Music Used for Healing Purposes

Shakespeare once said, If music be the food of love, play on. The power of music over the human mind is enormous, and thats putting it lightly.

Even as far back as the days of Aristotle, Music Therapy has been used. As the title suggests, Music Therapy is the use of music for therapeutic purposes.

War veterans have been known to be help throughout physical and emotional healing by the sounds of music. That is how the modern world first made use of this music therapy.

Soon enough, music therapy, backed by statistics and scientific testing, became well known for it's healing abilities. In 1944, The State of Michigan created a program for music therapy.

Trained therapists in musical therapy will diagnose a patient through studying the physical health, social functioning and cognitive skills that the patient responds to. Once assessed, the trained professional creates musical sessions for the patient.

Through the different effects of music improvisation, song writing, lyric discussion, imagery and musical performances, these sessions are put in place for the patients.

Music therapy has been known to help patients in all age groups. Children with certain developmental and learning disabilities benefit from music therapy as much as the senior citizens who suffer from Alzheimer and the likes can benefit as well.

Professional music therapists are usually found in rehabilitative facilities, psychiatric hospitals, medical hospitals, drug and alcohol programs, nursing homes, correctional facilities, schools and private practice.

Some people mistakenly believe that a patient needs to have some particular musical ability to benefit from therapy. There is no one particular style of music that is more therapeutic than the rest. Any style of music can be equally effective.

It is important for the professionals to know the background and history of a patient to fully assess what music will and will not help.

Research has shown that even the healthy can benefit from music therapy sessions. It can reduce the amount of stress and even improve one's level of productivity.

In hospitals, music therapy is used to alleviate pain and is often used in conjunction with anesthesia or pain medication. A question that is often raised is why use music if anesthesia does the same thing? Music helps because it dissolves emotional barriers and elevates the patients mood.

Music can help reduce muscle tension and relaxes those under the spell of the music. It is known to counteract depression by calming the subjects.

Article Source: http://www.avidarticles.com

Music has really come along way. Watch Taylor Hicks Seven Mile Breakdown Music Video for a sample of the hits of today. However there are still some controversial singles out there still.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated