Informative Essay: Does Music Therapy Relief Stress?

Following the developing of social sciences, everybody has started to get concerned about the issue if music is good for healthy body and mental recently. This phenomenon makes the music therapy becomes popular. Music therapy is defined as “ the therapeutic use of music as to reduce anxiety, improve cognitive functioning, promote physical rehabilitation, or enhance interpersonal communication that typically involves listening to music, singing, playing musical instruments, or composing music “ in the Merriam-Webster.com. In other words, through the activity of music people can improve physical or psychological disease that achieves cure and health.

According to Geretsegger et al. (2014), music therapy is an effective clinical intervention for a varied of medical conditions, which are profoundly supported by strong scientific evidence on their significance for mood enhancement and stress relief. The five conditions for which music therapy has been studied, backed up by good scientific evidence are; dementia, autism, sleep quality, depression and infant development.

Because music has such a strong hold on human emotions, music therapy was eventually introduced. The area of science that deals with the physical effects of music is called music therapy. Music therapy is, “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program” (AMTAc par. 1). The American Music Therapy Association writes that music therapy intervention can help explore feelings and self-esteem, make positive emotional changes, help with communication, improve problem solving skills, social interaction, and bring about positive

Music therapy is not a new idea. In fact, it’s been used in thousands of civilizations throughout history. The Incan nation thought that a soul was connected to the gods through music and it determined the health, success, and future of every living thing (Stobart et al, 26). But most every nation, from Africa, to Asia, to Europe, has had a history of music being used as a healing tool. There is evidence of music therapy leading to an increase in emotional functions and motor control skills (Warner et al, 15).

Those who oppose music therapy believe it does not work, especially for in the long term, and that drugs are more efficient and show faster results. Despite those who are against it, music therapy has become very popular

With the rise of new technology, better medications have been made. These medications, however, don’t always work, and, while music is not a new technology, music therapy has been a topic of research and experiments in the past few years. Some people don’t believe music can really help a person in pain any significant amount. Carlee Efeney, a music

Music Therapy. Many people have heard about or even experienced this modern form of treatment. The majority of the population, however, does not really understand the concept. One therapist summarized public opinion on music therapy by saying, “A

Music therapy is a kind of expressive treatment that utilizations music to enhance and keep up the physical, mental, and social prosperity of people. It is a form of popular healing that involves basically a lot of variety of activities such as listening to music, singing, and playing an instrument like the guitar. All of this type of therapy is run by a trained therapist. Most of which are used in the hospitals, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers. It has shown to be very effective. Music Therapy should be used in today’s society because music helps distract patients from pain, increases athletic performance, and helps to relax the patients (“Music” 1).

To begin the research, there has to be an understanding about what music and therapy are. Music; according to the Oxford Dictionary, is ‘vocal and/or instrumental sounds that combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.’ There are many hypothesis out there that try to answer the question, “What is music?” One hypothesis states that music has one primary effect, and that is to induce an altered state of mind. In other words music is often used to disconnect us beings from

In many cases it is clear that music therapy has the ability to supersede prescription drugs. These cases include: children, the elderly, those who are antidepressant-resistant, those who do not have sever depressive disorder, and those who are not fond of medication and want to try something else. In these instances, patients would be better off investing some time in music therapy rather than looking for their perfect medication. In other situations, music therapy might not be enough to damper the effects of the disorder. For these patients it would be more beneficial to look into prescription drugs, but they might also find it to be of great help to combine these two methods and receive double the effect. Music therapy does not contain a

In the 1940’s music therapy began to be recognized as its own organized profession (musictherapy.org). According to the CAMT (Canadian Association for Music Therapy), music therapy is: "The skillful use of music and musical elements by an accredited music therapist to promote, maintain, and restore mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health…” (Lightstone 40). It has been used as a healing process since ancient times. Over 2,500 years ago, Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, would use such practices to treat his mentally ill patients (Graf 2). Today, music therapy is becoming more popular. The use of music as medicine is beneficial to many people as it is easily accessible, inexpensive and free of any harmful side effects (Thompson, Schlaug 6). According to Thompson and Schlaug, music therapy has proven to be beneficial to those

If you could help your grandma with dementia get better and be able to better communicate with you, would you? What if you could help that little kid in the park with autism be more social and make more friends? Would you find a cure for your best friend that has been recently diagnosed with a crippling depression if possible? Well, using music therapy may now be an option for treatment to all of that. Recently, qualified therapists and scientists have, through studies and experiments, found that music therapy has a positive effect on many several health issues. Music is not only enjoyable, but it is also being used as therapy for people with depression, autism, and dementia.

Music has been around for thousands of years. It has been used for telling stories of history, religious and spiritual practices, and emotional expression. Music has continued to evolve throughout the years and is a part of everyday life. Furthermore, it affects the brain in many positive ways and activates certain areas of the brain that have a huge effect on emotions. The effect of music on the brain and emotions was recognized by some people a long time ago and that started the development of music therapy. Over time, there have been many trials and tests on the effects of music that have shown positive results on the mental and emotional health of people which formed into the development of music therapy and using music as a form of treatment.

There are many studies that show how music therapy helps people with mood disorders. People with depression can benefit from music therapy because through music therapy they can lessen the symptoms of depression. In the studies and cases that will be mentioned we can see that music therapy is effective through methods like group therapy. It is shown that people with depression that go through music therapy are affected in a positive way.

     Music therapy is a controversial but effective form of rehabilitation on mentally handicapped people. A great amount of research has been completed on this subject. It has been proven that our brains respond to music as if it were medicine. Music therapy is not a commonly used health care, but recent studies have suggested it can have a wide range of benefits.