Music and Therapy
Music therapy can involve creating music, writing songs, singing, dancing, listening to music and discussing music. Music therapy is usually used as a form of complementary therapy and is not very often the only kind of treatment the patient is doing.
According to Ohio University, music therapy is deeply rooted in scientific principles and simply put, it uses the power of music to stimulate multiple parts of the brain, creating emotional, physical and cognitive healing. It can evoke strong emotional responses and memories and create a unique way to process emotion. Music therapy has been proved helpful for a long time for its ability to create an emotional outlet. Like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote "Music is the universal language of mankind." It's known that music is able to affect brain chemistry in various ways, for example by releasing dopamine and reducing cortisol. This explains why music can have therapeutic effects on you.
Music therapy can be used for both improvement of mental health and physical rehabilitation. When it is used to improve mental health, music therapy can help people relax and explore their emotions. Additionally, it can help reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress and can help regulate your mood, and it can give you a break from overwhelming feelings. It has also been shown to help with social skills like communication and speaking. But most importantly music therapy can help strengthen self-confidence and create healthy coping and problem-solving skills. For example, if you're playing an instrument it might distract you from your anxiety, which also gives your body a break from it. Music therapy is often adapted to what kind of mental health problem you're struggling with. For example according to Verilymag.com, it has been shown, that rap-music can help if you're struggling with depression, because the stories told are often about hard work and personal transformation.
Music has been shown to also work for physical rehabilitation. It has also been shown to be able to reduce the levels of physical pain we feel. Additionally it can improve coordination, motor function and movement. There are multiple good techniques for physical rehabilitation using music therapy; one of these is rhythmic auditory stimulation(RAS) often used for people who are recovering from strokes, brain injuries or neurological diseases to improve and recover motor functions. It uses the rhythmic aspects of music to train and enhance someone's motor skills, giving them the ability to make more smooth and coordinated movements.
Rehabilitation music therapy is used to distract from physical pain by diverting focus away from the pain sensations. Additionally, music can reduce pain levels because it can reduce muscle tension and relax your body, improving levels of overall physical comfort.
Considering all this, it's clear that music therapy can be very effective for improving many different things and there are many ways to do music therapy. However, it will look different from person to person and there isn't one correct way. It also might work better for some people than it will for others, so no two people will have exactly the same results.