Home > Divisions > Music Therapy

Music Therapy Overview

Are you looking for a practical application of your music skills? Does helping people to use music to control chronic pain, ease childbirth, employ relaxation techniques, or stimulate infant children appeal to you? Would you enjoy using music in preventative health care, in the rehabilitation of persons with brain injuries or? Do you like working with the elderly or infirm to help improve their quality of life? If your answer to any of these questions is "yes" then a major in Music Therapy may be for you.

Music Therapy is the therapeutic use of music in the restoration, maintenance, and improvement of mental and physical health. Music of all kinds is used as a tool to help people maintain or improve communication, academic performance, motor development, emotional growth, and social skills. Music is applied in a therapeutic environment to bring about desirable changes in behavior. Such changes enable individuals to understand themselves and the world differently. As a member of therapeutic team, the professional music therapist participates in the assessment of individual problems.

Music Therapy majors take a wide variety of courses in music theory, music history, performance, and conducting. In addition, the program requires courses in psychology, sociology, philosophy, arts, biology, anatomy physiology plus a clinical core emphasizing the research h aspects of music therapy. A total of 120 credits are required for the degree. Successful completion of all curricular requirements, plus a six month clinical internship, qualifies a graduate to sit for the National Board Certification Examination and for eligibility for admission to the National Registry maintained by the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA). Students are not qualified to work as professional music therapists until they have become registered by the AMTA.

Music Therapy and Center for Biomedical Research in Music