What Music Therapy Is... and Is Not

The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) supports music for all and applauds the efforts of individuals who share their music-making and time; we say the more music the better! But clinical music therapy is the only professional, research-based discipline that actively applies supportive science to the creative, emotional, and energizing experiences of music for health treatment and educational goals. Below are a few important facts about music therapy and the credentialed music therapists who practice it:

• Music therapists must have a bachelor’s degree or higher in music therapy from one of AMTA’s 72 approved colleges and universities, including 1200 hours of clinical training.
• Music therapists must hold the MT-BC credential, issued through the Certification Board for Music Therapists, which protects the public by ensuring competent practice and requiring continuing education. Some states also require licensure for board-certified music therapists.
• Music Therapy is an evidence-based health profession with a strong research foundation.
• Music Therapy degrees require knowledge in psychology, medicine, and music.

These examples of therapeutic music are noteworthy, but are not clinical music therapy:

• A person with Alzheimer’s listening to an iPod with headphones of his/her favorite songs
• Groups such as Bedside Musicians, Musicians on Call, Music Practitioners, Sound Healers, and Music Thanatologists
• Celebrities performing at hospitals and/or schools
• A piano player in the lobby of a hospital
• Nurses playing background music for patients
• Artists in residence
• Arts educators
• A high school student playing guitar in a nursing home
• A choir singing on the pediatric floor of a hospital

Finally, here are examples what credentialed music therapists do:

• Work with Congresswoman Giffords to regain her speech after surviving a bullet wound to her brain.
• Work with older adults to lessen the effects of dementia.
• Work with children and adults to reduce asthma episodes.
• Work with hospitalized patients to reduce pain.
• Work with children who have autism to improve communication capabilities.
• Work with premature infants to improve sleep patterns and increase weight gain.
• Work with people who have Parkinson’s disease to improve motor function.

AMTA’s mission is to advance public awareness of the benefits of music therapy and increase access to quality music therapy services in a rapidly changing world. In consideration of the diversity of music used in healthcare, special education, and other settings, AMTA unequivocally recommends the unique knowledge and skill of board certified music therapists.

Background information

1. American Music Therapy Association http://www.musictherapy.org/
2. Brain injury: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_MindBodyNews/gabby-giffords-finding-voice-music-therapy/story?id=14903987
   Bradt, J., Magee, W.L., Dileo, C., Wheeler, B.L., & McGilloway, E. (2010). Music therapy for acquired brain injury. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2010(7), doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD006787.pub2.
3.  Lessen effects of dementia: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/blog/cognition/how-music-can-reach-the-silenced-brain/31/
4.  Reduce asthma episodes: http://respiratory-care-sleep-medicine.advanceweb.com/Article/The-Sound-of-Music-4.aspx
5.  Reduce pain: http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2011/01/music_therapy_eases_patients_p.html
6.  Improve speech in people with Autism: http://www.shsu.edu/~pin_www/T@S/sliders/2012/lim.html
7. Improve sleep patterns and increase weight gain in premature infants: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/04/15/lullabies-other-music-may-help-sick-preemies/
8. Increase motor function in people with Parkinson’s: http://www.themiamihurricane.com/2013/02/07/music-therapy-helps-tackle-parkinsons/
   Clair, A. A., Lyons, K., & Hamburg, J. (2012). A feasibility study of the effects of music and movement on physical function, quality of life, depression, and anxiety in patients with Parkinson disease. Music and Medicine, 4 (1), 49-55.

Quotes about Music Therapy

"Music therapy helps speech, but also motor skills, memory and balance. Also emotionally uplifting."

- Dr. Sanjay Gupta

"Music therapy, to me, is music performance without the ego. It’s not about entertainment as much as its about empathizing. If you can use music to slip past the pain and gather insight into the workings of someone else’s mind, you can begin to fix a problem. "

- Jodi Picoult
(Author of Sing You Home)

"When we look at the body of evidence that the arts contribute to our society, it's absolutely astounding. Music Therapists are breaking down the walls of silence and affliction of autism, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease."

- Michael Greene, President & CEO of NARAS
(1997 Grammy Awards)

"Simply put, music can heal people."

"Music helps all types of people to remain forever young." He noted that Congress had never before "directly addressed the question of music" as preventive medicine and as "a therapeutic tool for those suffering from Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, strokes and depression."

"Music therapy is much more complicated than playing records in nursing homes. Therapists are trained in psychology, group interaction, and the special needs of the elderly."

- Senator Harry Reid (D-NV)

"(Rhythm) is there in the cycles of the seasons, in the migrations of the birds and animals, in the fruiting and withering of plants, and in the birth, maturation and death of ourselves," Hart told a Senate panel studying music therapy.

- Mickey Hart
(The Grateful Dead - REUTERS, Aug. 1, 1991)

"Before I had surgery, they told me I could never walk again. But when I sat and listened to music, I forgot all about the pain," said Goldman, who walked with assistance during the hearing.

- Ida Goldman
(90-year-old testifying at US Senate hearings,  REUTERS, Aug. 1, 1991)

Dr. Sacks reports that patients with neurological disorders who cannot talk or move are often able to sing, and sometimes even dance, to music. Its advocates say music therapy also can help ease the trauma of grieving, lessen depression and provide an outlet for people who are otherwise withdrawn.   ST. Louis Post Dispatch.

"I regard music therapy as a tool of great power in many neurological disorders -- Parkinson's and Alzheimer's -- because of its unique capacity to organize or reorganize cerebral function when it has been damaged."

- Dr. Oliver Sacks, MD
(Neuroscientists and Author of Awakenings)

"Almost all children respond to music. Music is an open-sesame, and if you can use it carefully and appropriately, you can reach into that child's potential for development." Nordoff-Robbins uses music therapy to help 100 handicapped children learn and to relate and communicate with others.

- Dr. Clive Robbins
(Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Clinic)

"(Music therapy) can make the difference between withdrawal and awareness, between isolation and interaction, between chronic pain and comfort -- between demoralization and dignity."

- Barbara Crowe
(Past President of National Association for Music Therapy)

"Music therapy has been an invaluable tool with many of our rehabilitation patients. There is no question that the relationship of music and medicine will blossom because of the advent of previously unavailable techniques that can now show the effects of music."

- Mathew Lee
(Acting Director, Rusk Institute, New York)

"I would teach children music, physicas and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning."

- Plato