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What is Anxiety? 

We often hear words like “anxiety” being thrown around in daily conversations that we engage in or even in discussions we overhear. It is important to properly understand what anxiety is before exploring the role of music therapy for anxiety. Anxiety can be an emotional response to certain stressful situations which may cause worry.¹ Commonly, individuals may experience some anxiety when they are about to take an important test, for example.¹ This can be classified as state anxiety, because the anxiety is brought on by a specific situation and normally subsides when that situation is no longer present.² However, anxiety can be more than just an occasional expected emotional response. Anxiety Disorder occurs when a person feels anxious but the feeling does not dissipate and can get worse, sometimes to the point where it interferes with daily life such as relationships, jobs, and work.¹ Individuals who present with Anxiety Disorder commonly have...

Loewy J, Stewart K, Dassler A-M, Telsey A, Homel P, Louis Armstrong T. The Effects of Music Therapy on Vital Signs, Feeding, and Sleep in Premature Infants. 2013 [cited 2019 Sep 3]; Available from: www.pediatrics.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2012-1367

Music is a universal phenomenon, having powerful effects on the human body, mind and spirit from before we are born until the end of our lives. Some modern research suggests that music therapy can play a vital role in the health and well-being of infants, specifically for those in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). In a study performed by Joanne Loewy, Kristen Stewart, Ann-Marie Dassler, Aimee Telsey and Peter Homet, the effect of live music was investigated to explore potential improvements in both physiological and developmental functions of infants. Some of these functions include oxygen saturation levels, heart rates and respiratory rates, activity levels, sleep, feeding behaviour, and weight gain. Because the musical elements...

As a student of health sciences specializing in child health, as well as an avid disciple of classical music performance, I found myself gravitating toward the field of music therapy during my undergraduate years. It was a perfect intersection between healthcare and music, and led me to do my senior year thesis project on it. The topic of the project, What is the effectiveness of music therapy on pediatric postoperative distress?, encompassed all of my passions; music, healthcare, and child health. Part of my project was conducting a systematic literature review on this topic.

The systematic literature review posed as a challenge from the start, because of how often academic literature used music medicine and music therapy interchangeably. It seemed that regardless of the geographic region, the study design, or the purpose of music therapy interventions, the term “music therapy” was frequently used to describe passive music listening, which is music medicine. Many...

My name is Zachary Brown, and I am a grade 12 student at Sir John A. MacDonald
secondary school as well as an aspiring music therapist. Recently I was able to experience two whole new sides of music therapy that I hadn't been exposed to before.

During one of my visits to a long term care facility that I've been volunteering at, I got to sit in on a one on one session between Laura, the facility's music therapist and one of their residents. I got to see Laura work alongside the physiotherapist that works there as well, while they worked with another resident. Both of these experiences introduced me to a new world of music therapy that is vastly different than the group therapy sessions I had been exposed to before.

There is something truly special about setting aside a time to devote all your energy to one person. I saw this firsthand, as I witnessed my first ever one on one music therapy session. When we met the resident for her session, she appeared at first to be totally...

To the person who feels stuck in limbo,

This past year I’ve gained an important skill, and that is patience. I would imagine that if you ask anyone what skills a music therapist needs, many would include patience as one of them, as something that is “already a given”, which is something I thought as well. But now the skill of patience has a new meaning. Not only should a person have patience and compassion when working with vulnerable persons but they also need to have that for themselves.

To be patient with yourself is to know that even if you don’t succeed the first time it doesn’t mean you weren’t good enough. To be patient with yourself means to give yourself all the time you need to have personal growth and insight. To be patient with yourself means to gain experience by doing things that make you happy and not doing them because they’ll give you a “leg up” against someone else who is also trying to be the best that they can...

I was first introduced to music therapy in high school. As part of a grade 10 music project, we were asked to choose a career in music and write a report about it. My music teacher suggested I write about music therapy since I was interested in health sciences. I wrote the report and thought that music therapy was cool, but I still really wanted to be a doctor. Over time, I started revisiting music therapy as a potential career choice. After more research and soul searching, I decided music therapy was something I wished to pursue. I completed a co-op with Rachael Finnerty at the music therapy studio she owned at the time. It was through this that I first heard of the music therapy program at Acadia University, a small school in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. I visited the university for an open house and fell in love with Wolfville and Acadia. I auditioned and was accepted into the music therapy program. I started in September of 2014.

My four years as a music therapy student were full of...

My name is Zachary Brown, I am a grade 12 student at Sir John A. MacDonald secondary school, and an aspiring music therapist. Earlier this week I got my first impression of what music therapy in action looks like.

This week I had the incredible opportunity to volunteer at a longterm care facility in Hamilton, Ontario. The music therapist at the long term care facility, graciously allowed me to shadow her as she ran a group session with 10 of the residents. As Laura sang and played her guitar for the residents, they joined in with percussion instruments, their voices, and many smiles. As Laura engaged each resident with a song that they helped her choose specifically for them, the mood lightened. I saw music therapy bring joy to people who needed it. Maybe it was due to the excitement of having a song played just for them, or the accomplishment of being able to sing and play along.

My first of impression of music therapy in action filled me with excitement, although it does not seem...