What does a music therapist do?

More and more stories are appearing in the media about music having a beneficial effect on people and supporting recovery. We probably all recognise how music can comfort you or lift your mood. That can be therapeutic, but it isn’t music therapy yet. Guest blogger Jaimie van der Snel, a music therapist, gives you a glimpse into the possibilities of music as therapy.

What is music therapy?

Most people know what ‘therapy’ means. Very broadly speaking: you get stuck in certain areas of life, you talk about it, and you hope that helps you understand why you do what you do and why you feel what you feel. There are also people who go to therapy because they feel they don’t feel anything at all, or because things have happened (or are happening) that they can’t process—and that keeps affecting daily functioning. People who want to change this go to therapy. Music therapists replace a large part of that talking with music. This can be receptive, by listening to (live performed) music, or active, by making music together and using instruments.

How does it work?

The music you play—and especially the way you play—can say a lot about who you are and how you deal with things like frustration and perfectionism, but also with your boundaries. Music gives you easier access to your emotions than words alone. It even happens quite often that you feel things you can’t yet put into words. Those feelings can still come through in the music. In a way, the music provides the words, and becomes an expression of what’s going on inside you. Once the words are there, processing can often follow more easily. Music therapy can also offer insight. For example, you can symbolically place instruments in relation to a situation you’re dealing with: a musical sculpture. The instruments can then symbolise people, feelings, situations, etc. For instance, you could ‘set up’ your family. Say you choose a large cymbal for your partner and a small flute for yourself. How do these two instruments relate to each other? Can they sound together, or does one drown out the other? By playing these instruments, it might become clear that the cymbal is desperately trying to silence the flute, while the flute keeps on playing tirelessly. The cymbal plays louder and louder, and eventually there’s more ‘arguing’ in the music than there is ‘talking’. From there, you can explore how things could be different. This is just a small example of what’s possible.

What does the music therapist do?

The music therapist first offers exercises or ways to play, and discusses them with you. From there, you continue working. In the process, the music therapist observes what happens in the playing, and together you give it meaning: you explore possibilities and changes and try them out in the music. Afterwards, this can be translated into everyday life. An example: Sam comes in and says that it keeps happening that people cross his boundaries, and he only realises it later. We sit down at the piano together. Sam plays on the right-hand side of the piano and I play on the left. In the piano playing, I gradually try to take up more and more space, until Sam can only play the highest keys. I ask what happened and how he felt about it. Sam says he kept moving over and now he has no space left. He says he felt a bit irritated and got confused about what exactly I wanted from him and why I needed so much room. He also says he didn’t mention it because it still sounded fine that way. Together, we look at how to make your boundaries clear while playing together at the piano. After trying a number of things, Sam notices he can ‘stop’ me by deciding in advance which part of the piano is his. We translate this together into everyday situations he recognises. We also practise it on other instruments, until Sam feels strong and confident enough to protect his boundaries in a good way in day-to-day life.

Who is it for?

Music therapy can be used for musicians and non-musicians. The main thing is that you don’t have a strong dislike of music, but that goes without saying. The questions people come in with are very diverse. They can range from depression to fear of failure, from trauma processing to wanting to sing more freely, and from social difficulties to learning to live with a disability or condition, or learning to deal with boundaries or perfectionism. Music therapy is also used, among other things, with people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and people with aphasia. Music helps them to remember again, move more easily, or learn to speak again.

I think most people already use music in a slightly therapeutic way in their daily lives. For example, I suspect that when people feel sad, they’re not likely to put on high-energy party music. What ways have you found, and what works—and what definitely doesn’t? Which music is comforting, and which music puts you in a good mood? I’d love to read your response below!

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