Many have heard of speech, occupational and physical therapy. Most people have not heard of the expressive or creative arts therapies: music therapy, art therapy, and dance/movement therapy.
According to the American Music Therapy Association, Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program. 
The Greater Philadelphia Region is in the forefront with academic music therapy programs at Temple University, Drexel University, Immaculata University, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, and Rowan University. Universities offer Bachelors degrees and some offer Masters degrees. Temple University offers up to a Ph.D. in Music Therapy where Drexel University’s Ph.D. program includes exposure to all of the creative arts therapies.
The American Music Therapy Association states: The idea of music as a healing influence which could affect health and behavior is as least as old as the writings of Aristotle and Plato. The 20th century discipline began after World War I and World War II when community musicians of all types, both amateur and professional, went to Veterans hospitals around the country to play for the thousands of veterans suffering both physical and emotional trauma from the wars. 
The patients’ notable physical and emotional responses to music led the doctors and nurses to request the hiring of musicians by the hospitals. It was soon evident that the hospital musicians needed some prior training before entering the facility and so the demand grew for a college curriculum. The first music therapy degree program in the world, founded at Michigan State University in 1944, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1994. The American Music Therapy Association was founded in 1998 as a union of the National Association for Music Therapy and the American Association for Music Therapy.
In 2002, MusicWorks was established by Jerry O’Leary, MA, MT-BC as a music therapy service provider. Please subscribe to our blogs for new information on music therapy, to learn about the field, and the miracles that happen each and every day at MusicWorks!