Music Therapy is Good to Give or to Receive

A music therapist works with a client on rhythms. Source: Harpenden Lions Club, UK.

Music therapy, a field in which specially trained therapists use music to educate and heal, is growing  in health care, oncology, and in geriatric settings, particularly with Alzheimer’s patients.

This is good news for two reasons: we and our loved ones can benefit from music therapy as clients and patients – and – the late-life job seekers among us can investigate the field as a second career! If you’re an early retiree, have been laid off, or are simply tired of the corporate world - music therapy could be a rewarding late-life career. 

According to the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), music therapy is increasingly being used in hospital settings to help alleviate patients’ pain, counteract depression, promote movement for physical rehabilitation, decrease anxiety, reduce insomnia, lessen muscle tension, and slow the autonomic nervous system.

Music therapists incorporate improvisation, song writing, lyric discussion, music and imagery, and music performance in client sessions. 

At least 20 percent of music therapists receive third-party reimbursement for their services, says the AMTA.  This number is expected to increase “exponentially,” they say, “as music therapy occupies a strong position in the health care industry.”
 
There is a growing body of literature that music therapy really does help “heal” people. Not that that comes as a surprise to anyone who’s ever listened to or played music!

The idea that music can heal goes back thousands of years, at least to the writings of Aristotle and Plato. Music therapy in the U.S. formally began after World Wars I and II when amateur and professional musicians went to Veterans hospitals to play for physically and emotionally traumatized soldiers. The soldiers’ improved physical and emotional responses to the music led the hospitals to request the formal hiring of musicians. Soon, demand grew for a college curriculum. 

This link lists schools with AMTA-approved music therapy programs that offer baccalaureate degrees (some also have graduate degrees), which are required of music therapists.

If you’re interested in a possible second career as a music therapist or if you work in health care and want to make music therapy a bigger part of your organization, consider attending the AMTA’s upcoming annual conference in San Diego from Nov. 13 -15.