How Mentally Ill Adolescents can Benefit from Music Therapy

Sometimes, conventional talk therapy just doesn’t work. A fair amount of people consistently going to therapy stop going or begin to deteriorate (Rousmaniere). Of course, there are multiple types of therapies or healing methods people could use. People do yoga or get acupuncture to calm themselves down and make their physical health better. For some, music therapy is the solution to their depression or anxiety. Music therapy has only been popularized recently, but there has been countless research already done on the effects that it has on adolescents. It’s been concluded that music therapy greatly helps adolescents with mental illnesses like depression or anxiety, sometimes more than regular therapy. Music therapy consistently helps adolescents with mental illnesses, and should be sought out more by adolescents living with these mental illnesses. 

Normal talk therapy usually takes place in a separate building from where treatment for physical ailments take place. Music therapy is used in a lot of different facilities to treat different conditions. Hospitals may hire licensed music therapists to work with kids with chronic illnesses. Hospitals that deal with chronically ill children are typically concerned with the mental well being of their patients. A study conducted by psychology professors C. Hendon and L.M. Bohon for California State University wanted to note the effects on the well being of adolescent hospital patients that music therapy had compared to conventional play therapy. 

But how is happiness quantified, especially in children? The professors state evidence that measuring smiles is enough evidence, citing the correlation proven in 1999 that smiling and enjoyment have a direct relationship with each other (Hendon & Bohon). The psychologists predicted that at the end of the study, more smiling would occur in the patients that went through music therapy than the ones that went through play therapy in the hospital, and they were absolutely right (Hendon & Bohon).

Smiling is always a good thing. Even if telling someone to smile is typically not valid advice for someone dealing with depression, it isn’t necessarily bad advice. Smiling can increase happiness and even boost the strength of the immune system, even if it’s forced (Spector). Music therapy makes people smile, and smiling makes people happy, which is valid evidence for proving the powerful effects of music therapy, and a convincing argument for adolescents to consider using music therapy to deal with whatever mental illnesses they have. 

Therapy has always been a form of treatment for the depressed and people dealing with other mental illnesses. Tangerine, a British magazine, reported on research conducted which concluded that “music therapy reduces depression in children and adolescents with behavioral and emotional problems…” (Tangerine). The Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust conducted the research and also found that self-esteem, communication, and interactive skills all increased in patients consistently undergoing music therapy (IANS). These two studies shows the direct relationship between music therapy and happiness. This means that children living with depression can (and should) seek out music therapy so that they feel happier, which would result in their overall health and wellness being greater than ever before. 

Today’s post-enlightenment western society puts an extreme emphasis on the power of science and prescription drugs. People could make the claim that seeking out music therapy to help with mental ailments like depression is a waste of time when pharmaceutical medication is scientifically proven to work. The issue with this claim is that it leaves out all of the negative effects of prescription medicine. Everyone has seen commercials for a drug that helps with issues like depression, bipolar disorder, or insomnia, and taken note of the long list of side effects that come with it. Lexapro, a commonly used prescription drug used for treating anxiety and depression, comes with the common side effects of, “dizziness, drowsiness, weakness; sweating, feeling shaky or anxious; insomnia; dry mouth, loss of appetite; nausea, constipation; yawning; weight changes; or decreased sex drive, impotence, or difficulty having an orgasm” (Sinha). Experiencing these side effects might encourage users to take more medicine, which is incredibly expensive and leads to even more side effects. Music therapy doesn’t have those negative side effects, but achieves similar results to drugs like Lexapro.

So far, music therapy is being portrayed as a healthy and efficient form of alternative medicine, so it is important to understand what actually goes on during a typical music therapy session. Unfortunately, it’s not concrete. According to Newport Academy, the two main types of music therapy are active and receptive. Active music therapy is when “the therapist and the client(s) create music with instruments, their voices, or other objects,” while receptive therapy has just the therapist playing music and the client listening (Newport Academy). Different forms of music therapy are utilized to treat different needs of the patients. Instruments like the piano and trumpet can be played with calming music to help the patient be at ease and reduce anxiety and symptoms of depression and other illnesses. 

