18 March 13th-March 19th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | reinvent their lives with the use of music therapy — deserve to be left behind. ‘Kind of a voodoo scientist’ The most generous view of the Trump administration’s cuts to music therapy is simply that they know not what they do. Even people who become music therapists — several of whom participated in this story — didn’t understand music therapy’s scope before they began their work in the field. “People think we’re kind of a voodoo scientist,” says Maria Chase Young, a music therapist at ACCEL, an educational nonprofit that serves kids and adults at nine campuses around Arizona. “But we’re trying to change that.” Music is, at its core, a form of nonverbal communication, and as such, it can cross boundaries where words alone may fail. The godfather of music therapy in the United States was a University of Kansas psychologist named E. Thayer Gaston, who after World War II worked with veterans experiencing shellshock (what we’d now call PTSD). He was a pioneer in a field aimed at healing the brain and the self. At the time, Chase Young says, music therapy was seen as a way to “lift spirits, and make people happy and healthy in mind, body and soul” — that is, not as all that much more advanced than music alone. Yet as Thayer and other practitioners developed the field in the 1960s and beyond, they began to unlock more bene- fits. Charlotte Stewart, a music therapist and the founder of Mella Music Therapy — a practice in Mesa that treats adults with a range of neurological conditions — says the field evolved from its origins in recreation to a more robust clinical view of patients. When she designs a treatment plan, Stewart first considers her patient’s ability to function physically, emotionally and cognitively. She then designs music inter- ventions to address goals in those areas. “Music,” Stewart says, “is the prescription.” That breadth of considerations regu- larly produces a more varied treatment approach — often a cocktail of speech and physical therapy with a dash of psycho- therapy. Individual patients are just as varied. Music therapists treat children with autism or developmental delays, people with schizophrenia, people recov- ering from strokes, people who have survived abuse or injury, and people seeking palliative care. A therapy plan may involve various disciplines and approaches, but often it boils down to using music to reach afflicted patients to accomplish non-music-related goals. Stewart, for instance, previously helped a stroke victim by using his favorite songs to manage a depressive state after the patient suffered a significant loss in communication skills. Kelly Kwok, a music therapist at ACCEL in Glendale, mean- while, says she uses lesson-oriented music therapy to address a student’s needs. Suzanne Oliver, a music therapist at Neurologic Music Therapy Services of Arizona, in Phoenix, works primarily with autistic people and uses music to help them overcome “frontal sway loops, where they do repetitive things over and over again,” she says. If there’s a need, music therapy has an approach to empower patients. “An average session is establishing rapport with the person and assessing where they’re at,” Oliver says. “How do I shape music exercises and music experi- ences that’ll create a brain change in that session — but then also long-term.” She and other therapists say they grapple with the rapid “mainstreaming” of music therapy. A couple decades ago, Oliver says she had to leave Arizona to pursue music therapy because there were simply no available jobs. Today, Arizona State and University of Arizona both offer undergraduate degrees in music therapy, among 70 college programs nationwide approved by the American Music Therapy Association. As of 2024, the Certification Board for Music Therapists counts 10,511 board-certified music therapists across the United States — double the total of just 13 years ago. These professionals are finding ample evidence that music therapy works. A 2022 meta-analysis of 47 music therapy studies (published in “Health Psychology Review”) found that they showed consis- tent “medium-to-large beneficial effect on stress.” Similarly a 2017 systematic review (from “Pain Physician Journal”) of 1,178 participants showed that music therapy “reduced self-reported chronic pain and associated depressive symptoms.” The proof is there. You just have to listen for it. ‘Everything is about music now’ Lenny Henderson is one person for whom music therapy’s benefits are beyond theoretical. For the former helicopter medic, music has always been a companion — you’d often find him playing a harmonica he’s had for decades. But when he suffered a debilitating stroke several years ago, he struggled with loss of speech, of memory and of emotional control. Music therapy helped him to recover his very life. “I was blessed by God once more to be able to read, write, ride a bicycle and do many things as before,” he wrote via email. His hobbies now include crafting cigar box instruments — his way of paying music forward. Dozens of other families around Phoenix have stories like Henderson’s. Many parents have seen their lives change as their young children succeeded through music therapy. Before music therapy, Jim and Shelly Dilbeck say their son, JJ Dilbeck, was nearly kicked out of school for his aggres- sive behavior. After therapy, their son is less prone to lashing out and seems more peaceful. He now has hope that music might become a potential career path for her son. “I see him take more interest in music,” Shelly Dilbeck says. “I also see that he wants to do more. His behaviors have been really good as well, especially if it’s all about music. He gets up in the morning to music and he goes to sleep with music.” Lilly Robles, meanwhile, was unaware of music therapy even after her own sister expressed interest in a local program. But her daughter, Abby Robles, eventually enrolled in ACCEL’s program to deal with deficits in her communication and motor skills. While the child still experiences setbacks, there’s a larger success to celebrate. “I’ve seen how she’s made progress with it, and it’s definitely given her more self confidence,” Lilly Robles says. “She wants to explore different sides of music and sounds and instruments. She writes songs for her siblings now. We have five kiddos in the house, and everything is about music now.” Other children, such as Jonah Miller, use music therapy to access music itself. His parents, Gina and AJ Miller, noticed him picking out harmonies on the piano when he was just a toddler. Over time, however, he came to use the piano to pound out his frustrations, bashing keys until they broke. Music therapy brought him back around to playing with joy, giving his parents a chance to connect with him. “He is more interactive,” Gina Miller says. “He understands more of what you’re asking. It’s helping to reintroduce his love of music.” Results will vary among the kids and adults who try music therapy. Some will take to it like a wren to a ditty. Others will find it isn’t a panacea. But to cite one final example, there’s absolutely life-changing power in music. Not long after Gabby Giffords survived a gunshot to the head, the former U.S. Representative enrolled in music therapy. In a November 2011 interview with ABC, Giffords’ musical therapist, Meaghan Morrow, recounted that Giffords went from humming “Brown Eyed Girl” and “American Pie” to singing these songs outright in a few weeks. “When I first saw Gabby and I first sang the song with her,” Morrow said at the time, “I knew that things were going to get better.” ‘The music actually drives the change’ Despite the everyday and high-profile wins for their profession, therapists still spend copious time explaining the basic aspects of their practices. Sometimes Attorneys general — Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Dan Rayfield of Oregon, Raúl Torres of New Mexico and Kris Mayes of Arizona — listened to people’s concerns in Phoenix on March 5. (Kevin Hurley) A typical music therapy group session with children. (Courtesy of ACCEL) Sound Mind from p 17 >> p 20
