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Music Therapy

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

LPBI

What is Music Therapy

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http://www.musictherapy.org/about/musictherapy/

Fact Sheets for Music Therapy with Individual Populations:

• Music Therapy & Military Populations – new in 2014
• Music Therapy & Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) – new in 2015
• Music Therapy & Alzheimer’s Disease
• Music Therapy for Persons in Correctional & Forensic Settings
• Music Therapy in Response to Crisis & Trauma
• Music Therapy & Medicine
• Music Therapy & Mental Health
• Music Therapy & Music Education
• Music Therapy & Pain Management
• Music Therapy & Special Education
• Music Therapy & Young Children

AMTA Strategic Priorities for Specific Populations:

• Music Therapy and Autism Spectrum Disorder

References and Bibliographies:

• Autism Spectrum Disorders: Music Therapy Research and Evidenced-Based Practice Support
• Habilitation:  Music Therapy Research and Evidenced-Based Practice Support
• Special Education: Music Therapy Research and Evidenced-Based Practice Support
• Music Therapy in Mental Health – Evidenced-Based Practice Support
• Williams Syndrome: Recent Research on Music and Sound
• Music Therapy Interventions in Trauma, Depression and Substance Abuse:  Selected References and Key Findings

History of Music Therapy

The idea of music as a healing influence which could affect health and behavior is as least as old as the writings of Aristotle and Plato. The 20th century profession formally began after World War I and World War II when community musicians of all types, both amateur and professional, went to Veterans hospitals around the country to play for the thousands of veterans suffering both physical and emotional trauma from the wars. The patients’ notable physical and emotional responses to music led the doctors and nurses to request the hiring of musicians by the hospitals. It was soon evident that the hospital musicians needed some prior training before entering the facility and so the demand grew for a college curriculum. A very brief historical glimpse of this fascinating profession follows, below.

The earliest known reference to music therapy appeared in 1789 in an unsigned article in Columbian Magazine titled “Music Physically Considered.” In the early 1800s, writings on the therapeutic value of music appeared in two medical dissertations, the first published by Edwin Atlee (1804) and the second by Samuel Mathews (1806). Atlee and Mathews were both students of Dr. Benjamin Rush, a physician and psychiatrist who was a strong proponent of using music to treat medical diseases. The 1800s also saw the first recorded music therapy intervention in an institutional setting (Blackwell’s Island in New York) as well as the first recorded systematic experiment in music therapy (Corning’s use of music to alter dream states during psychotherapy).

Early Associations

Interest in music therapy continued to gain support during the early 1900s leading to the formation of several short-lived associations. In 1903, Eva Augusta Vescelius founded the National Society of Musical Therapeutics. In 1926, Isa Maud Ilsen founded the National Association for Music in Hospitals. And in 1941, Harriet Ayer Seymour founded the National Foundation of Music Therapy. Although these organizations contributed the first journals, books, and educational courses on music therapy, they unfortunately were not able to develop an organized clinical profession.

Early Educational Programs and Advocates

In the 1940s, three persons began to emerge as innovators and key players in the development of music therapy as an organized clinical profession. Psychiatrist and music therapist Ira Altshuler, MD promoted music therapy in Michigan for three decades. Willem van de Wall pioneered the use of music therapy in state-funded facilities and wrote the first “how to” music therapy text,Music in Institutions (1936). E. Thayer Gaston, known as the “father of music therapy,” was instrumental in moving the profession forward in terms of an organizational and educational standpoint. The first music therapy college training programs were also created in the 1940s. Michigan State University established the first academic program in music therapy (1944) and other universities followed suit, including the University of Kansas, Chicago Musical College, College of the Pacific, and Alverno College.

National Association for Music Therapy

The National Association for Music Therapy (NAMT) was founded at a meeting in New York City on June 2, 1950. NAMT succeeded where previous music therapy associations previously failed by creating a constitution and bylaws, developing standards for university-level educational and clinical training requirements, making research and clinical training a priority, creating a registry and, later, board-certification requirements, and publishing research and clinical journals.

Music Therapy Around the World and on the Web  

Music Therapy ENews