Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT)
Neurologic Music Therapy is an evidence-based treatment model driven by research that employs standardized, research-based methods to address neurologic deficits in individuals by using specific aspects of music to drive change in the brain.
“Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity.”
― Oliver Sacks
“Music should be an essential part of every analysis.”
— Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Based on the knowledge that music and the brain have a mutual relationship and that music engages non-musical areas of the brain across both hemispheres, it can be implemented as a mediating language within the therapeutic process. Certain musical experiences can shape and influence many types of responses through musical interactions such as listening, performance, improvisation, and role playing. The production, perception, and interpretation of music is associated with and transferrable to everyday functions. Over the last two decades, there has been an emergence of research regarding music's neurologic impact and how it can be harnessed as a treatment modality for neurologic disorders and injury. Thus, Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) was developed as an evidence-based treatment model that uses 20 standardized, research-based interventions to treat the brain using specific elements such as rhythm, melody, dynamics, and tempo to achieve non-musical goals in the domains of sensorimotor, speech and language, and cognition. Implementation of NMT within research assures the process of using a standardized treatment protocol, thus increasing the ability to replicate and interpret results accurately.
Video courtesy of MedRhythms: https://medrhythms.com/
Jessi provides private clinical care to individuals as her schedule allows. Please contact her for more information.