music therapy music therapy music therapy, an allied health profession, "is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program." it is also a vocation, involving a deep commitment to music and the desire to use it as a medium to help others. although music therapy has only been established as a profession relatively recently, the connection between music and therapy is not new music therapypower of music by louis gallait. a brother and sister resting before an old tomb. the brother is attempting to comfort his sibling by playing the violin, and she has fallen into a deep sleep, "oblivious of all grief, mental and physical".icd-9-cm93.84meshd009147 mla 9th edition (modern language assoc.) rachel darnley-smith, and helen m patey. music therapy. sage publications ltd, 2003. apa 7th edition (american psychological assoc.) rachel darnley-smith, & helen m patey. (2003). music therapy. sage publications ltd. music therapy is a broad field. music therapists use music-based experiences to address client needs in one or more domains of human functioning: cognitive, academic, emotional/psychological; behavioral; communication; social; physiological (sensory, motor, pain, neurological and other physical systems), spiritual, aesthetics. music experiences are strategically designed to use the elements of music for therapeutic effects, including melody, harmony, key, mode, meter, rhythm, pitch/range, duration, timbre, form, texture, and instrumentation. some common music therapy 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 survivors. music therapy is used in medical hospitals, cancer centers, schools, alcohol and drug recovery programs, psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes, and correctional facilities. there is a broad qualitative and quantitative research literature base for music therapy. music therapy is distinctive from musopathy, which relies on a more generic and non-cultural approach based on neural, physical, and other responses to the fundamental aspects of sound. evidence suggests that music therapy is beneficial for all individuals, both physically and mentally. benefits of music therapy include improved heart rate, reduced anxiety, stimulation of the brain, and improved learning. music therapists use their techniques to help their patients in many areas, ranging from stress relief before and after surgeries to neuropathologies such as alzheimer's disease. one study found that children who listened to music while having an iv inserted into their arms showed less distress and felt less pain than the children who did not listen to music while having an iv inserted. studies on patients diagnosed with mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia have shown a visible improvement in their mental health after music therapy. the national institute for health and care excellence (nice) have claimed that music therapy is an effective method in helping individuals experiencing mental health issues, and more should be done to offer those in need this type of help. history the use of music to soothe grief has been used since the time of david and king saul. in i samuel, david plays the lyre to make king saul feel relieved and better. it has since been used all over the world for treatment of various issues, though the first recorded use of official "music therapy" was in 1789 – an article titled "music physically considered" by an unknown author was found in columbian magazine. the creation and expansion of music therapy as a treatment modality thrived in the early to mid 1900s and while a number of organizations were created, none survived for long. it wasn't until 1950 that the national association for music therapy was founded in new york that clinical training and certification requirements were created. in 1971, the american association for music therapy was created, though at that time called the urban federation of music therapists. the certification board for music therapists was created in 1983 which strengthened the practice of music therapy and the trust that it was given. in 1998, the american music therapy association was formed out of a merger between national and american associations and as of 2017 is the single largest music therapy organization in the world (american music therapy, 1998–2011). ancient flutes, carved from ivory and bone, were found by archaeologists, that were determined to be from as far back as 43,000 years ago. he also states that "the earliest fragment of musical notation is found on a 4,000-year-old sumerian clay tablet, which includes instructions and tuning for a hymn honoring the ruler lipit-ishtar. but for the title of oldest extant song, most historians point to "hurrian hymn no. 6," an ode to the goddess nikkal that was composed in cuneiform by the ancient hurrian's sometime around the 14th century b.c.". music and healing music has been used as a healing implement for centuries. apollo is the ancient greek god of music and of medicine and his son aesculapius was said to cure diseases of the mind by using song and music. by 5000 bc, music was used for healing by egyptian priest-physicians. plato said that music affected the emotions and could influence the character of an individual. aristotle taught that music affects the soul and described music as a force that purified the emotions. aulus cornelius celsus advocated the sound of cymbals and running water for the treatment of mental disorders. music as therapy was practiced in the bible when david played the harp to rid king saul of a bad spirit (1 sam 16:23). as early as 400 b.c., hippocrates played music for mental patients. in the thirteenth century, arab hospitals contained music-rooms for the benefit of the patients. in the united states, native american medicine men often employed chants and dances as a method of healing patients. the turco-persian psychologist and music theorist al-farabi (872–950), known as alpharabius in europe, dealt with music for healing in his treatise meanings of the intellect, in which he discussed the therapeutic effects of music on the soul. in his de vita libri tres published in 1489, platonist marsilio ficino gives a lengthy account of how music and songs can be used to draw celestial benefits for staying healthy. robert burton wrote in the 17th century in his classic work, the anatomy of melancholy, that music and dance were critical in treating mental