Healing The Mind Through Music

music therapists draw upon the innate qualities of music to support people of all ages and abilities and at all stages of life; from helping new born babies develop healthy bonds with their parents, to offering vital, sensitive and compassionate palliative care at the end of life. British Association for Music Therapy

- Dr. Malaya Santos

Music has always been a big part of my life. I grew up listening to the lyrics and melodies of folk songs, country music and (dare I say) protest songs from the 70s, sung to the accompaniment of an acoustic guitar and, during special occasions, around bonfires in the home of my childhood.

Music is the art – some may consider it a science – of combining sounds or tones wherein the resultant pattern or product can be described as pleasant and enjoyable.

According to the Oxford Dictionaries, music is made up of “vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion”.

Music has been used as a form of therapy since ancient times, by many different cultures. From a biomedical perspective, the therapeutic benefits and healing properties of music are well established. The American Music Therapy Association describes music therapy as the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized therapeutic goals. They further emphasize the importance of professional credentials and proper training for practitioners.

A search of the published contemporary medical literature reveals that music has been studied extensively as a therapeutic modality for many specific health conditions, using different scientific models and methodologies. In many of these studies, the results are extremely promising, indicating that music can be valuable for a variety of conditions including pain, stress, Parkinson’s disease, autism, dementia, sleep disorders, depression, and many other types of mental illness.

Disabled and trauma survivors