Music in and as Therapy

The staff of California State University, Northridge's Music Therapy Wellness Cllinic (Photo from CSUN).

SANTA CLARITA, CA - Music is used in many different ways and it is often incorporated into a therapy setting. Music has many properties that make it a great tool for mental health care, both through listening to it and creating it.

Music can be found in many different kinds of therapeutical treatment, including clinical psychology. Dr. Brian Clemente has a practice in Santa Clarita, California and uses music with his patients as a way to communicate their emotions.

Dr. Clemente says "oftentimes we don't have the language to describe or articulate what's happening inside feeling-wise, but we can hear music... and find the song that is currently resonating with our mood." Instead of asking a patient how they are feeling, he says he likes to ask them what song describes their current emotional state.

Though he uses music in his therapy, music can be used as therapy itself. Music Therapy was first referenced as a practice in 1789 in Columbian Magazine in an article titled "Music Physically Considered".

Currently, there are around 5,000 board-certified music therapists across the country. The American Music Therapy Association was founded in 1998 and is the largest music therapy organization in the United States.

Jennifer Geiger is a certified music therapist and former president of the AMTA. She has worked with patients suffering from various illnesses, including Alzheimer's Disease.

Music has been shown to help individuals with this disease by reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and agitation. The area of the brain that preserves music memory is also undamaged by Alzheimer's, which is why music therapy can be so beneficial.

Geiger has found with elderly patients that they sometimes prefer music from their youth and that she could use it as a motivator to help them with a lost appetite. She says "If [I] provided them with some background music that was of a preferred genre, [they] were more likely to eat."

Michigan State University created the first music therapy academic program in 1944. An AMTA-approved music therapy degree is now available at over 70 institutions across the country, including California State University, Northridge.

Ronald Borczon established CSUN's music therapy program as part of the school's Music Department in 1984. He is the program's academic coordinator while also serving as a professor and the director of the CSUN Music Therapy Wellness Clinic.

Borczon describes becoming a music therapist as a long process. He says "first they are trained at a music therapy school, they do a six-month internship, then after completing their internship they graduate with a degree in music therapy, then they sit for the national board exam in order to become a board-certified music therapist.

"Once they've received their music therapist board-certified designation, they have to keep that certification up every five years by accruing 100 continuing education units." He says music therapists are required to work in a wide variety of medical environments from prenatal and neonatal intensive care units all the way up to hospice care.

The diversity of music's value in relation to mental health is incredible. It will only continue to grow as more research with it is done and as professions like music therapy become more mainstream.