 A unique type of active music therapy is drumming music therapy. A group of people with a lot of African percussion instruments sit together and play. When watching examples of this being used, it had a stereotypical “tribal” feel to it. Lizzie Ball, while writing for Norman’s Musical Instruments explains that feeling, saying that African tribes used drums to communicate without any words, and that’s one of the reasons it’s used in drumming therapy today (Ball). Another reason for participating in drumming therapy would be for self expression. “Exercises in a group are usually done by someone saying an emotion and you drumming out how you relate to it through your life experience.” (Ball) 

I’ve been playing drums for three years now, and my family has a history of chronic depression. Speaking from a personal perspective, drumming works to help with depression, and other mental illnesses. Examples of mental illnesses that Ball lists include, “depression, ADHD and ADD, autism, social needs, communication, dyslexia, tourette’s, aspergers, OCD and ODD, stress, anxiety, emotional distress.” (Ball) All of these could result in a negative mindset, and drumming therapy is a good form of treatment for them. I haven’t played since starting college, but I used drums as a form of anger or frustration management. Hitting something is good for anger, but making music by hitting things is even better. I’ve told people to play my drumset when they’re stressed and there is a noticeable difference once they stop playing. I encourage everyone to play drums, even if you think you have no rhythm (because I don’t believe that people can always have no sense of rhythm) as a coping mechanism for almost all problems. 

Music therapy has been proven to have calming effects on children, which can help adolescents that have physical pain as well as anxiety. A collection of Swedish scientists took 24 patients that just underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and made half of them undergo music therapy and compared it to typical hospital care. The music therapy group was more relaxed after therapy with reduced heart rates (Uggla et al). Music therapy has that ability to calm people down when they’re stressed or in pain, like it’s a distraction from whatever the client is going through. That means that children anger issues or other behavioral problems can use music therapy to calm them down and have some of their symptoms treated in a fun and safe way. 

It seems obvious that music therapy has such a relaxing component to it, because just listening to music has the ability to invoke a multitude of emotions on anyone. The American composer Aaron Copland explains in his book What to Listen for in Music that humans listen to music with three different levels of concentration. The second level, called the “musical content level” involves listening to music with a small amount of concentration to feel some sort of emotion, even if the emotions are not clear (Rennie). Deborah Bradway, a music therapist, said, “Music has a power over the body, a language that possesses an inherent nature to make us feel.” (Newport Academy) 

People cry when they listen or play sad music, and people feel happy and want to dance when they listen to happy or exciting music. From personal experience, these feelings are more dramatic when music is being written compared to when listening to music. Writing lyrics forces someone to confront the feelings they have that they’re too scared to admit, but it’s possible to express these feelings without using words. That’s one of the goals of active music therapy: communication of feelings that are hard to put into words, and it’s incredibly beneficial to increase overall mental wellness of children who are suffering from depression.

A lot of professional composers write music for the purpose of saying something, whether it be a story or their personal feelings. Kyle Gray Young, a composer for Holdingford Elementary music said, “I write music so I can say things that I don’t feel like I can say with just words alone. I’m a very shy person but when I can talk with my music, I feel much more comfortable.” (Young) Plenty of children have trouble sharing their true emotions with a conventional therapist, and hiding emotions during a therapy session results in no positive change. But if someone can share their emotions without actually saying anything, then that can lead to better results and the client health and wellness could significantly improve. In today’s society, everyone is encouraged to be open about their feelings because internalizing these feelings can have devastating effects on someone’s mental health, like anxiety and trust issues. Patients that use music therapy to explain how the feel won’t have their health and wellness deteoritate. 

Dr. Deforia Lane is a music therapist who shared some personal stories in a TED talk that are incredibly emotional and showcase the power that music therapy has. One of the stories she shares is about Mr. Z (the name is changed for privacy reasons), a doo-wop singer who needed a surgery that would prevent him from ever singing again. Dr. Lane sang with Mr. Z until he needed surgery, even though people thought that it would remind him of his lost talent and make him more depressed. After the surgery, Lane sang broadway tunes, and he was genuinely happy despite losing the ability to speak. Lane explains why perfectly:

“We know that music stimulates diverse places in the brain simultaneously and some of that allows the brain, especially if it’s pleasurable music, to release it’s own endorphins… our body’s natural opiates, which can have an express effect on our emotions and our mood.” (Lane)

I recommend watching the TED talk and witnessing Mr. Z’s reaction to the music after he lost his voice. It’s obvious how happy he is, and it’s amazing to think how that’s possible. A talented singer loses the ability to sing, so one might think that showing him his favorite broadway music would make him depressed, but it doesn’t. Despite the surgery, he’s happy. It’s an emotional event to witness, and is a superb example of the power of music therapy, and why it should be sought out for adolescents that have been diagnosed with depression. 

