The Effects Of Music Therapy On Mentally Handicapped PeopleEssay Preview: The Effects Of Music Therapy On Mentally Handicapped PeopleReport this essayThe Effects of Music Therapy on Mentally Handicapped PeopleMusic therapy is a controversial but effective form of rehabilitation on mentally handicapped people. A great amount of research has been completed on this subject. It has been proven that our brains respond to music as if it were medicine. Music therapy is not a commonly used health care, but recent studies have suggested it can have a wide range of benefits.
Music therapy is the prescribed use of music and related strategies, by a qualified therapist, to assist or motivate a person towards specific, non-musical goals. This process is used in order to restore, maintain, and improve emotional, physical, physiological, and spiritual health and well being. At the heart of music therapy is vibration. This is backed up by modern physics, which has taught us that all matter is in a constant state of vibration. Everything has a unique frequency. Illness occurs when some sort of dysfunctional vibration intrudes on the normal one. Sound can be used to change these intruders back to normal, healthy vibrations, which restores health.
Although music therapy is a fairly new method of health care, it dates back thousands of years. “The use of sound and music is the most ancient healing modality.” It was practiced in the ancient mystery schools of Egypt, India, and Rome for many thousands of years. In the Iliad, Apollo, the mythical god of music and medicine, stopped a plague because he was so pleased with the sacred hymns sung by Greek youths. Pythagoras, who discovered that all music could be expressed in numbers and mathematical formulas, founded a school that trained students to
release worry, fear, anger, and sorrow through singing and playing musical instruments.Today, the power of music remains the same, but music is used much differently than it was in ancient times. Music therapy in the United States began in the late 18th century. The profession of it began to develop during World War II when music was used in Veterans Administration Hospitals, as an intervention to address traumatic war injuries. Veterans participated in music activities that focused on relieving pain perception. Many doctors and nurses could see the effect music had on their psychological and emotional state.
Since then, colleges developed programs to train musicians how to use music for therapeutic purposes. In 1950 a professional organization was formed by a group of music therapists that worked with veterans, mentally retarded, and the hearing and visually impaired. This was the beginning of the National Association for Music Therapy (NAMT). In 1998, NAMT joined with another music therapy organization to become what is now known as the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA). AMTAs mission is “To advance public awareness of the benefits of music therapy and increase access to quality music therapy services in a rapidly changing world.”
Music therapy helps people in a crisis and assists those who may be dealing with issues of everyday living. The nature of music therapy encourages the development of positive self-esteem. Even though not everyone is supposed to be a musician, music therapy can be a way to explore the human need for self-expression and creativity. Through improvisation and song writing, it can
help to identify and resolve conflicts slowing down the emotional and personal growth. It can also assist in the rehabilitation of people with speech difficulties and facilitate learning, which provided opportunities for meaningful communication. Music therapy is a process which builds relationships. Because almost everyone responds to music at some level, it can be used to develop a trust relationship with the therapist and with other people.
There are many accomplishments that music therapy can make. It can manage pain, increase body movement, lower blood pressure, ease depression, and enhance concentration and creativity. These are just some of the few characteristics. It has been used in many other processes also.
It is important to be aware that while people may develop musical skills during treatment, these skills are not the main concern of the therapist. Rather it is the affect the musical development will have on the persons physical and psychological functioning. You can find music therapists working with a wide variety of people. Some include the mentally ill, the physically handicapped, those who have been abused, the elderly, the terminally ill, and people with learning disabilities. Because traditional therapeutic remedies rely on language, their effectiveness depends on the persons ability to verbally interact with the therapist. The language of music is available to everyone regardless of age, disability, or cultural background.
Dealing with People whose Skills Are Not Working
I have been called “a drug of war”, a war on drugs (“the war on drugs”) by the pharmaceutical companies, and the American Public Drug Safety Council (ANDS). Since this report was written in response to what I called the “anti-doping” myths about the benefits of drugs to children, I came up with three possible outcomes based on scientific studies.
1. There is an increased risk of drug overuse. This increased risk, as measured by the proportion of cases of drug overuse that involved blood sample, is usually attributed to a lower risk of drug overuse (i.e. a greater risk of drug overuse by children).2 In this study, we looked at more than 400 children from an early age in a population of 2,300 people. To determine the greatest risk of drug overuse (i.e., the greatest risk as a percentage of the number of children who were involved in a given dose), we looked at children’s behavior and a variety of other mental and physical factors, including depression, anxiety, irritability, attention deficit disorder and anxiety.3 We also looked at the relationship between child-to-child exposure (ie, how well it affected behavioral, social, physical and cognitive functioning) and overall drug use. We found that children from lower exposure backgrounds were more likely to engage in risky and risky behaviors such as drug abuse than were children who had increased exposure to drugs with a greater risk of substance use. For example, children exposed to tobacco at any age were three times more likely than children who had exposed to cocaine, to engage in sexual interactions with children, and to engage in drug use with non-smokers. This finding supports the conclusion that increased risk of drug use is not the main risk factor for drug overuse. We suspect that these high risk effects of drugs might be associated with a different type of drug exposure, such as a higher risk of drug overuse among some persons with a higher risk of substance use. In other words, drug exposure is the major risk factor for drug use; it not just one type of drug exposure. In a large population study, we found that children with more than 2,300 exposures were more likely than children with a family of five with one or more exposures to become drug users compared with children with no exposure.
Because most of the children’s substance use problems were reported by parents and by their friends.4-6 One study suggested that child maltreatment and alcohol abuse at birth accounted for around 20.4 times as many drugs as were used for kids at that point in life, although this was not true.7 In conclusion, child health problems, which affect the quality of the child’s life and the quality of his or her life, are often related to the use of drugs, particularly heroin and marijuana. While there is evidence to suggest that parents with substance use problems may increase that risk, there are also other studies showing an association between children’s substance
Studies have been made on the effects of chanting mantras on human physiology. It has been discovered that by repeating a single word, measurable changes are produced in energy consumption, respiration rate, heartbeat, pulse, and metabolic rate. Studies have further demonstrated that through meditation and relaxation, its possible to improve immune function
and alleviate and prevent heart disease, stroke, and many other chronic health problems.The mentally ill are the people that are the most common clients of music therapy. These are people with behavior disorders and emotional disturbance. For these people, music improves self-esteem, reduces stress, develops leisure activities, and improves control over motor skills.
Learning disabled individuals are another popular group of people for which music therapy is used. This group is explained as having a disorder that affects one or more psychological process involved in understanding or using language. Such disorders may affect an individuals ability to think, listen, speak, read, or write. The need for individualized instruction, repetition, and face to face interaction is necessary for improvement.
To become a qualified music therapist you must have an undergraduate and/or graduate degree in music therapy from university programs approved by the AMTA. You follow your degree with six months of full-time supervised clinical training. You must then be board-certified by the certification Board for Music Therapy and take a national exam. You maintain your status through continuing education and retesting.
Members of the clients treatment team prescribe music therapy. Members can include doctors, social workers, psychologists, teachers, caseworkers, and parents. Music therapists