Music Therapy and the Military

February 18, 2014

The article discusses the recent announcement that a music therapy program would be created at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which is the first point of care in the U.S. for the wounded, ill and injured from global conflicts. The opinion piece written by Ronna Kaplan M.A., past President of the Music Therapy Association, provides interesting background on the use of music therapy on veterans. The practice "began after World Wars I and II, when community musicians performed in veterans' hospitals and medical professionals noticed patients' positive and emotional responses to music." By 1995, therapists were using drumming with Vietnam veterans diagnosed with PTSD as "[m]usic therapy utilizing improvisation on hand drums helped veterans modulate their 'often misdirected, exaggerated, and unrecognized emotions,' with the goal being generalization of these skills to everyday life. Drumming provided an opportunity for the men to express and control their feelings and helped build a sense of connectedness and group mission." Read the article here.

Ronna Kaplan M.A., Music Therapy and the Military, The Huffington Post, Jan. 2, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronna-kaplan-ma/veterans-music-therapy_b_2361076.html.