"Musical" Therapy Still Thriving

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

I recently attended the music therapy national conference in Atlanta. The American Music Therapy Association usually presents one or more non-music therapists with a friends of music therapy award. This year was no different, with two state legislators in attendance who had been instrumental in getting state licensure for music therapy passed in a couple different states. Each of the legislators made some short remarks after receiving their awards. At least one of them referred to music therapy as "musical" therapy several times. I only remember this because I heard and felt audible sighs and cringes from some of the people sitting around me. Music therapists do not like being called "musical" therapists. That brings me to a recent story out of News 5 in Charleston, SC, which had this headline:


Musical Therapy a Big Hit With Patients at a Local Hospital

I do not want to be critical of this news station at all!  They wrote a wonderful story about a local music therapist doing some great work.  They even referred to our work as "music therapy" correctly in the article. But it does raise the point that we are still striving for recognition and authenticity as a profession.  It would be nice if news people got the details right every time, but I think in this case any publicity is good publicity!  Let's just hope the word keeps getting out about evidence-based music therapy and we can help people with the terminology as the cases come up!   

iPad Apps for Kids with Special Needs

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

Many music therapists might be singing, "All I want for Christmas is an iPad-2...!" this year. But once you get that fabled device, how are you going to choose your apps?? If you haven't already been to Snaps 4 Kids you will want to bookmark their site: www.snaps4kids.com. 


This website is a comprehensive review center for all kinds of apps, including music apps. I observed two long pages of music apps they have reviewed!  Their website is very straightforward and even allows you to vote and comment about apps.   


 Let's all give two snaps for Snaps4kids!

More Evidence that Depression = Heart Problems

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

Gordon, J. L., Ditto, B., La Voie, K. L., Pelleteir, R., Campbell, T. S., Arsenault, A., & Bacon, S. L. (2011). The effect of major depression on postexercise cardiovascular recovery.  Psychophysiology, 48(11), 1604-1609.  

Research has already started to show a direct link between depression and a greater chance for heart attack. New research has taken this a step further by linking depression with a slower cardiovascular recovery time after exercise. Specifically, they found a slower recovery in the heart rate after exercise in participants with major depression.  The abstract is here.   

These findings emphasize the importance of more research using music to influence mood state. Music can effectively be used in a lifestyle change to improve mood and avoid some of the dire effects of heart disease and poor cardiovascular health!

Here are just a few of the links to find out more about music therapy and heart health:

What Stress Can Do For You!

Music To Help With Lifestyle Change

And don't forget to show your support of using music to help with heart health by sporting some of the cool gear from the Music for the Heart story at CafePress!