Music Therapy: Why Music Is Great For Your Client


Music therapy is known for being a great way to help elderly people through depression and even improve symptoms in those with dementia. If you’re an at-home senior care provider looking for more information on music therapy, here’s what music therapy is and how you can incorporate it into your client’s care:

What is music therapy?
In very basic terms, music therapy is when music is used to improve or restore emotional, social or cognitive processing and mental and physical health. For example, the brain naturally links music to the limbic system – the part of the brain that processes emotion – so musical therapists can use songs to bring forward emotional thoughts and memories in their clients, even those with dementia.

How can we incorporate it into our day-to-day life?
Even if you aren’t a music therapist, as a provider of elderly home care services you can bring music into your client’s day-to-day activities:

    • Have your client request songs daily for you to play during other activities
    • Play music your client would have listened to as a child or young adult
    • Have your client learn to play an instrument, or if they already know how to play one, have them play music for you as often as they want
    • Take them to a musical performance during the day – sometimes coffee shops or music venues have cheap or free, low-key concerts that your client might enjoy