She has another, even more powerful story. Mr. M had just suffered a stroke, and the brain damage he has makes him unable to talk. Lane decides to sing one of his favorite songs, This Little Light of Mine, while tapping the beat on his hand and leaving out some words. Mr. M couldn’t say a word before music therapy, but with the song playing, he was able to sing some words in the chorus. I almost cried. Music therapy was able to increase the strength of the brain and result in positive treatment for a stroke. Imagine what it can do for adolescents with a chemical imbalance in their brain that results in clinical depression. Music therapy has the power to chemically alter the brain, allowing ailments to heal naturally, and without the use of external medicine. 

People know music has the power to convey emotions, but I didn’t know it was that strong. Again, Lane explains how music therapy was able to treat the symptoms of a severe stroke: “Music therapy and it’s techniques allow and promote the creation of new neural pathways in the brain that circumvents the damaged areas creating a new route and enables us to sing or to talk.” (Lane)

Music therapy is an incredibly strong tool that could help with a multitude of problems. Adolescents who are mentally ill are happier and less stressed after music therapy. People recovering from surgeries have used music therapy to deal with physical pain. It made a person with the inability to speak after suffering from an incredibly severe stroke talk again. It’s a beautiful and emotional form of medicine that isn’t advertised enough because not enough people have witnessed what it can do. When normal therapy or other accepted forms of medicine doesn’t help, music therapy allows people to realize what they’re feeling and express it in ways that they are comfortable with, and it can have a profound effect on a child’s mental health and wellness. 

 

Annotated Bibliography

Ball, Lizzie. “Drums Used In Music Therapy: Normans Music Blog.” Normans News, 30 June 2014, https://www.normans.co.uk/blog/2014/06/drums-used-music-therapy/.

This article talks about the history of drumming used as a form of conversation and connects it to modern use of drumming in music therapy. It states multiple mental problems that “drum conversations” could solve, which directly connects to my thesis. It reinforces that music therapy is used to express your emotions without talking, which is necessary for showing the contrast between music therapy and conventional therapeutic methods. 

 

Hendon C, and Bohon L.M. “Hospitalized Children’s Mood Differences during Play and Music Therapy.” Child: Care, Health & Development, vol. 34, no. 2, Mar. 2008, pp. 141–144. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rzh&AN=105870366&site=ehost-live.

This article is about how music therapy makes hospitalized kids happier than play therapy. Happiness was quantified by counting the average amount of smiles in a three minute period, and sources were cited to prove that using smiles is an accurate way to measure intelligence. This, along with the experience that writers C. Hendon and L.M. Bohon have as psychology professors of California State University, proves the credibility of the study. The conclusion of the research was that if hospitals use more music therapy for children, there will be a positive effect on happiness, which will lead to better mental and physical health in hospitalized children over time. Because the paper is trying to show the positive results of music therapy on children, this article is incredibly efficient to prove the long term effects on adolescents. 

 

Monroe, Jamison. “The Healing Power of Music Therapy.” Newport Academy, Newport Academy, 9 Oct. 2019,
https://www.newportacademy.com/resources/empowering-teens/healing-power-of-music-therapy./

Newport Academy is a teen rehabilitation facility that focuses on adolescents with anxiety, depression, and other mental issues, and one of the methods they use is music therapy. Their experiences accompanied with cited sources like the American Music Therapy Association prove their credibility and prove to be effective to prove my argument. The article talks about all kinds of music therapy, from the standard music therapy with pianos to group drumming sessions. The variety of therapy mentioned and all of their effects will be useful in proving the positive effects of music therapy and stating examples. The website says, “Enhances recovery through inducing relaxation; Produces pleasurable experiences; Helps release emotional trauma; Supports reintegration of self; Alleviates self-centeredness, isolation, and alienation; Creates a sense of connectedness with self and others; Provides a secular approach to accessing a higher power and applying spiritual perspectives.” as positive effects of drumming in music therapy. 

