Music Therapy for Teens

Utilizing a patient’s natural responses and associations to music is the cornerstone of music therapy for teens in Southern California. It seeks to boost a patient’s mood and overall sense of well-being. Making music, singing, dancing, or even simply listening to music may be considered forms of music therapy.

Music therapy for teens as treatment is quickly turning into an important component in mental health care. It is notably valuable for treating teenagers suffering from a range of mental health disorders, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance misuse, and other problems.

Music Therapy

Utilizing a patient’s natural responses and associations to music is the cornerstone of music therapy in Southern California. It seeks to boost a patient’s mood and overall sense of well-being. Making music, singing, dancing, or even simply listening to music may be considered forms of music therapy.

This kind of treatment is quickly turning into an important component in mental health care. It is notably valuable for treating teenagers suffering from a range of mental health disorders, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance misuse, and other problems.

What is Music Therapy?

The term “music therapy” refers to the therapeutic use of music to accomplish individualized goals, such as reducing stress, improving mood, and expressing oneself via the medium of music. Activities like listening to music, singing, or analyzing music are all potential components of music therapy.

Music therapy may be able to help you in several ways. These include:

  • Socially
  • Psychologically
  • Emotionally
  • Physically
  • Spiritually
  • Intellectually
Music Therapy for teens

Techniques for Teenagers Undergoing Music Therapy

Music therapy may either be an active or a passive procedure, depending on whether or not the teenager is actively involved in creating music. For example, some psychotherapists may use both active and passive music interventions.

Music therapy has a wide range of established approaches, including:

  • Analytical Music Therapy

As a therapeutic method, analytical music therapy supports using an improvised musical “conversation” to communicate your unconscious ideas, which you may then explore with your therapist.

  • Benenzon Music Therapy

Music and psychoanalysis are brought together in this style. It’s a key part of Benenzon’s music therapy to find your musical sound identity. This sound identity explains the exterior sounds that most closely reflect your inner psychological condition.

  • Cognitive Behavioral Music Therapy (CBMT)

Music therapy is used in conjunction with cognitive behavioral therapy in this technique. Certain behaviors are reinforced, and others are modified by CBMT using music. This is a more organized technique, and it may involve listening to music, dancing, singing, or playing an instrument, depending on the individual’s preference.

  • Community Music Therapy

This format focuses on the use of music to promote social change. Every teen member must be fully committed to this process since it is only performed in a group setting.

  • Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy

Here, one instrument is played by the patient (typically a cymbal or drum) while another instrument is used to accompany them. This practice is known as “creative music therapy.” Music is a tool used in the improvisational process to aid in expressing one’s ideas.

  • The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM)

Classical music is used in this kind of treatment to arouse the imagination. When you listen to music, you describe your emotions, memories, and pictures this way.

  • Vocal Psychotherapy

It’s an exercise that aids connection with your feelings and impulses via various vocal, natural sound exercises and breathing methods. This exercise is designed to help you feel more connected to yourself.

Benefits of Music Therapy for Teens

The use of music may enhance recovery from adolescence. They may create a strong sense of self by focusing on what they want to become rather than what they have already done. Students who participate in music therapy may also find a new passion or talent for music that they want to cultivate. 

Teenagers can utilize music therapy to deal with the triggers that lead them to use illicit substances in the first place. Here are some of the advantages of taking part in a music therapy program for adolescents:

  • Reduce Teen Stress by Teaching Them to Remain Calm and Cool

Teenagers turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with their high levels of stress. Even if it is important, the recuperation phase is not always simple. Addiction and withdrawal symptoms may cause stress in teenagers throughout the rehabilitation process. Listening to music may help alleviate tension and allow kids to concentrate their attention on staying calm.

  • Getting Started with Meditation

Meditation and mindfulness are two of the best ways to stay sober. Teenagers who want to quit using drugs or alcohol will find that activities like meditation require them to be deliberate in their behavior. The use of music in conjunction with meditation may help soothe adolescent spirits.

  • Reduce Feelings of Loneliness

During the early stages of recovery, many youth experience feelings of isolation. Anxiety and despair may leave teenagers feeling alone. In the absence of family and friends, teenagers require a sense of belonging. Music therapy may help a teen make new acquaintances that aid their rehabilitation. Various musical activities, such as songwriting and playing instruments, are available to teens who want to become involved. These exercises help teenagers work together to achieve a shared objective.

  • Enhance Mood and Prevent Boredom

The road to recovery is not an easy one. An overwhelming experience is confronting, and coping with triggers is even more difficult. When teenagers look for something to occupy their time, they are more likely to turn to drugs or engage in other risky activities. Listening to, making, and understanding music may help them feel better about themselves and their lives.

  • Emotional Control

It’s not always simple for teenagers to communicate their feelings. Some may use drugs and alcohol to cope and remain silent. In the case of others, they may lash out or damage themselves due to their frustrations. Music therapy is a terrific approach for teenagers to learn how to express themselves. They will create and perform music in a therapeutic program to convey their innermost emotions.

 

How Music Therapy for Teens Works

Music has a profound effect on the human brain. The brain processes all parts of music, including pitch, melody, and tempo, in various ways. For example, the cerebellum manages rhythm, the frontal lobes decipher the emotional information sent by music, and a little fraction of the right temporal lobe aids with pitch perception.

The nucleus accumbens ( the brain’s reward center) may even cause intense physical symptoms of satisfaction like goosebumps when it hears great music.

Teenagers with mental health issues may benefit from music therapy by harnessing the body’s powerful emotional and physical responses to it. Moreover, an expert must be involved in the whole process for the best results. If you’re interested in finding out if your teenager would benefit from music therapy in Southern California, reach out to Hillside Horizon for Teens today! We have advisors ready to walk you through every necessary step to get the most out of treatment.