Why Your Mental Health Needs Music

The more we understand about mental health, the more we learn that there are many ways you can look after yours. Enter music therapy – a form of psychology that could be just what you need.

- Busang Senne

Music helps us make sense of our life and gives us emotional release,’ says music therapist Lise MacDonald. Here, we discuss why music therapy – a type of psychology – could be for you.

Music what?

‘Anticipation and experience of peak emotions (chills and goosebumps) during music listening have been found to lead to the release of dopamine,’ says Kobie Swart of the University of Pretoria’s Department of Music. ‘Dopamine is associated with a pleasure-and-reward system usually activated by eating, sex and certain drugs. Music is an acoustic stimulus with the same effect.’

‘We all have musical skills and instincts,’ explains MacDonald. ‘Just think about the inherent musical qualities – tone, pitch, tempo and volume – of our vocal expressions such as laughing, sighing, crying and speech.’ That’s why music is often used as a form of clinical psychology. Music therapy is the application of various music techniques – from songwriting to improvisation – to manage mental health.

‘In a music-therapy session, the therapist will use music to provide a safe space for the non-verbal expression of emotion,’ says MacDonald. ‘This is similar to what happens verbally in a psychology session.’

How does it work?

‘As music therapists, we come across more and more people who prefer a creative type of therapy that allows them to bypass rational thinking. That’s where creative music therapy and Guided Imagery and Music (GIM, a powerful music- and imagery-centred psychotherapy) are very effective,’ says Swart.