Humans respond to music…we just do.
The neuroscience is incontrovertible – our brains are hardwired to music. Music has a unique place in our emotional, physical, cultural and spiritual heritage. Music stimulates and connects with the brain in unique ways, unrestricted by emotional, mental or physical barriers, disability, illness or injury.
Music therapists use music as an alternative way to communicate, support and make connections with their clients, bringing about positive change in a variety of circumstances.
In the same way that talk therapy, such as psychotherapy, achieves positive outcomes through speaking with clients, music therapy achieves communication through music. This is a medium where people can express themselves where words are not easy or possible for them.
Music therapy can be used to help us re-engage, motivate, uplift, to be with pain and to re-calibrate our mental and physical selves. It can help us communicate, be self-aware, self-regulate and be positive and confident in our daily lives.
Like any therapy, we validate the client, listen and observe carefully how they are, and, in therapy speak, we contain their feelings for them. We play back their sense of self in the music, play music alongside them, or ‘hold’ them in the music, feeding back to them their unmanageable feelings in a more manageable way.
Having engaged with music therapy, clients often find themselves more confident at coping with day to day life. This can be through reduced anxiety, increased positivity and self-awareness, the ability to explore different emotions and confront challenges. Clients are often more able to understand themselves and those around them and develop a bedrock of positivity through music, upon which they can build a more positive future.
