Using music and medicine research to inform music psychotherapy practice

Abstract

This article describes some key elements that continue impacting my personal journey from qualitative researcher and music psychotherapist into evidence-based researcher. I will contemplate how to explain the power of music within the framework of music and medicine,  and introduce the relevant music and brain research findings, i.e. how music affects our hormones, emotions, and memories. Could I have a neurological rationale in my mind when I choose or use music for my music psychotherapy clients? Do the music and brain findings expound what exactly in music is therapeutic and what happens during those processes? Could we speculate if indeed those findings are the very foundation of music psychotherapy?