It seems that the connection between music and healing is popping up a lot these days. Check out this recent story on MSNBC my friend (and fellow music therapist) Ginny Driscoll shared with me. It’s a pretty good story, probably one of the more well-written ones I’ve seen, on how music is being used as a complementary treatment in medicine. I only have one complaint: that the writer did not do all his homework. There is no mention of music therapy in the article, nor of how it has been used in hospitals since WWII.
UPDATE: I just posted this entry, when I saw this CNN story MollyBlock shared on Twitter: “Music a Mega-vitamin for the Brain.” Guess it proves my point that these stories are popping up everywhere!
It’s hard to blame the writer, though. It can get confusing, as there are lots of professions (and professionals) other than music therapists who use music in treatment. For example, there are:
- Harp therapists (mentioned in the MSNBC article)
- Music practitioners
- Music (or sound) healers
- Clinical musicians
- Music thanatology
Most of these other disciplines use music in medical treatment centers, and often in conjunction with the life/death transition.
(Our national organization, the American Music Therapy Association, put together a very nice description of the similarities and differences between these professions. You can download it here. Thank you Janice Harris for sharing this with me.)
As a profession, music therapy is the largest of these, requires the most training, and our MT-BC credential is accredited by the NCCA/NOCA. We also are trained to work with a wide variety of clinical populations, including adults and children with:
- Developmental disabilities (e.g. autism, learning disorders, ADHD, etc.)
- Trauma and attachment disorders
- Medical conditions (e.g. premature babies, cancer patients)
- Alzheimer’s and other dementias
- Neurologic insults (e.g. strokes, Parkinson’s, TBIs)
- Aphasias and other speech disorders
- Mental health disorders (e.g. substance abuse)
- End-of-life needs, including the life/death transition
But there is a place for all of us, the music therapists, the helping music professionals, and the doctors studying the effect of music on various ailments. And we have a shared interest, we are all working towards the same goal: using music to help others.
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