Resources & references

This article describes current practices on the use of music therapy to support individuals with trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It reviews current studies to determine how music therapy can provide emotional support, regulate emotions, reduce anxiety and isolation, and elevate mood. 

Watch how Benji and his music therapist engage together to work towards his goals targeting collaboration, communication, and social skills.

This feasability study explores the effects of short-term individual music therapy sessions among adults with substance use disorder (SUD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Results show that music therapy can reduce hyperarousal and increase self-regulation, attention, and cognitive functioning in this population.

Music therapist and researcher Mark Ettenberger explains what music therapy is, who it can benefit, how it can be applied, and what are its therapeutic benefits.

This article describes a music therapy program in a maximum security psychiatric state facility. Brief descriptions of the patient population, admission and discharge criteria, safety and security concerns, music therapy interventions, and behavioral strategies are given in order to provide a picture of the program and the concerns associated with this population.

This paper hopes to provide an insight into the role of music therapy as a Salutogenic approach within a biopsychosocial framework and its need to be accepted in the Indian context. Music therapy may play the role with preventative and curative periods of treatment, as well as support to cope and acceptance toward the inevitable for the patient as well for the caregivers. Music therapy provides a biopsychosocial and holistic approach to palliative care.

Learn how music therapy is used in Australian schools to support children's learning and development, including the availability of different programs. 

The aim of this meta-analysis was to examine published RCT studies investigating the effect of music on pain. Analysis of the 97 included studies revealed that music interventions had statistically significant effects in decreasing pain, emotional distress from pain, anesthetic use, opioid intake, non-opioid intake, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and respiration rate. Conclusion: music interventions may provide an effective complementary approach for the relief of acute, procedural, and cancer/chronic pain in the medical setting.

This study assessed the effects of 12 weeks of school counselor-led drumming on social-emotional behavior in two fifth-grade intervention classrooms versus two standard education control classrooms. The weekly intervention integrated rhythmic and group counseling activities to build skills, such as emotion management, focus and listening. Participation in group drumming led to significant improvements in multiple domains of social-emotional behavior.

This study explored the efficacy of group music therapy sessions for teenagers and adults receiving in-patient eating disorder treatment. The results determined that music therapy was effective in reducing negative affect, improving emotional expression, supporting social connection, and helping patients on their recovery journey.