illness, especially melancholia. the rise of an understanding of the body and mind in terms of the nervous system led to the emergence of a new wave of music for healing in the eighteenth century. earlier works on the subject, such as athanasius kircher's musurgia universalis of 1650 and even early eighteenth-century books such as michael ernst ettmüller's 1714 disputatio effectus musicae in hominem (disputation on the effect of music on man) or friedrich erhardt niedten's 1717 veritophili, still tended to discuss the medical effects of music in terms of bringing the soul and body into harmony. but from the mid-eighteenth century works on the subject such as richard brocklesby's 1749 reflections of antient and modern musick, the 1737 memoires of the french academy of sciences, or ernst anton nicolai's 1745 die verbindung der musik mit der arzneygelahrheit (the connection of music to medicine), stressed the power of music over the nerves. music therapy: 17th – 19th century after 1800 some books on music and medicine drew on the brunonian system of medicine, arguing that the stimulation of the nerves caused by music could directly improve or harm health. throughout the 19th century an impressive number of books and articles were authored by physicians in europe and the united states discussing use of music as a therapeutic agent to treat both mental and physical illness. music therapy: 1900 - c. 1940 from a western viewpoint, music therapy in the 20th and 21st centuries (as of 2021), as an evidence-based, allied healthcare profession, grew out of the aftermath of world wars i and ii, when, particularly in the united kingdom and united states, musicians would travel to hospitals and play music for soldiers with war-related emotional and physical trauma. using music to treat the mental and physical ailments of active duty military and veterans was not new. its use was recorded during the us civil war and florence nightingale used it a decade earlier in the crimean war. despite research data, observations by doctors and nurses, praise from patients, and willing musicians, it was difficult to vastly increase music therapy services or establish lasting music therapy education programs or organizations in the early 20th century. however, many of the music therapy leaders of this time period provided music therapy during wwi or to its veterans. these were pioneers in the field such as eva vescelius, musician, author, 1903 founder of the short-lived national therapeutic society of new york and the 1913 music and health journal, and creator/teacher of a musicotherapy course; margaret anderton, pianist, world war i music therapy provider for canadian soldiers, a strong believer in training for music therapists, and 1919 columbia university musicotherapy teacher; isa maud ilsen, a nurse and musician who was the american red cross director of hospital music in world war i reconstruction hospitals, 1919 columbia university musicotherapy teacher, 1926 founder of the national association for music in hospitals, and author; and harriet ayer seymour, music therapist to world war i veterans, author, researcher, lecturer/teacher, founder of the national foundation for music therapy in 1941, author of the first music therapy textbook published in the united states. several physicians also promoted music as a therapeutic agent during this time period. in the united states, the first music therapy bachelor's degree program was established in 1944 at michigan state college (now michigan state university. for history from the early 20th century to the present, see continents or individual countries in § usage by region section. practices music therapy practice is working together with clients, through music, to promote healthy change (bruscia, 1998). the american music therapy association (amta) has defined the practice of music therapy as "a behavioral science concerned with changing unhealthy behaviors and replacing them with more adaptive ones through the use of musical stimuli". interventions though music therapy practice employs a large number of intervention techniques, some of the most commonly used interventions include improvisation, therapeutic singing, therapeutic instrumental music playing, music-facilitated reminiscence and life review, songwriting, music-facilitated relaxation, and lyric analysis. while there has been no conclusive research done on the comparison of interventions (jones, 2005; silverman, 2008; silverman & marcionetti, 2004), the use of particular interventions is individualized to each client based upon thorough assessment of needs, and the effectiveness of treatment may not rely on the type of intervention (silverman, 2009). improvisation in music therapy allows for clients to make up, or alter, music as they see fit. while improvisation is an intervention in a methodical practice, it does allow for some freedom of expression, which is what it is often used for. improvisation has several other clinical goals as well, which can also be found on the improvisation in music therapy page, such as: facilitating verbal and nonverbal communication, self-exploration, creating intimacy, teamwork, developing creativity, and improving cognitive skills. building on these goals, botello and krout designed a cognitive behavioral application to assess and improve communication in couples. further research is needed before the use of improvisation is conclusively proven to be effective in this application, but there were positive signs in this study of its use. singing or playing an instrument is often used to help clients express their thoughts and feelings in a more structured manner than improvisation and can also allow participation with only limited knowledge of music. singing in a group can facilitate a sense of community and can also be used as group ritual to structure a theme of the group or of treatment (krout, 2005). research that compares types of music therapy intervention has been inconclusive. music therapists use lyric analysis in a variety of ways, but typically lyric analysis is used to facilitate dialogue with clients based on the lyrics, which can then lead to discussion that addresses the goals of therapy. types of music therapy two fundamental types of music therapy are receptive music therapy and active music therapy (also known as expressive music therapy). active music therapy engages clients or patients in