When I tell people that I’m a music therapist, I usually get a really enthusiastic response followed by a puzzled look and a question, “what is music therapy?”. Music therapy is such a broad field that it’s really impossible to explain everything it is within just a few minutes.

However, here at KidLinks the great thing is we can narrow down our explanation to the clients we see and how they have benefited from music therapy in their life. A lot of times with the kiddos we see, learning, development, behavioral concerns, and coping strategies are some of the goals we address in our music therapy work. As board certified music therapists, we are trained to assess each client individually and see what the most important areas are to address. We then take that assessment and create music interventions for each kiddo specifically, that is why each session may look completely different to an observer. Because music is so accessible, it can be difficult to see the difference between music therapy and traditional uses of music.

To help gain a more in-depth perspective on what is music therapy and what is not music therapy, we’ve created a graphic to address those questions. We hope this gives you a better idea of what music therapy is and how it differs from say music performances or education. If you have any further questions on what is or is not music therapy, feel free to let us know!

Sara Chigani, MA, MT-BC