What is therapeutic music?
Therapeutic music is a type of music that guides the listener to enter into a state of deep relaxation. A Certified Music Practitioner (CMP) uses their scientific knowledge of sound to play live music that specifically focuses on the particular listener at that moment. The CMP plays music to enrich the listener’s environment and help them gently shift their body and mind towards the process of healing. A CMP does this by closely observing the listener and altering the music as necessary based on their response. Or put another way, the CMP plays TO and FOR the listener, not AT the listener.
Does therapeutic music really work?
Yes. Numerous researchers have investigated the relationship between music and healing. So far we know that therapeutic music can:
- reduce blood pressure and heart rate,
- increase endorphin levels,
- help alleviate pain,
- reduce muscle tension,
- decrease anxiety,
- promote relaxation,
- relieve insomnia,
- stimulate the immune system and digestion,
- regulate stress hormones and enhance the physical healing of post-surgery and injured clients.
Therapeutic music can help people who cannot even consciously “hear” the music: it helps people in a comatose state, people under anesthesia, people who are actively dying.
Balm: anything that heals, soothes or mitigates pain; something that gives comfort.
interviewed by Renan Augusto, SmithLife Homecare Ask the Expert Series, 9-11-24.
An informative conversation that answers many questions about therapeutic music.