Music Therapy
Music Therapy can address psychosocial, spiritual and physical domains for patients of all ages and conditions. It is often utilized with children of special needs such as autism or adults with various levels of dementia.
Music Therapy may combined with other modalities such as movement therapy/ dance, massage, acupuncture and meditation. Benefits include:
- Provide vehicle for expression and containment of grief and other feelings
- Facilitate access to long-term memory
- Alter mood (alleviate anxiety and depression)
- Increase feelings of meaning/purpose
- Improve family relationships and provide family support
- Reduce anxiety
- Decrease isolation (connection with another is intensified through music)
- provide an element of familiarity, comfort
- provide link to patient’s life pre-illness
- provide cultural affirmation
- Improve perceived quality of life
- Facilitate reminiscing, positive experience
- Help family with end of life issues
- Provide means of expression of spiritual feelings, including doubts, fears
- Derive comfort, solace through traditional worship (e.g. singing of Sabbath prayer, songs)
- Assist in breaking cycle of pain (endorphin release/gate control theory)
- Promote muscle relaxation
- Induce sleep
- Facilitate physical stimulation and participation in activity to reasonable extent
Examples of Approaches/Interventions
- Singing (for pleasure, stimulation of reminiscence and life review, to be “transported”, as family unification, etc.)
- Improvised singing
- Songwriting (to familiar or co-created melodies)
- Music composition
- Instrumental improvisation
- Listening to recorded music (for relaxation, and/or with suggested imagery)
- Singing of hymns, and use of other religious music
- Setting poems (written by patient) to music
- providing custom-made tapes/CD’s (to fill hours beyond visits with pleasure, meaning)
- create life-review tape
- catalogue patient’s music collection as a legacy
- make musical plans in conjunction with memorial service
