What is Music Therapy?

The most comprehensive definition of music therapy is “the professional use of music and its elements as an intervention in medical, educational, and everyday environments with individuals, groups, families, or communities who seek to optimize their quality of life and improve their physical, social, communicative, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health and wellbeing. Research, practice, education, and clinical training in music therapy are based on professional standards according to cultural, social, and political contexts.” (WFMT, 2011)

This definition covers the wide range of perspectives and schools of thought within the music therapy profession including the approach Fife Music Therapy practices – Psychodynamic Music Therapy.

What is involved in Music Therapy?

As in talking therapy, music therapists have a range of interventions with different therapeutic purposes. Music therapy interventions can often be organised into 4 categories.

Please note that you do not need to have any musical experience or training to participate in music therapy. But these interventions need to be facilitated by an accredited music therapist to be classified as ‘music therapy’.

Playing/recreating music – this is where the client and therapist play songs together that are chosen by either of them. This is often a client’s favourite songs or a song related to a topic they would like to explore further. We are not aiming for a ‘perfect’ sound. Music therapists are training in many different styles of music, so nothing is too obscure.

Improvising music – this is where the client and therapist create music together using instruments and/or singing, the client might try making up a main part while the therapist accompanies  going back and forth, trying to put into music what is difficult in words, trying new ideas all while being supported by a therapist who is also a professional musician. There is no perfect sound we are aiming for, we are aiming for the client to feel heard. We use music to have a conversation. Music therapists create a space where clients feel supported to express themselves honestly through music and are highly skilled in making sense of what can seem like just noise.

Listening to music – this is where clients can share what music is important to them. We can discuss what feelings and memories these songs bring up. This could be as simple as listening to a song you had heard on the radio that week that just made you smile or a song that reminds them of a loved one. They can dive deeper into how we can listen to our music more effectively to help us in our everyday lives.

Writing music – this is where clients are supported to compose melodies and lyrics which then could be recorded by the client and/or therapist, or written down so the music can be recreated later. This could be writing a song about a part of your life or about hope, creating a rap , or making a piece of music which you can simply say “I actually made that”.

Around these interactions they can begin talking and reflecting on what we are doing and what feelings the music is bringing up. 

In all these interventions, music therapists apply traditional psychotherapy theory and aim to look at the larger picture and identify where and why the client’s needs aren’t being met in life -with subsequent interactions being tailored to address these areas.

Music as a means for wellness.

Music has been monumental throughout history and cultures and the naturally therapeutic qualities of music have been widely known since ancient times. We see examples from history of people being very deliberate in how they use music therapeutically in their own lives and the lives of those in need.

Music Therapy as a modern profession developed in the 1950s to collate these practices and research their effectiveness and best applications to create a large catalogue of interventions and techniques that qualified Music Therapists, with their training in psychology, can safely deliver.