A few weeks ago, the NDIA announced that after a rigorous review, music therapy has been retained in the NDIS as a therapeutic support. This is wonderful news, because it means that music therapy has been found to be effective, evidence-based, and beneficial to thousands of NDIS participants and will continue to be available. Unfortunately,...
You may have noticed it’s been a little quiet on the blog lately. I wanted to share a quick update and let you know why. Over the past few months, many music therapists have been navigating significant changes and challenges in the NDIS space. Funding uncertainties, service restrictions, and increased administrative pressures have made it...
One of my favourite things to hear at work as a Registered Music Therapist is: “No way!! How is it that easy?!” – and I hear this almost every day when someone finds out that their favourite song is less complicated than they realised. Part of my job is to find pathways of self-expression, or...
This article examines how music therapy can improve mood, motivation, emotional status, and cognitive functions in clients with multiple sclerosis (MS). MS can affect a wide range of clinical areas that are also targets in music therapy, including motor control, fatigue, pain, dysphagia, psychiatric disorders, cognitive deficits, and quality of life. Up to 50% of...
This study evaluated the impact of music therapy on motor movements for clients with cerebral palsy. It used a range of standardised assessments, such as the box block test and the 9-hole peg test, plus a dynamometer to see what difference music therapy could make over three months. The clients participated in piano activities, using...
This article is a systematic review evaluating results from peer-reviewed articles from 2015-2020. It is a slightly longer blog post than others on this site, because it examines four functional areas that music therapy targets – so it’s almost 4 blog posts in one. I have attempted to paraphrase as best I can. The article...
This article examines the impact of music therapy on people experiencing lost or damaged language ability. It excludes “primary progressive” aphasia, though. A primary focus of this research was a connective structure in the brain called the “Fasciculus Arcuatus”, which connects two speech areas of the brain. Researchers found that over 75 sessions, music therapy participants...
Improvisational music therapy increases wellbeing in autistic people. In this study, researchers reconnected with two autistic people who had participated in music therapy as children, to revisit their experiences in music therapy over a decade later, reflect on their childhood experiences, and record a song together. The study used improvised song creation to allow free...
This study analysed videos to establish the impact of music therap of adult participants living with either schizophrenia, schizoaffective, or bipolar disorders over 5 individual music therapy sessions, to assess how music therapy affected their social skills, group cohesion, and emotional expression. The researchers wanted to add more supporting evidence for music therapy for schizophrenia...
CW: Testing on animals Have you ever had a song stuck in your head? Well, spare a thought for the mice in this study who valiantly listened to Mozart’s K. 448 for 12 hours a day for weeks on end, to examine whether it had any effect on seizure activity and medication. Spoiler alert: it...
Sarah Grey is a registered member of the Australian Music Therapy Association (AMTA) and the World Federation of Music Therapy.
The AMTA is a member of Allied Health Professionals Australia (AHPA) and the National Association of Self-Regulating Health Professions (NASRHP).
