The Dangers Of Music Therapy

Music has existed for centuries and brought joy to millions of souls. It has ingrained itself into multiple cultures and bears the capability of emotionally moving people with a few strums of a guitar. Music does not only serve as an enjoyable activity to destress; it can become a beneficial tool to help patients cope with illnesses. How could people use such a simple device to help others? The answer is music therapy. Music therapy harnesses positivity and brings smiles to patients’ faces as well as everyone else around them; it has much more power than we give it credit for. This kind of therapy consists of using instruments to support the family and patient. It first got documented in 1789 “in an unsigned article in Columbian Magazine titled

Music therapy can harm patients by “triggering negative emotional associations” (Lillieth Grand, “Can Music Be Dangerous? YES!”). Music therapists cannot ensure the emotional safety of the patients; they could cause them more harm than already have to deal with. This occurs when certain patients, like dementia sufferers, do not have the capability of materializing their feeling, “[they] cannot coherently tell caregivers about their musical triggers” (Swayne, “The Dangers of Overestimating Music Therapy"). This can cause the patient to become agitated and upset which defeats the purpose of music therapy as a whole. This issue proves difficult to fix since the therapist does not truly know what would trigger the patient other than trial and error and suggestions from the patient’s family and friends. Although the patient appears to enjoy themselves, no one can verify that know for sure, “We hope that the patient is experiencing joy, but that joy can be laced with anxiety or even terror from being awakened by familiar sounds into an unfamiliar world” (Swayne). The therapist cannot guarantee that the person will enjoy all the music they listen to. Also using music can evoke false memories that may upset patients. The main priority should exist to protect the patients emotionally as well as physically. Evoking upsetting emotions in the patients can lead to increased agitation which would disrupt their

Dancing and singing can help someone who has trouble breathing or moving around since the music makes them want to move around. In Jake Sibley’s interview with a music therapist, Elizabeth Huss, Huss spoke about her patients and how she worked to help