What is neurologic music therapy? An interview with four Certified Music Therapists to celebrate Music Therapy Awareness Month
Whether humming along to your favourite song or attending a concert, music as a form of entertainment and enjoyment is widely known and experienced by many! Music in the context of health and wellness, however, may be less familiar to the general public.
According to the Canadian Association of Music Therapists (2020), “music therapy is a discipline in which Certified Music Therapists (MTAs) use music purposefully within therapeutic relationships to support development, health, and well-being. Music therapists use music safely and ethically to address human needs within cognitive, communicative, emotional, musical, physical, social, and spiritual domains.”
One particular form of music therapy is Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT). NMT is an approach grounded in scientific research and neuroscience. Music therapists use music to help people strengthen, maintain, and rehabilitate their speech, language, thinking and sensorimotor skills that may be affected by a neurological disorder. A neurologic music therapist may work within many different types of settings including (but not limited to) educational facilities, hospitals, rehabilitation centres, long-term care homes and in the community.
Interested in how NTM can be used to promote health and wellness throughout the lifespan? We interviewed four neurologic music therapists working within Greater Vancouver to provide insight!
What is the origin of NMT?
NMT was developed by the Academy of Neurologic Music Therapy in Colorado in 1999. It was established by Dr Michael H. Thaut and Dr Corene Hurt-Thaut. It consists of standardized techniques used by a music therapist who has completed NMT training. It uses all elements of music (e.g., rhythm, timbre, melody, harmony) to drive neurologic change (Thaut, 2014). It focuses on helping people achieve specific goals through the use of music, so they are able to live their lives fully with their loved ones. Today, NMT is used globally and research continues at the University of Toronto where Thaut and Hurt-Thaut are based.
How do you use NMT in your sessions to help people achieve their goals?
Music is an effective, powerful yet motivating tool that can be utilized for rehabilitation. When supporting a person with attention challenges, a music therapist uses an NMT intervention called Musical Attention Control Training (MACT) to improve attention. By assigning various sounds and rhythms to specific actions that are performed upon hearing the music, the person is able to practice their attention skills through a musical task. For example, play the drum when you hear the word “sun” during the song “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles. The aim is to help the person increase their capacity and efficiency in attention through the intervention with the transfer of doing tasks outside of music in their daily lives.
Why is rhythm, one of the basic elements of music, so important when using the NMT techniques?
Imagine you are walking or moving to your favorite song. Now imagine trying to walk or move outside of the beat of that song. It’s really difficult, isn’t it? The predictability and the consistency of the beat helps the body know what to do and when to do it, so we tend to match ourselves to the beat of the song automatically. This is called entrainment, and neurologic music therapists use this technique to shape all kinds of interventions from physical movements, to walking more evenly, to learning to communicate verbally again. A technique called Rhythmic Speech Cueing (RSC) uses rhythm to help organize and space out speech. It allows people to practice speaking using a predictable context such as the beat. It has been used with folks who are rehabilitating from a stroke and kids who struggle with stuttering and fluency in speech. In this technique, rhythm, particularly the individualized tempo set for each client, is the driving therapeutic force in creating the change.
What type of music works best in NMT?
Playing live music that the participant is familiar with is typically the most effective. For instance, during Musical Speech Stimulation (MUSTIM), music stimulates participants to spontaneously complete the last word in the phrase of a familiar song lyric (Thaut, 2015).
“You are my sunshine, my only ____.” Whether it’s rock, opera, or R&B, choosing songs participants love motivates them to fill in the blank and experience success in an enjoyable way. Additionally, memory challenges often accompany chronic brain conditions. Inviting participants to sing songs they know well can help improve their memory.
Familiar songs can also stimulate powerful emotions. As therapists, we aim to see the whole person, not just the skill being worked on. When the moment calls for it, we may choose to pause the NMT technique to hold space for spontaneous feelings. We ensure participants are in an emotionally safe place before ending sessions.
Finally, care partners are often invited to participate. Not only can the participant’s well-being be supported during sessions, but also the mental health of their partners. Playing songs from significant moments in people’s lives can provide opportunities for bonding, grieving, acceptance, and healing.
Acknowledgments: We are grateful to music therapists Bernice Chu (bernicehlchu@gmail.com), Sheila Lee (sheleemusic@gmail.com), Edwina Lin (edwinalin.nmt@gmail.com), and Melody Owen (songsformelody@gmail.com) for sharing their knowledge and insights in this blog.
For more information on the benefits of music therapy, visit https://www.musictherapy.ca/.
References
Canadian Association of Music Therapists. (September 2020). About Music Therapy: CAMT. https://www.musictherapy.ca/about-camt-music-therapy/about-music- therapy/
Thaut, M.H. & Hoemberg, V. (Eds.). (2014). Handbook of neurologic music therapy. Oxford University Press.
Thaut, M.H. (July 2015). Neurologic Music Therapy Techniques and Definitions. https://nmtacademy.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/nmt-definitions.pdf
