Considering music therapy? Here is what you need to know

By Candice Zhang

What comes to mind when you think of therapy? You may visualize being in a room, sitting across from your therapist as you twiddle your thumbs and decide on what you should reveal about your life for the week. Then, as soon as you begin to unravel about recent stressors and consequences, your therapist sits there, nods and listens. 

This type of environment is often credited to psychotherapy. Although it is one of the most common forms of therapy, there are other styles which help to alleviate stress and promote well-being. These include narrative therapy, art therapy, dance therapy and music therapy. 

What is music therapy? 

Music therapy utilizes musical elements to establish a therapeutic relationship between the therapist and client, in order to support healthy development and healing. 

Within a session, a Certified Music Therapist (CMT) works with a client to address cognitive, emotional, musical, physical and social needs. They may utilize plenty of different intervention methods including rhythmic-based activities, improvisation, composing/songwriting and listening to music. 

Music therapy is a profession which many students choose to study. 

Journey to becoming a music therapist

Those who enjoy expressing themselves through creative activities while simultaneously wanting to help the world may find an interest in the profession.

For James Brown, a music therapist at the Canadian Music Therapy Fund, he felt naturally inclined to the field and did a lot of related work before entering the profession.

“I conducted a choir with disabled and autistic adults. I worked a lot with children with autism in music settings,” said Brown. “So not that I was doing music therapy, but there was a lot of therapeutic use in music.”

No path to any career is ever linear or consistent for everyone. The same holds true for pursuing music therapy. Some may have started as classically trained musicians, whereas others may have gained an interest in playing music as a form of therapy.

Brown’s journey started on the last day of his undergraduate program.

“I’ve done music my whole life and started my music training formally at Queen’s University,” said Brown. “I did my Bachelor of music in piano and I didn’t know anything about music therapy then.”

However, on his last day of classes, a discussion with his professor changed everything.

“[My professor] said, ‘What are you going to do now?’ And I said, well I don’t know,” said Brown. “He said, ‘Well you should look into music therapy.’”

The professor’s colleague was the head of the music therapy program at Concordia University. To meet the program’s requirements, Brown enrolled in psychology courses. A few years later, he got accepted into graduate school, and enrolled in the music therapy program at Concordia University.

In comparison to Brown’s journey, other music therapists have taken different journeys to receive their designation. For example, some may first enroll in the bachelor of music therapy program, which is available at Wilfrid Laurier University, and the University of Guelph. 

Sydney Boeding is a current music therapy graduate student at Drexel University. She first completed an undergraduate degree in another field related to music before deciding to switch to music therapy. Boeding cites that teaching had way too many demands, and wanted something different.

“My undergraduate degree was in music education,” said Boeding. “I taught for a semester and figured out it wasn’t for me.”

Although the minimum bar of entry to practice music therapy is a bachelor’s degree, many also hold graduate degrees as well.

Graduate music therapy programs are often rigorous, with courses covering musical and psychological components.

“Especially if you’re going above a bachelor’s level, you need to have the musical training, you need to have the psychological training,” said Brown. “There’s a lot of factors that you need to satisfy before you’re eligible for one of those programs.”

Other than having a specified knowledge of music, students will also have to learn about the different aspects of therapy and about interacting with different populations. Music therapists often work with a diverse group of clientele. Boeding also has noticed this throughout her graduate music therapy program as well.

“As a graduate student, I was not really aware of the reading and how much work I have to put into a graduate degree until I got in,” said Boeding.

However, although the journey to becoming a music therapist may sound challenging, each is “not the same for everyone” according to Brown.

The rewards of being a music therapist

Similar to other helping professions, music therapists play a vital role in an individual’s life. They allow clients to self-reflect and reframe their situation in an unconventional method through the expression of strong emotions through music.

Brown has seen a lot of this throughout his practice with many adults branching out of their comfort zones during sessions. A recent example occurred in a group home where Brown went to visit in October 2023.

“[The group home] wanted music therapy for a client who was experiencing a lot of isolation issues,” said Brown.

The man was said to not engage with a lot of people. However, Brown was able to change this by utilizing multiple music therapy techniques which were focused on client engagement. Although the first few attempts did not work, Brown continued to form a therapeutic relationship with the client. One day, slowly but surely, the client came out of his shell.

“So just within the last couple of months I’ve shown up every week to play songs for him,” shared Brown.“I’ve kind of learned his musical preferences and I’ve learned when he is feeling anxious and how to kind of calm him down and keep him in a comforting musical space.”

Now, the two of them share a bond through music.

“So after almost a year of that, we’re at the stage where he will look at me, he will hold eye contact with me and smile for minutes at a time.”

On the other hand, Boeding has experienced her fair share of breakthrough moments in her internship at a long-term care facility as well. One client in her internship had experienced cognitive difficulties and had challenges with expressive speech. The client faced difficulty in terms of responding to the environment around them. However, this pattern had changed one day.

“My supervisor was using a drum to help [the client] and her eye movement, with eye tracking, just moving the drum from one side to another,” said Boeding. “And she got over to the left side. And the patient saw me and I saw a look of recognition.”

Seeing clients and patients develop into individuals outside of their comfort zone has been a highlight for Boeding and Brown over time.

For future music therapists

Music therapy is an innovative method to pair a creative interest with a therapeutic strategy. However, the training is anything but easy with Brown describing it as “intense,” because of all the therapeutic and self-reflective practices which are involved.

Brown said, “It challenges everything about the world, about other people, but really about yourself.”

However, despite the challenges and intensity, there are plenty of opportunities to make a difference within the field.

“Whether you are writing a song with somebody [or] are listening to music with them…or even playing a song for someone who’s sick in a hospital bed,” Brown trailed off. “[It’s impactful] letting them know that there’s another person there to comfort them and they’re not alone.”

According to Brown, building relationships with clients through music is special because it’s contributing to the greater good of the community.

Brown affirmed, “Music therapy is using music to help people, as silly as that sounds, as broad as that can be. I think that really is the truth of it all.”