Music plays a significant role in our lives—it is a unique experience that can evoke strong emotional and psychological reactions. Applying music to navigate traumatic experiences through music therapy was established in 1945, with the Technical Bulletin 187 issued by the U.S. War Department to incorporate music in multiple therapeutic services under a reconditioning program.
Music therapy as an evidence-based practice is designed to:
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Promote Wellness
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Manage Stress
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Alleviate Pain
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Express Feelings
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Enhance Memory
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Improve Communication
● Promote Physical Rehabilitation
Music therapy provides a safe haven to those who are “wounded, ill, or injured to (a) nonverbally express their inner thoughts and feelings, and (b) support verbal processing of thoughts and reactions.” Therapeutic programs that employ music as a tool encourage service members with various cultural backgrounds and musical preferences to “pursue varying levels of self-disclosure, a process essential to recovery.”
Interventions including a variety of music-based tools and techniques like singing, listening, songwriting serve as “strong motivators for participation and personal growth… providing the means to reveal unconscious fears and anxieties, identify and work through traumatic experiences, and transform traumatic memories into healthier associations.”
Furthermore, music “elicits extra- musical ideas useful in recovery, growth, and development. It is not uncommon to see recovery progress much more rapidly once the service member has developed mechanisms to cope with traumatic memory.”
Those who are considered high-risk and at-risk military clients receive music therapy services “in the context of an interdisciplinary treatment team. The MT-BC is qualified to make immediate referrals in cases of imminent danger or crisis. Emergency referrals may take place even in the absence of a formal treatment plan.”
Qualified music therapists have the experience
and training in mental health and trauma service delivery to observe/identify
reactions to music; deliver music therapy treatment "in the moment"
to stabilize the individual; support processing reactions in the context of a
therapeutic relationship and in a safe environment; and refer as needed.
Live
Music Tutor offers music
therapy lessons to military veterans from the convenience
of your own home. Sign up, schedule a lesson, and apply your musical skills
today.