Can Music Help Students Mental Health?

Woman playing guitar to a man
laying down as music therapy 

Music is the art of arranging sounds in time through melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, and lyrics. Music is also a form of self-expression, communication, and even can help people with their mental health. Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based music intervention within a therapeutic setting. Research shows that the four major interventions of music therapy are lyric analysis, improvisation, active listening, and song writing. As said in the article, music allows a person to encourage expression, regulate their mood, reflect, and speak about topics that may be difficult to discuss in a less-threatening way. In this study, when a child was hesitant to meet with a therapist, they suddenly got excited when they found out it was a music therapy session. The music allowed the child to discuss self-worth, resilience, and strength. The child's social skills and cognitive development overall improved, and allowed him to engage with the therapist better! 

Personally, I haven't had an experience directly with music therapy, but I do know it is a great option for people to use! I use music as my source of communication, and as a creative outlet, so I guess you could say it is my therapy. I use multitudes of works and pieces to express the way I'm feeling, or to even communicate that feeling to someone else. Since I have ADHD, I especially love just relaxing piano music to calm myself down when I feel that I am scattered, so I make specific playlists for these things. Music also makes me think in a way that some other subjects can't. It combines reading, math, and history all into one thing. Personally, I don't think anything else on this earth can do that, and also be a creative outlet for people as well.