- Music is a part of everyday life, especially for the elderly. Music therapy provides a natural, non-threatening, fun, and reinforcing way to treat the holistic needs of clients.
- Needs in all domains (physical, cognitive, social, emotional, spiritual, and behavioral) may be addressed through music therapy, often addressing multiple areas within a single session.
- While many people are able to use music to entertain, music therapists provide an enjoyable way to enhance the overall quality of life of those they serve using music as the therapeutic tool to address non-musical change.
- Music therapists are specially trained to use specific aspects of music to work on non-musical goals.
- Music therapists can help clients control pain, discomfort, shortness of breath, nausea, stress, and anxiety.
- Music therapists can complement and enhance the work of others such as physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, social workers, and chaplains by collaboratively working on and reinforcing goals and exercises given by other disciplines.
- Music therapy can help people with various disabilities maintain physical and cognitive abilities, helping them to be as independent as possible in activities of daily living and leisure activities.
- Music therapy can help stroke survivors, people with Parkinson’s disease, and others suffering loss or decline of abilities; to regain, improve, and maintain physical and cognitive abilities, helping them to be as independent as possible in activities of daily living and able to live life as normally as possible.
- Music therapy can structure interaction between clients, families, and friends which is particularly beneficial when clients are low functioning, may not recognize loved ones, and/or for people struggling with end-of-life issues or other challenging issues.
- Due to the motivational factors provided by music and the way the brain and body respond to music, music therapists can sometimes gain positive responses from clients when others are unable to reach them.
- Music therapy can help improve cognitive abilities such as executive function skills, attention functions, and memory recall.
- Music therapy provides multisensory stimulation through tactile, auditory, and visual stimuli and helps to improve sensory processing and integration.
- Music therapy can help to improve strength, endurance and fine and gross motor skills, which can help to increase independence and improve skills required for activities of daily living.
- Music therapy can provide a different way to express oneself and help to improve social communication skills.
