You probably know the feeling. You’re having a crummy day, but a good song comes on. Something about the music lifts your mood. By the time the last note plays, you’re feeling a little bit better. Building on this, mental health experts have started offering something relatively new: music therapy.
At least, music therapy is new to the psychotherapy world of trained clinicians. But that’s not to say that people haven’t been using music to help themselves rebalance and heal for centuries.
If you’re curious why music can have such a profound effect on us, you’ve come to the right place.
Why this therapy works
When researchers scan people’s brains as they engage in music therapy, they can see moments of change when emotions switch from negative to positive. This makes this type of therapy helpful in boosting your overall well-being, your confidence, your awareness, and your ability to communicate. It’s not surprising, then, that studies show that this therapy delivers effective treatment for depression and anxiety.
Beyond music’s effect on our brains, researchers are also investigating how the vibrations caused by music impact our physical bodies. With a relatively new form of treatment called vibroacoustic therapy, medical experts hope to ease symptoms for people living with conditions like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Early studies have shown that it can be helpful.
What’s more, studies have shown that music therapy:
- Helped babies stay calm and alert in the NICU
- Eases stress by reducing levels of cortisol (the stress hormone)
- Boosts the immune system’s effectiveness
- Reduces pre-surgery anxiety
- Helps with pain management, including chronic pain
Getting started with music therapy
If you want to see what this type of therapy can do for you, join us for our weekly “Connecting Through Music” group. You can meet us at our office every Friday at 4 pm to reconnect with yourself through music. There’s no need to bring anything other than an open mind — we’ll be providing the instruments.
If you have any questions or want more info about this group or music therapy in general, get in touch. You can email us at info@venturacwc.org or you can call our office at (805) 620-8046
