How music can be mental health care

Music therapy, even though it is still a relatively small field, has grown over the past ten years. The practice helps people cope with conditions as diverse as stress, chronic pain, limited mobility and high blood pressure, and is carried out in a variety of settings, including psychiatric hospitals, outpatient clinics, senior centers and schools.

Research has begun to investigate why music appears to have such a strong effect on health and well-being, particularly mental health, where sounds can act as a conduit to improve a person’s mood, help them reflect and reduce stress, anxiety and depression to decrease.

When she was 14, Isobell’s anxiety treatment looked very different. She was being treated by a psychiatrist at the time. But after trying two different medications, she felt like they “didn’t really do anything.”

She began to feel discouraged until her doctor – knowing she enjoyed playing guitar and writing songs – recommended she try music therapy.

For the past two years, she has traveled to Mount Sinai almost every week, despite her busy schedule as a senior at one of New York City’s most selective public high schools.

Isobell, who asked to be identified only by her first name for her privacy, no longer takes medication.

Singing creates space to release emotions that are difficult to describe, she explained.

Even just listening to a song and interpreting its meaning “opens up so much in my mind,” she added. “I feel like I’m always drawing a blank when people ask me, ‘What’s going on? What’s going on?’” But music therapy helps her become more introspective.