What is music therapy?

Everyone has the capacity to respond to music. A music therapist is a trained allied health professional who uses music and music activities in a systematic manner to promote health and wellbeing in people with a wide variety of issues.

Who Can Benefit?

Music therapy has been shown to be effective in improving or maintaining function in the physical, emotional, cognitive and psychosocial domains. Music therapists have worked with clients with autism, schizophrenia, depression, dementia, neurological rehabilitation, learning and physical disabilities as well as other conditions.

Music Therapy Programme

A music therapy programme involves assessment of clients, planning of sessions, intervention and programme evaluation. Methods such as improvisation, instrument playing, movement and singing are used to reach individualised goals and objectives. Music therapy sessions may be conducted on an individual or group basis. A music therapist may work alone or as part of a multi-disciplinary team, augmenting and supplementing the work of occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists etc.

Jason Noone

Jason is a qualified music therapist with a background in psychology and special education. Currently, he works in the fields of neurological rehabilitation, developmental disability and physical disability. He has conducted research into a developing area of music therapy: sensory integration.

Music Therapy and Sensory Integration

Music therapy methods may be particularly effective in addressing sensory processing difficulties as presented by children with autism, dyspraxia and other conditions. While sensory integration therapy (SIT) is typically conducted by an occupational therapist, music therapy methods informed by SI theory may also help with motor planning issues, sensory defensiveness and other sensory processing difficulties.

Traditional SI therapy involves the use of enhanced, controlled sensory stimulation in the context of meaningful, self-directed activity in order to elicit an adaptive behaviour. In the context of music therapy this involves using music activities to provide ??ontinuous disturbance?to a child?? sensory systems. In time, this can lead to functional adaptation. A child-centred approach is used, whereby sessions are directed by the child as he or she presents at a particular time. The child?? preferred music provides motivation and meaningfulness for the self-directed activity of the child. This may be an improvisation, or familiar music presented in either recorded or live formats.

For example, music activities with strong rhythmic components can impact upon adaptive motor planning, sensory organization, cognitive processes and general physiological pacing. This process is called ??hythmic internalization? Such activities include drumming and percussion activities involving parallel and alternating movement of arms or legs to a pulse provided by live or recorded music. This method is particularly appropriate for children with dyspraxia and other motor-planning deficits.

Jason Noone

BA (Applied Psychology) MA (Music Therapy)

Phone: 087-9376848

Email: jasonnoone.mt@gmail.com

Address: 16 Glensheen, Ennis, Co. Clare