MythBuster Countdown #9: Music Therapy is Therapy for Musicians, right?

Welcome to the countdown! 9 misconceptions about making music and music therapy will be unveiled in the next few weeks. My list is based upon my personal interactions with clients, friends, colleagues, and the general public throughout the years. If you’d like to contribute to the list, please comment below or contact me at Kat@SoundHealthMusic.com.

I like these posts because when I receive an inquiry about music therapy, I can usually answer the inquiry with a link to one simple, pre-written blog post. Please feel free to share links to these posts as answers when you run across inquiries regarding making music and/or music therapy.

Music therapy is therapy for formally trained musicians, right?

No and yes. Actually, no musical experience is necessary to benefit from music therapy. Most of my clients have no formal music training, but some do. In fact, it’s safe to assume that the majority of music therapy clients around the world have no formal music training. According to the Sourcebook by the American Music Therapy Association, the largest single category population served by music therapists is mental health. Mental health is followed by developmentally disabled, elderly & Alzheimer’s, medical/surgical, and neurological disorders.

Naturally, there are formally trained musicians in these categories. When I see patients and clients who are formally trained, they benefit from treatment, but not necessarily more so than others. For example, once I treated an Alzheimer’s patient in a hospital. The staff said “Good luck – She’s non-verbal.” I assessed the patient, then started singing a song that was popular when the patient was in her early twenties. (Research shows that Alzheimer’s patients are more likely to be familiar with music that was popular between the ages of 18 and 26.) Much to the staff’s surprise, the patient sang all the words to all the verses. The family witnessed the patient coming to life through song, and the family claimed that the patient was not a formally trained musician!

Remember: No musical talent or experience is necessary to benefit from music therapy.

Then, is music therapy ever therapy for formally trained musicians?

Yes! Music therapists often treat musicians. Some music therapists specialize in enhancing wellness and overcoming performance-related disorders. One such company is Performance Wellness, Inc. based out of New York, NY. The director Dr. Louise Montello (a licensed psychoanalyst and music therapist) has been treating professional musicians since the early 1990s. According to the website, Performance Wellness, Inc. is dedicated to meeting the mind-body health needs of performers and professionals from all walks of life.

A second example is one of my professional testaments. I treated a woman with Alzheimer’s who had played piano her entire life, but at the time of the session, she claimed that she couldn’t play anymore. With some gentle encouragement, she sat at the piano bench with me. I invited her to play anything. She kept repeating the same interval of a 2nd up, then down the keyboard. I improvised to provide a rhythmic and harmonic framework and support system for her improvisation. We performed for her family. Afterwards, she was smiling and laughing, and her family was in shock. It had been so long since they had seen her connect as coherently as we all had in that moment of her performance.

Read more about music therapy. Stay tuned for MythBuster Countdown #8 next week!

Please feel share any comments, thoughts, or insights below.

Special thanks for Salvatore Vuono for the image above.