What is Music Therapy? | Alliance Music Therapy

Music Therapy

Connection through music

Anyone who likes listening to, has an interest in, or appreciates music regardless of ability, disability, or previous experience can benefit and take part in our services. Music is a universal phenomenon and manifests in our every day situations - We develop in the womb while listening to our mother's heartbeat; we sing songs together to celebrate, for rituals, or for personal enjoyment; and certain emotions or memories are evoked while we listen to a song.

According to the World Federation of Music Therapy (WFMT), music therapy is the professional use of music and its elements as an intervention in medical, educational, and everyday environments with individuals, groups, families, or communities who seek to optimize their quality of life and improve their physical, social, communicative, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health and wellbeing. Research, practice, education, and clinical training in music therapy are based on professional standards according to cultural, social, and political contexts.

Clinically trained to work with many

Board-Certified Music Therapists (MT-BC) are professionally trained and have experience working with infants, children, teenagers, adults, and the elderly with mental health needs, developmental and learning disabilities, Alzheimer's disease and other aging-related conditions, substance abuse problems, brain injuries, physical disabilities, and acute and chronic pain (American Music Therapy Association).

Through music-based interventions, common therapeutic goals we work on with our clients include:

Improve social interaction and engagement with others; Improve social boundaries
Increase speech, language, and communication skills
Improve fine or gross motor skills; Increase range of motion
Improve self-regulatory skills
Increase coping strategies due to anxiety, stress, or loss
Enhance quality of life; Increase state of relaxation
Improve attention to task and activities
Improve self-confidence
Improve self expression of emotions and opportunities for personal processing
Increase engagement to redirect perceived levels of pain, nausea, and fatigue
Increase self-efficacy and participation in leisure activities or activities of daily living.

Where you can find us

Music Therapists work in various settings. Some examples include:

In-home services
Schools
Agencies serving persons with developmental disabilities
Senior centers, Memory Care, Assisted Living facilities
Medical hospitals and healthcare facilities
Hospice and palliative care programs
Rehabilitative facilities
Psychiatric hospitals and group homes
Community mental health centers
Correctional facilities