Rhythms of Recovery

Did you know music can be a powerful tool in healing, not just for the ears but for your mind and body too? Music can make it easier to navigate challenges, elevate your mood, and even help you reach your goals!

Music therapy can help with challenges such as anxiety or loneliness or low energy, or it can help with your physical rehab goals, such as increasing stamina or range of motion.

Music therapists call this “using music for non-musical goals.” The point of music therapy is not to get good at singing or playing an instrument, but to interact with music for the benefits it can bring. 

What is music therapy?

The point of music therapy is not to get good at singing or playing an instrument but to interact with music for the mental and physical benefits it can bring. 

Read some examples of how it can help below.

Help with emotions

Kyle used music during his recovery from a bone marrow transplant when he was 20 and found that, as he puts it, “Music is a drug. It puts you in a different state of mind.” For Kyle, music was “really beneficial just because it was really engaging. It was a little bit of escapism where I'm not really thinking about what's going on with me, but I'm engaging with the music.”

Help with speech

Music can help someone who is having issues with speech production. Music therapists employ a variety of techniques –  including rhythm – to motivate speech or vocal exercises to improve voice control. If someone is unable to speak they might be able to sing because singing uses a different part of the brain. Music can be a tool to work around challenges with expression and speech.

Help with physical goals

Jenelle’s goal was to increase her stamina after her months of treatment. She found that playing drums motivated her to stand up for longer periods of time than she could do on her own—the fun of playing helped her overcome her fatigue.

Ever wondered what happens inside your brain when you listen to your favorite song? 

Music impacts your brain! Music can act like a drug, says neuroscientist Kiminobu Sugaya. Music increases dopamine in the brain, which helps regulate behavior, motor activity, and learning. Music also activates large areas of the brain, which can address deficits in any one area of the brain.

For example, listening to music activates both sides of the brain, because language and words are interpreted in the left hemisphere while music and sounds are interpreted in the right hemisphere. 

This can help with speaking or language issues. (Playing an instrument also involves both sides of the brain as we translate notes on a sheet to making our fingers play the right note.)  Music may even stimulate the regeneration of nerves in the brain, which could help address memory loss. 

Music therapy offers many options

Music therapy is not just one thing!  It can be a whole range of activities, from listening to your favorite songs, singing, learning to play songs on guitar or other instruments, drumming, dancing, or listening to a music therapist play relaxing music. It is great to work with a music therapist, especially if you are really not feeling well, or are having significant physical or emotional challenges, but you can also tap into some of the benefits on your own, as we explore later.

Why try music therapy?

Well, to start, it can be just plain fun—a break. You can learn how to sing your favorite song—or play it on a guitar, or just follow the beat with a drum or shaker. It doesn’t matter how well you play, it’s just the fun of doing it.

Gain a sense of control and accomplishment

Music is something you can do, even when you can’t do other things you used to. 

And you have control over how you participate and what music you choose. (Of course, you can always choose not to participate if it isn’t helpful that day.) Going through treatment and recovery means losing control--of your time, where you have to be, what you can do. In this situation, where so much is stripped away, music therapy offers a chance to be in control of something, to accomplish something when other abilities are gone. It might even be as simple as getting out of bed and, in this simple act, reclaiming part of that self that you may have felt that you’ve lost.

“My goal isn't that you’re going to play the perfect G chord or that you’re going to perform at a show. Instead, it’s a chance to feel proud about doing something when a lot of other things are being stripped away from you. It’s a chance to be totally in control of something.” 

Connect with and process emotions

In addition, music therapists can help you process the sometimes powerful connection with emotion that arises when listening to music. Music therapist Greta notes, “I've learned in my practice just to be mindful and allow the space to talk and process.”

Music therapists can also help you learn coping skills. For example a therapist might notice that their client appears anxious and ask about it. They might help you explore: “What are you noticing about this anxiety? What do you do when you feel anxious?” They might offer suggestions: “It seems that when you play guitar, you are really focused and aren’t as anxious. So perhaps when you are feeling overwhelmed, you could just take a step back and decide to play guitar. Or perhaps just listen--what kind of music might you listen to?"

Read some examples

Music therapy was a fun activity for Jack

Jack loved music therapy while he was recovering. “Music therapy helps get you out of the cycle of doing nothing and feeling terrible while lying in bed. It gives you something to focus on that isn't treatment related, and making music just somehow improves your mood. ”

Music helped Kyle with difficult emotions

Music helped Kyle connect with his emotions and express himself.  Kyle explains, “Just being able to recognize an emotion is so important to be able to dispel the emotion or have it eventually pass. Because if you're angry, you can live in that anger for a very long period of time if you don't find a way to make it tangible or to recognize it.”

