Music therapy for posttraumatic stress in adults: A theoretical review.
Open accessAbstract
Music therapy has been employed as a therapeutic intervention to facilitate healing across a variety of clinical populations. There is theoretical and empirical evidence to suggest that individuals with trauma exposure and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a condition characterized by enduring symptoms of distressing memory intrusions, avoidance, emotional disturbance, and hyperarousal, may derive benefits from music therapy. The current narrative review describes the practice of music therapy and presents a theoretically-informed assessment and model of music therapy as a tool for addressing symptoms of PTSD. The review also presents key empirical studies that support the theoretical assessment. Social, cognitive, and neurobiological mechanisms (e.g., community building, emotion regulation, increased pleasure, anxiety reduction) that promote music therapy's efficacy as an adjunctive treatment for individuals with posttraumatic stress are discussed. It is concluded that music therapy may be a useful therapeutic tool to reduce symptoms and improve functioning among individuals with trauma exposure and PTSD, though more rigorous empirical study is required. In addition, music therapy may help foster resilience and engage individuals who struggle with stigma associated with seeking professional help. Practical recommendations for incorporating music therapy into clinical practice are offered along with several suggestions for future research.
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Specific therapeutic factors in music therapy include the physical act of music making and the safe and structuring nature of music itself including the use of tone, tempo, and alternating rhythms.
“The specific therapeutic factors in music therapy include the physical act of music making (Landis-Shack et al., 2017) and the safe and structuring (Robb, 2000) nature of music itself including the use of tone, tempo, and alternating rhythms (Ansdell et al., 2010; De Witte et al., 2020a,b,c).”
From From Therapeutic Factors to Mechanisms of Change in the Creative Arts Therapies: A Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as Landis-Shack et al., 2017
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Music therapy for stress reduction: a systematic review and meta-analysis
de Witte, M., Pinho, A. D. S., Stams, G.-J., Moonen, X., Bos, A. E. R., & van Hooren, S. (2022) · Health Psychology Review · doi:10.1080/17437199.2020.1846580 · Cited by 444 · see citing works
From Therapeutic Factors to Mechanisms of Change in the Creative Arts Therapies: A Scoping Review
de Witte, M., Orkibi, H., Zarate, R., Karkou, V., Sajnani, N., Malhotra, B., Ho, R. T. H., Kaimal, G., Baker, F. A., & Koch, S. C. (2021) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.678397 · Cited by 314 · see citing works
“Specific Factors of MT The specific therapeutic factors in music therapy include the physical act of music making (Landis-Shack et al., 2017) and the safe and structuring (Robb, 2000) nature of music itself including the use of tone, tempo, and alternating rhythms (Ansdell et al.”
Background
- Authors
- Landis-Shack, N., Heinz, A. J., & Bonn-Miller, M. O.
- Affiliations
- VA Palo Alto Health Care System (US)
- ORCID
- Heinz, Adrienne J.
- Venue
- Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain
- Published
- 2017-12
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 334-342
- ISSN
- 0275-3987 (ISSN-L)
- 2162-1535
- PMC
- PMC5744879
- OpenAlex
- W2760144879
- Cited by
- 144
- References
- 63
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 3
- FWCI
- 8.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychomusicology Music Mind and Brain (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- VA Rehabilitation Research and Development
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Music Therapy and Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Education › Music Education and Analysis
- Keywords
- music therapy, post-traumatic stress disorder, trauma exposure, emotion regulation, neurobiological mechanisms, community building, anxiety reduction, resilience, stigma, adjunctive therapy, music therapy models
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