Music therapy helps clients break through emotional and physical issues.
A degree in music therapy empowers you to transform your passion for music into a method for helping and healing others. Through singing, playing and composing music with clients, you nudge them to express emotions, heal from illness, overcome injuries and develop skills. You can use your degree to work in a private practice or as part of a medical, corrections, rehabilitation, education or psychiatric team collaborating to treat clients.
Function
Music therapy counts as a subset of recreational therapy. While the music activities you design might amuse and entertain clients, they focus primarily on specific physical, emotional and social objectives, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. To this end, you will tailor treatment plans to individual patients and clients by preparing, conducting, evaluating and documenting sessions with clients, according to Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance. Throughout the process, expect to "draw on knowledge from different disciplines, including psychology, sociology and biology," according to the University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire Career Services.
Considerations
Music therapists often use the piano in a clinical setting.
A music therapy career can take you into hospitals, nursing homes, psychiatric facilities, schools and rehabilitation centers---meaning you need to possess a heartfelt passion for helping people from all walks of life, advises the Berklee College of Music. You may work as part of a team of physicians, counselors, psychiatrists, teachers and families, so consider your comfort level with diverse points of view. You may also need to know a variety of musical styles and feel comfortable with piano, guitar and voice, as these media are used most frequently in the clinical setting, according to Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance.
Rehabilitation
You can work as a music therapist in a clinical setting to help rehabilitate clients from a wide variety of illnesses or injuries. For example, you might use singing to help stroke victims speak again, according to a 2007 article by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Information Programs. You can also use music therapy in hospitals to promote movement for physical therapy, according to the American Music Therapy Association.
Education
As a music therapist, you can help children with numbers and math.
In a school setting, you can use music to help children with disabilities gain motor skills, as well as "learn and memorize colors, numbers, vocabulary, behavior sequences and a host of other academic subjects," according to Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance. Of course, you might also consider teaching others in the field of music therapy--perhaps in a college program.
Correctional Facilities
Your music therapy degree can qualify you to participate as part of the rehabilitation team in a correctional context. For example, Michigan's Center for Forensic Psychiatry includes music therapy services as part of a comprehensive array of rehabilitation services, according to the Michigan Department of Community Health website.
Psychological and Psychiatric Care
Using improvisation, you can help nudge clients into a creative mindset and give them courage to act spontaneously outside of the client-therapist relationship, according to Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance. Likewise, you can help clients articulate and understand their feelings through the composition of "sound portraits of feelings" or by listening to music and free-associating or drawing, according to Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance.
Nursing Home
As a music therapist in a nursing home setting, you can provide sensory and intellectual stimulation, according to the American Music Therapy Association. You can also help bring peace of mind to those with terminal conditions through songwriting, which gives them "a container for expressing their feelings--about life and death--while also serving as a parting gift to loved ones," according to Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance.
Tags: College Music, according Temple, according Temple University, Boyer College, Boyer College Music, College Music Dance, Music Dance