapy that used music as a basis. Later, they created the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy , which was dedicated to improving the quality of life of people in need of neurological rehabilitation.

They discovered that when their patients had the opportunity to actively make music, they made better progress than anyone had expected. As a result, they had empirical evidence for the idea that experimenting with music stimulates the brain at a level no one knew about before. In other words, the work provided their evidence that defended the positive effects of music therapy.

Concrete music therapy techniques

Music therapists use different concrete techniques for individual and group therapy.

• Instrumental improvisation. Vaillancourt (2009) defines instrumental improvisation as “using musical instruments to express oneself in a spontaneous way”. It consists of offering the patient the musical instruments and letting them manipulate them freely.
• Vocal improvisation. Vocal improvisation is using your voice to express yourself. Therapists can guide patients to play with word-based improvisation or imitate nature sounds. For example, the patient can use his voice and body to imitate bird sounds, the sea, a storm, or rain.

• The music therapist can play a song or instrument for the patient and ask the patient to make a specific sound and / or sing along.
• Listening to different pieces of music to stimulate and open up the patient’s senses.

The effect music therapy has on the brain

Music has certain components that have a positive effect on the brain. In fact, music stimulates the production of serotonin, ie the “happiness hormone”. It also promotes changes in your brain chemistry, giving you a sense of well-being.

Researcher Robert Zatorre describes the neuromechanics of music perception. He says that the music you’ve listened to before actually affects the brain’s response. This is because the brain has a “database” that contains stored information about all the melodies that it has heard before.

Consequently, Zatorre argues that the effect music therapy has on the brain is overwhelmingly positive. What we know for sure is that music can evoke previous neuronal connections by transferring memories to your consciousness.

Cognitive benefits

Music therapy also contributes to the recovery of memories because it stimulates certain cognitive areas, such as language and attention.

According to Spanish musician Javier Alcántara, musical abilities and musical memories are the last to go. That is why one of the goals of music therapy is to strengthen / preserve memory and one’s cognitive abilities. This is especially relevant for people with dementia.

Emotional expressions

Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy methods believe that music therapy helps people remember things and express emotions that they would not otherwise be able to.

Playing an instrument allows the individual to express something that would otherwise be difficult to write or talk about through music. Giving patients the opportunity to make music also helps the therapist understand the patient’s emotional state through the sounds they make and the way they handle the instruments.

This is why experts consider music therapy to be a powerful tool for expressing oneself emotionally. There are positive effects on self-esteem, motivation and how patients handle their emotions.

Physiological and muscular effects

According to a study by researcher John Nida, music can alleviate the effects of stress and promote breathing and relaxation. This is because it uses pleasant and attractive sounds and stimuli.

The effect music therapy has on socialization

Music therapy also improves verbal expressions and one’s non-verbal communication skills. All in all, music stimulates our communication skills because it requires active listening, taking a break between songs, having to wait for a turn, etc.

These elements also apply in daily life and in social situations. Thus, practicing these things during music therapy will also help the patient out in the world. There is no doubt that music has the potential to enhance your relationship with your surroundings. It helps to create and intensify emotional bonds with other people and helps the patient to develop social skills.

Where can you see the effect music therapy has?

Nowadays, music therapy is mostly used to:

• Reduce the effects of dementia in the elderly. More specifically, music therapy helps to stimulate cognitive functions such as language and memory.
• Improve motor function in patients with Parkinson’s disease.
• Reduce anxiety and pain in patients in the hospital.
• Improve the communication skills of children with autism and Asperger’s syndrome.
• Help people regain the ability to speak after brain damage.
• Reduce asthma attacks (in both children and adults).

To conclude, you can see the effect music therapy has reflected in the quality of life of patients because it offers a different way of expressing oneself emotionally. The success of music therapy has led to increased popularity in several disciplines. There are more and more therapists who specialize in music therapy and use these techniques in their patients.