The Pros And Cons Of Music Therapy

Music therapy is defined as “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program” (“American Music Therapy Association”). It cures mental issues such as depression, anxiety, and hypertension. Music therapy was approved and became an effective and significant way to cure mental injuries of veterans since World War Two. During World War Two, an era of cruelness and death, military hospitals were filled with physically and mentally injured veterans suffering in recurring haunting nightmares and shocking memories of the battlefield. In 1945, the U.S. War Department even issued Technical Bulletin 187 to create a program that encouraged the use of music to rehabilitate veterans’ emotions.

Music therapy exists in different forms, which includes drumming, singing, listening, and songwriting. According to American Music Therapy Association, one of the most eminent music therapy organizations, music therapy provides a way for those who have mental disorder “to nonverbally express their inner thoughts and feelings, and support verbal processing of thoughts and reactions” (“Music Therapy”). While curing military veterans during World War Two, music therapy is processed in three steps: disclosure, identification, and transformation. First, music therapy makes people relaxed in order to motivate patients to reveal their fears,