section_path: Therapy
section_name: Therapy
paragraph_text: Therapy
  
  Music therapy is an interpersonal process in which a trained therapist uses music and all of its facets—physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic, and spiritual—to help clients to improve or maintain their health. In some instances, the client's needs are addressed directly through music; in others they are addressed through the relationships that develop between the client and therapist. Music therapy is used with individuals of all ages and with a variety of conditions, including: psychiatric disorders, medical problems, physical disabilities, sensory impairments, developmental disabilities, substance abuse issues, communication disorders, interpersonal problems, and aging. It is also used to improve learning, build self-esteem, reduce stress, support physical exercise, and facilitate a host of other health-related activities. Music therapists may encourage clients to sing, play instruments, create songs, or do other musical activities.
  
  In the 10th century, the philosopher Al-Farabi described how vocal music can stimulate the feelings and souls of listeners. Music has long been used to help people deal with their emotions. In the 17th century, the scholar Robert Burton 's The Anatomy of Melancholy argued that music and dance were critical in treating mental illness, especially melancholia. He noted that music has an "excellent power...to expel many other diseases" and he called it "a sovereign remedy against despair and melancholy." He pointed out that in Antiquity, Canus, a Rhodian fiddler, used music to "make a melancholy man merry,...a lover more enamoured, a religious man more devout." In the Ottoman Empire, mental illnesses were treated with music. In November 2006, Michael J. Crawford and his colleagues also found that music therapy helped schizophrenic patients.