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Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
~ Red Auerbach
We all know that music can make us feel better, reduce stress, helps us to remember and relive good times, creates a mood, and soothe the soul. Psychologists report that music does indeed affect the body - fast tempos invariably raise your pulse, respiration and blood pressure slow music lowers them and helps us to relax. To quote William Congreve: “Music hath charms to sooth the savage beast, soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak." Hal A. Lingerman once said: “Just as certain selections of music will nourish your physical body and your emotional layer, so other musical works will bring greater health to your mind."
The idea of music as a healing influence which could affect health and behavior is as least as old as the writings of Aristotle and Plato. The 20th Century American discipline began after World War I and World War II when community musicians of all types, both amateur and professional, went to Veterans hospitals around the country to play for the thousands of veterans suffering both physical and emotional trauma from the wars. The patients' notable physical and emotional responses and overall improvement to music led the hospitals to hire musicians by the hospitals.
It was soon evident that the hospital musicians need some prior training before entering the facility and so the demand grew for a college curriculum. The first music therapy degree program in the world was founded at Michigan State University in 1944. The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) was founded in 1998 as a union of the National Association for Music Therapy and the American Association for Music therapy. AMTA promotes a vast amount of research exploring the benefits of music as therapy through the publication of the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives and other sources.
Recent scientific studies indicate that melodies can elicit powerful emotional responses in the same areas of the brain which were also stimulated by food and sex. These were the same melodies that simultaneously produce “chills" or “send shivers down the spine."
Anne Blood (Massachusetts General Hospital) and Robert Zatorre (McGill University) used positron emission tomography, or PET scans, to locate precise areas of the brain that are stimulated by music. Previous studies have linked the midbrain, the ventral striatum and parts of the cortex to food and sex this study showed that music stimulated these same areas. According to Blood, these reactions to music are highly individualized and culturally based. Some people may react to rock ‘n’ roll in the same way as another may respond to Beethoven. Ahhh, the magic of music!
WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM MUSIC THERAPY?
The clinical use of music has proven beneficial in children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly with mental health needs, developmental and learning disabilities. Alzheimer's disease and other aging related conditions, substance abuse problems, brain injuries, physical disabilities, and acute and chronic pain, including mothers in labor, can also greatly benefit from music therapy.
Music therapists work in psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitative facilities, medical hospitals, outpatient clinics, day care treatment centers, agencies serving developmentally disabled persons, community mental health centers, drug and alcohol programs, senior centers, nursing homes, hospice programs, correctional facilities, halfway houses, schools, and even in private practice. Healthy individuals can use music for stress reduction via active music making, such as drumming, as well as passive listening for relaxation.
Music is often a vital support for physical exercise such as aerobics. Fast rhythmic music stimulates us - it motivates us to exercise faster and harder. Relaxing music assisting in labor and delivery may also be included in this category since pregnancy is regarded as a normal part of women's life cycles.
Music is also used in hospitals to: alleviate pain in conjunction with anesthesia or pain medication: elevate patients' mood and counteract depression promote movement for physical rehabilitation calm or sedate, often to induce sleep counteract apprehension or fear and lesson muscle tension for the purpose of relaxation, including the autonomic nervous system.
In nursing homes, music can be used with elderly persons to increase or maintain their level of physical, mental, social, and emotional functioning. The sensory and intellectual stimulation of music can often help maintain a person's quality of life.
Music therapy has also shown to be very useful in people with mental health concerns to: explore personal feelings, make positive changes in mood and emotional states, have a sense of control over life via successful experiences, practice problem solving, and resolve conflicts leading to stronger family and peer relationships.
Copyright Jonathan Klemens 2002
Excerpted from author’s book, Mountains and Rivers: Complementing Your Healthcare with Alternative Medicine. Available from www.1stBooks.com/bookview/13953
ISBN 1-4033-8672-2
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