Music therapy is an allied health profession and one of the expressive therapies, consisting of an interpersonal process in which a trained music therapist uses music and all of its facets—physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic, and spiritual—to help clients to improve or maintain their health. Music therapists primarily help clients improve their health across various domains (e.g., cognitive functioning, motor skills, emotional and affective development, behavior and social skills, and quality of life) by using music experiences (e.g., singing, songwriting, listening to and discussing music, moving to music) to achieve treatment goals and objectives. It is considered both an art and a science, with a qualitative and quantitative research literature base incorporating areas such as clinical therapy, bio musicology, musical acoustics, music theory, psycho acoustics, embodied music cognition, aesthetics of music, and comparative musicology. Referrals to music therapy services may be made by other health care professionals such as physicians, psychologists, physical therapists, and occupational therapists. Clients can also choose to pursue music therapy services without a referral (i.e., self-referral).
Music therapists are found in nearly every area of the helping professions. Some commonly found practices include developmental work (communication, motor skills, etc.) with individuals with special needs, songwriting and listening in reminiscence/orientation work with the elderly, processing and relaxation work, and rhythmic entrainment for physical rehabilitation in stroke victims
Music therapy for childrenTwo common approaches are used when conducting music therapy with children: either as a one-on-one session or in a group setting. When a therapist meets with a child for the first time, customarily the therapist and child develop goals to be met during the duration of their sessions. Music therapy can help children with communication, attention, motivation, and behavioral problems. Therapy rooms should have a wide range of different instruments from different places. They should also be colorful, and have different textures. The therapist should either play a piano or guitar to keep everything grounded and in rhythm. The most important thing, though, is to have high quality and well-maintained instruments. As some children will be able to handle an instrument while others cannot, the child should be given an instrument adapted to them. All these elements help the experience and outcome of the music therapy go better and have more successes for the child. In fact according to Daniel Levitin, it started inside the womb, surrounded by amniotic fluid, the fetus hears sounds. It hears the mother’s heartbeat, at times speed up, at other times slow down, not only that but other music, conversations, and environmental noises. Alexandra Lamont of Keele University in the UK discovered the fetus hears music. She found that, a year after they are born, children recognize and prefer music they were exposed to in the womb. The auditory system of the fetus is fully functional about twenty weeks after conception.
Indian classical 'Ragas' have been claimed by Vedic science to have healing effects.[citation needed] Ragas work in music therapy because certain "sound waves, depending on the way they are listened to or pronounced, are identified for having an impact in the way the neurological (brain and nerve) system work in the human body."
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