Music made Gracie forget the pain and illness

Gracie could only faintly remember what it felt like to not be so ill. But, "from the first time she met Greta and began to experience her gifts of music, she did not feel sick...she did not feel any pain. For the first time in three years, she felt like herself. She listened to the healing happen." (see the full article)

Help with physical rehab

Music therapy can also help you with your physical rehab goals. It can be a great motivator to get out of bed and move. You can use the rhythm and energy of the music to pace your exercises. Listening to energizing music may even inspire you to dance.

When the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital conducted a research study about the benefits of music therapy, one of the most important results was that music therapy encouraged patients to get out of bed and be active. One teenager confessed that she would pretend to be asleep for things she did not want to do but would get out of bed when she heard the music therapist’s voice!

Connect with others

Music can help us connect with our emotions and offer a way to get our feelings out. Sometimes when we are going through a difficult time, it is hard to talk to others, but we can express ourselves through music. You can ask your therapist to create a playlist to match your mood—and share it with family or friends to let them know how you are feeling. You might listen together, sharing a moment. You can express yourself even more by writing your own lyrics. A music therapist can help you find or write the music. You may use the melody from a popular song and rewrite the chorus to be about your experiences or your dreams. Or you can create a whole new song and melody with help from the music therapist. It’s up to you! It can be as simple or as complicated as you want to be, and you get to decide.

Singing together: Many families have songs they enjoy together or family traditions, such as singing certain holiday songs. In working with a music therapist, everyone can come together and sing or play an instrument and have a chance to be together engaging in something they love. For example, one family loved Sweet Caroline because it was always played at their home football games. So they would all come and sing the song together.

Sharing music: One music therapist shares this story. “He was an 18-year-old male with impulsivity and some cognition deficits, but he loved 21 Pilots. When he sat down to sing some of their songs and play guitar, it was one of the rare moments that he was still and focused. His family would join us to watch. It was wonderful for them to see their child with a questionable outcome be successful and engaged what he loved. It was memory-making for his mother and grandparents to share the moment.”

Relax

Sometimes what you most want to do is get a break from the stress and anxiety or be able to sleep better. As you have probably experienced, music can help you relax.  Music therapists often see that relaxing music impacts their client’s vital signs: blood pressure and heart rate often go down, while oxygen saturation levels go up. Scientists report that music can lower the production of the stress hormone cortisol, and increase production of the “happy” hormone and neurotransmitter, dopamine.

What can you expect in a session?

There is really no such thing as a typical session—the music therapist will respond to whatever seems most helpful for you that day. 

At the beginning

The therapist will want to get to know you, so they know what you like-your favorite songs, what helps when you aren’t feeling well, what gives you energy, or perhaps what helps you feel less alone, what makes you happy. They will also want to discuss your goals, so they can suggest activities to try. 

Setting goals

You might want to learn to play an instrument to show yourself (and others) that you can do it—that you are emerging and thriving. You might want to write a song that expresses some of what you went through or are feeling now—a way to capture your experience and share it --something that your family and friends can listen to that gives them a sense of you. Something that will be remembered. Or you might want to increase your physical endurance.

Activities you might do

The music therapist will offer activities to support your goal or to help you cope that day. They might suggest some drumming or moving to music. They might teach you how to play one of your favorite songs or suggest some chords for a song you are writing. Or they might play some music to help you relax—or the opposite if you want--something energizing, songs that distract you and give you a break from discomfort or long days.

Hear About Kyle's Experience

For caregivers of young children

Music therapists tailor what they offer depending on many factors, including age, stage of treatment or recovery, how the person is feeling that day, and their individual preferences. For example, on some days your child might feel too ill to move, but might enjoy listening to some of their favorite songs. On other days, they might be more active and happy to dance or play the drums. 

Greta, a music therapist in the bone marrow transplant unit at University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis explains it this way, “it's about the presence of being in the room …. it's coming in and just presenting their preferred songs and hoping for any response or engagement—perhaps it’s a smile. We look to see how we can adapt and still give the child some movement, some activity.” Much of what music therapists do during the first few sessions is to get to know the child or person. The goal is to find out what they like and to establish a rapport, where the therapist becomes a trusted support. 

Again Greta explains, “I can just be a safe person who's a break from mom and dad to just be with. It is important for these patients and families to have someone who is consistently around to offer support.”  And moreover, just to experience together “the power of live music, the power of that human connection. Letting kids know, especially if they can't participate with me as they once did, that I'm still there to support them through this. I’m not just going to drop off when you get sick.” )