What kind of patients and/or populations is music therapy geared toward?
Music therapists work across the lifespan, so in hospital settings music therapists can work with premature infants, kids through adults and all the way up to end of life. But, they are not just in hospitals. They work in schools with students who have developmental delays, intellectual disabilities or autism spectrum disorders. There are music therapists that work in mental health facilities and long-term care settings. They work with incarcerated populations who also may have mental health needs. It’s a broad spectrum of patients and populations who can benefit from music therapy.
Do you have to be musical to benefit from music therapy?
Absolutely not. I can use singing as a particular example of this. When I have patients who say they don’t sing or don’t want to sing because of their singing voice, and I tell them they can just listen, more often than not the patients – inevitably and regardless of how they feel about their singing voice – join in my singing after a few moments. The music is so engaging it is almost like they can’t help themselves. And, of course, I don’t care what they sound like. It is the act of doing it that stimulates all these emotional and physical responses.
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