 

“Music therapy reduces depression in kids, adolescents”. IANS-English, October 23, 2014 Thursday. https://advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:5DFM-8PX1-DYDW-70SK-00000-00&context=1516831. Accessed October 8, 2019.

This study, conducted in 2014 by researchers for Queen’s University and the Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust, was performed with the goal of determining the effects music therapy had on adolescents with depression and other behavioral or emotional issues. The results help to prove my thesis, as the study concluded that this alternative form of therapy reduced depression in both children and adolescents. The study can be proven to be a credible source because of Tangerine’s use of logos to probe the credibility of the researchers, and their detailed description of the study. I would use this research to prove that music therapy is not only effective, but more effective than standard talk therapy in treating children that have certain mental or behavioral problems.

 

Rennie, Bryan. “What to Listen for in Music.” What to Listen For in Music, http://www4.westminster.edu/staff/brennie/WDGroup4/what2listen4.htm.

In my intro to music class, students learned about Aaron Copland and his three levels of listening. When writing the first draft for this essay and talking about how music can make people feel certain emotions, I thought about that class and realized how Copland’s work can reinforce that statement. This article summarizes the second level of listening perfectly, which is perfect to prove my point. 

 

Rousmaniere, Tony. “What Your Therapist Doesn’t Know.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 10 July 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/what-your-therapist-doesnt-know/517797/.

This article will be used for the small fact it states when talking about how effective talk therapy is not. By stating that a lot of people that go to talk therapy end up stop going or begin to deteriorate, it reinforces my claim that music therapy is more effective than regular therapy, and could convince people to seek music therapy out over other forms of treatment. 

 

Sinha, Sanjai. “Lexapro: Uses, Dosage, Side Effects & Warnings.” Drugs.com, 14 Dec. 2018,

https://www.drugs.com/lexapro.html.

The counter-argument I highlighted in this paper was the emphasis on only taking prescription, so I decided to rebuke this with talking about the rarely talked about side effects of prescription used to treat the problems that this paper focuses on. There’s a lot of them, which helps to prove my point that maybe those prescription drugs aren’t always the greatest thing for someone.

Spector, Nicole. “Smiling Can Trick Your Brain into Happiness – and Boost Your Health.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 10 Jan. 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/smiling-can-trick-your-brain-happiness-boost-your-health-ncna822591.

The article written by Hendon and Bohon states that because patients that just went through music therapy smile more then they are more happy, using a direct correlation between happiness and smiling. I thought it was necessary for me to prove that positive relationship, and this article does exactly that. It states all the positive effects that smiling has on not only your mental state, but your physical health as well. 

 

TEDx Talks. “Music Therapy & Medicine: A Dynamic Partnership | Dr. Deforia Lane | TEDxBeaconStreetSalon” Youtube 30 Mar. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGnWyS2Y4r8&feature=emb_logo

This TED talk is perfect for pathos, or an appeal to emotion. Dr. Lane is a music therapist herself, and she shows videos of her working with her clients to show the powerful effects of music therapy. It’s extremely emotional, and citing those videos is enough for people to emotionally connect with and support music therapy. 

 

“Why Do People Write Music?” HOLDINGFORD ELEMENTARY MUSIC, https://holdingfordelementarymusic.weebly.com/question-board/why-do-people-write-music.

A big part of music therapy (specifically active music therapy) is composition. Music can be written with a story or emotion in mind, and it’s possible for that emotion to clearly come out and be recognized by whoever listens to it. This article shows that professional musicians write music to show their emotions, and it works, which is the whole point of active music therapy. It’s a way for a client to share their emotions without ever speaking. 

 

Uggla, Lena, et al. “Music Therapy for Severely Sick Children: A Randomized Clinical Study.” Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, vol. 25, Jan. 2016, p. 78. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/08098131.2016.1180059.

This is a study similar to the last, but this one does not focus on the mental effects that music therapy can have on children, rather it takes note of the physical effects. The study compared the heart rates of children aged 0-16 years that have just had a “hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.” Credibility cannot be questioned when you look at who conducted the research: Members of the Department of Clinical Science in Sweden and the Department of Communication and Psychology in Denmark, just to name two. The conclusion of the study was that music therapy lowers the heart rate of children undergoing severe medical treatment, which shows how relaxing music therapy can be. This could be used in the research paper to stress that music therapy can be used to calm adolescents in multiple kinds of scenarios.