Resources & references

Watch as a board-certified music therapist leads an individual session with an autistic man. Through instrument playing, singing, and songwriting, the client develops communication, strengthens social skills, and gains confidence.

Music therapy is used to help autistic children address develpmental goals. Watch registered music therapists lead an individual session with a child using instrument playing, improvisation, and singing to enhance communication and language development.

Watch how certified music therapist Catherine Vesic helps Sam learn to use his voice to express himself and connect with the adults around him.

John Wallis, a Nordoff Robbins music therapist, works with Eddie, an older adult with Alzheimer’s disease showing how music therapy gives him the opportunity and means to step back into the present, reconnecting with past experiences and his own identity.

This pilot study explored music therapy for children with delayed speech development. Results showed that it was effective in improving phonology, speech comprehension, communication, and cognitive functioning.

Music therapist Max Terán explains what music therapy is, who can benefit, how it can help diverse populations, and how he became a music therapist.

A study documenting the practice of three Canadian music therapists who specialize in adolescent mental health. They share their experience, discuss goals within single-session open groups and program structures in brief therapy and the professional skills required for this work.

This report tells how music therapists help the various needs of students in a school for the blind. Different music therapy interventions are described, and music therapists explain how they address goals based on their students' Individual education plan. 

Watch how group music therapy helps three young teens address their social, communication, and emotional regulation goals.

Watch as a music therapist sings and plays a hello song for a child during an individual music therapy session.

Hayley Echols, a board-certified music therapist, explains how she incorporates hello and goodbye songs to enhance emotional expression and communication, with examples for different ages.

This video (in Spanish) explains how music has been used therapeutically throughout history. It describes how music was used in ancient civilizations, the Middle Ages, the renaissance, the baroque period, and the modern age, when music therapy was established as a profession.