Music Therapy…Step Towards Your Better Health

Hay!... You listen music because you like it and you enjoy it. Today I will share some thing different with you about music. Music as therapy. Yes Music is used as therapy. I will let you know how and in which way. 

Music therapy is an art and science of using music and all its facets for clients to improve or maintain their health. It goes to biblical times. It has been used for centuries. As a health care profession it started after World War I and II when musician go to the hospitals to give relief through music to all patients who had suffered in physical and emotional trauma.

Interesting thing about music is that it is universal i-e understood by all people. People listen it and respond to it. That’s why it is used for individual of all ages and for a variety of conditions.

Stages in Music Therapy:

In music therapy the core factor is music. There is involving a series of session based on different experience of music. These are improvising, re-creating, composing, and listening to music.

• In improvising session client sings or plays whatever comes in his mind at that moment. The client may improvise freely, responding to the sounds as they emerge.

• Those sessions which involve re-creating client sings or plays pre composed music. It may include learning about music, taking lessons, its interpretation of composition, learning about instrumental sounds and so forth.

• In a composing session therapist helps the client to write songs, lyrics or any other musical product. Sometime the therapist simplifies the process by giving easier parts of tasks to the client.

• In listening sessions, the client participates in or shows reaction towards live or recorded music. This experience focus on different aspects of music like physical, spiritual, emotional, aesthetic, or intellectual etc. the client shows its response through different activities like relaxation, story telling, free association, drawing and so forth.

In addition to these sessions’ clients are encouraged to participate in verbal discussion. They are encouraged to talk about music, their feelings, how they felt during their experience etc.

So music therapy can be used for psychiatric disorders, physical and mental disabilities, medical problems, sensory impairments and so on. It is also used to reduce stress, improve learning and building self-esteem etc.