Music therapy

Music Therapy

There are many types of therapy offered in the world today. There is physical therapy for people who have been injured and need to regain movement in the body. There is therapy for mentally ill patients and massage therapy for relaxation purposes. Did you know there is Music therapy? I myself just learned of this occupation and I decided to research it and find out just what music therapy was all about.

The idea of music as a healing influence which could affect health and behavior is at least as old as the writings of Aristotle and Plato. The 20th century discipline began after World War I and World War II when community musicians of all types, both amateur and professional, went to Veterans hospitals around the country to play for the thousands of veterans suffering both physical and emotional trauma from the wars. The patients' notable physical and emotional responses to music led the doctors and nurses to request the hiring of musicians by the hospitals.

It was soon evident that the hospital musicians needed some prior training before entering the facility and so the demand grew for a college curriculum.

The first music therapy degree program in the world, founded at Michigan State University in 1944, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1994. Persons who complete one of the approved college music therapy curricula (including an internship) are then eligible to sit for the national examination offered by the Certification Board for Music Therapists. Music therapists who successfully complete the independently administered examination hold the music therapist-board certified credential (MT-BC). They then are inducted into the American Music Therapy Association.

The American Music Therapy Association is one of the largest professional associations which represents well over five-thousand music therapists, corporate members and associations world-wide. It was founded...