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I would love to be a music therapist and specialize with childern because I want to be able to help them and see them grow. Music can help develop and has amazing effects on the brain at any age!

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J oanna Bereaud rolled her cart down the hospital hallway. A patient was waiting for her treatment - delivered by maraca and drum.

Bereaud, a music therapist at Boston Children's Hospital, carries a guitar on her back and more instruments in her cart: xylophones, an ocean drum, a rain stick, metal chimes, a kid-sized tambourine.

In her 15 years there, her quiver of instruments has grown, and so has her role in the hospital. Music therapists, once marginalized as volunteers, are now on staff, helping with a wide range of tasks: They show up at scary needle-prickings and before big surgeries; they help kids speak, regulate their walking gait, and even go to the bathroom; they sing with families as they prepare for a child to die.

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The profession has grown at Children's, and across the country, too. There are now 6,000 credentialed music therapists practicing in the US, 15 percent of whom work in medical or surgical settings, according to the American Music Therapy Association.

Music therapy in children's hospitals has grown over the past decade, particularly in the neonatal intensive care unit, said association spokesman Al Bumanis. Research has shown music therapy helps patients in a range of settings, including reducing preoperative anxiety, improving motor control, and helping premature babies develop.

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Children's started its program in 1996 with just four hours a week of music therapy by students at Berklee College of Music. Now four certified staff work 130 hours per week in the Longwood Medical Area hospital and its satellite sites.

Bereaud, 44, has a bachelor's in music therapy from Berklee. Her path to the profession was deeply personal: She grew up in Poland with a twin brother, Karol, who had cerebral palsy. He had trouble speaking whole sentences, but when her family played music, the rhyme and rhythm helped him memorize verses and sing along, she said.

"I saw how music was such a link between his disability and being able to express himself," Bereaud said. Karol, who died at 14, inspired her to use music to help other kids like him.

When Bereaud started working at Children's as a Berklee student, music therapy was restricted to just one type of patient, those awaiting bone marrow transplants. Now any patient can request music therapy. With support from an outside grant, she and other staff treated 9,000 patients and families in 2015, according to the hospital.

Music therapists have become more integrated into medical teams: After the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, for instance, Bereaud was called in to play keyboard and sing songs while a young survivor had dressing changes to remove metal shards from her body.

David L Ryan/Globe Staff Photo

Bereaud specializes in working with younger patients, including babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, where she helps parents compose songs to sing to their kids. Even when the child is sedated or can't yet talk, she said, she can often see the melodies' soothing effect: On the hospital monitors, their heart rates and breathing regulate.

The songs also help calm families, she said. Using an iPad, she has beamed in relatives from as far away as Ireland to join the music.

One recent afternoon found Bereaud rolling down the hallway with her cart to see 2-year-old Ana Miranda. Ana has a rare immune disease and is awaiting a bone marrow transplant, said her mother, Maria Miranda.

Ana, whose first language is Portuguese, struggles to speak English. Bereaud's job, besides bringing some cheer to the sanitized hospital environment, was to help Ana communicate with hand gestures and words.

That job was made more difficult by hospital protocols: To avoid passing germs to Ana, Bereaud had to enter the room wearing gloves and a mask. So Ana couldn't see her lips as she modeled words.

Ana, hesitant at first, started whacking a large ocean drum with two tiny maracas. As Bereaud strummed a guitar and sang, Ana began to repeat phrases like "more music" and "I like to drum." By the end of the lesson, she was pelting out a drum solo and squealing with joy.

"She has a very small vocabulary," Miranda said, "but she has such a way to communicate with music."

Bereaud was one of two music therapists on duty that day. Elsewhere in the hospital, Dana Osterling, who also earned a music therapy bachelor's at Berklee, moved through the halls with a guitar looking for someone to make music with. After a few dead-ends - her patients' rooms had signs that said, "I'm sleeping" - she opened the door of a patient she didn't know.

Sean Bowler, who's 20, had arrived at the hospital for spinal fusion surgery. He sat back in a chair with his feet up, his head immobilized by a brace.

"Do you have any songs you'd like to sing?" asked Osterling, pulling out her guitar. She didn't know his favorite country song, but the two found common ground with a made-up song about shaking, aimed at getting Bowler to participate on the tambourine. Bowler tapped his foot as he shook along to the song.

Nine out of 10 music therapy visits at Children's look something like that - one-on-one visits to the bedside. The musicians often improvise songs, matching the rhythm of the patient's tapping, or weaving in their names and their families' names.

In her two years on the job, Osterling has fielded some unusual requests: Once, a parent called her to help her kid urinate before a surgery. She wrote a song that went like this: "I gotta go to the potty, I gotta go to the potty ... and listen to it flushhh." The song worked: Music helps the body relax, Bereaud explained.

Osterling, who's 27, has also been called to the bedside for one of the most difficult tasks: helping a family say goodbye to a dying child.

One such patient, 12 years old, had been off of treatment for a long time, Osterling recalled. When the girl's twin sister came to the hospital to say a final goodbye, the family asked Osterling to join the family in song.

Osterling led them in a rendition of Katy Perry's "Roar."

"It was a really beautiful moment," Osterling said.

Pulse of Longwood takes you inside one of the nation's largest hubs of hospitals and biomedical research.

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Music therapists, once marginalized, come into the mainstream at children's hospitals

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J oanna Bereaud rolled her cart down the hospital hallway. A patient was waiting for her treatment - delivered by maraca and drum. Bereaud, a music therapist at Boston Children's Hospital, carries a guitar on her back and more instruments in her cart: xylophones, an ocean drum, a rain stick, metal chimes, a kid-sized tambourine.

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Music therapists are highly trained, board-certified practitioners who work with a wide variety of individuals to help manage pain, reduce stress, express emotion, enhance memory, improve communication, and promote physical rehabilitation. Their patients include those with developmental disorders, mental health disorders, neurological conditions, trauma, and other medical needs.

Aspiring music therapists are required to complete an internship at a site that meets the standards of the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), and must take a board certification exam in order to practice music therapy.

Working alone or alongside peers in other therapeutic specialties, music therapists assess their patients, establish individual goals to pursue, and then design music-based interventions to meet those goals. Depending on the treatment goals and their clients' particular needs, a session might involve creating, improvising, listening to, and/or performing music. In addition to any specialty instruments, music therapists are expected to play guitar, piano, and hand percussion at a high level, and to be well-versed in a wide variety of musical styles and genres, all of which can be helpful in treatment.

At a Glance

Most aspiring music therapists start by earning an undergraduate degree in music therapy. As part of the degree, music therapy students complete 1,200 hours of clinical training with a variety of populations, including a specialized internship at a site that meets the standards of the American Music Therapy Association. After graduating, they take a certification exam-administered by the Certification Board for Music Therapists, or the CBMT-to earn the credentials necessary to practice professionally.

In order to advance within the field, music therapists must continue professional development in the forms of clinical supervision, continuing-education credits, and advanced certifications. Today, more and more music therapists are seeking graduate degrees in music therapy, which open up opportunities in advanced clinical training, research, and academia. Music therapists may also incorporate other art forms into their practice, becoming creative arts therapists or expressive arts therapists.

Music therapists are employed in a wide variety of settings, including medical, mental health, hospice, rehabilitation, educational, and correctional facilities. Additionally, they may be employed in nursing homes, community centers, nonprofits, private practices, and independent music therapy companies.

The world of music therapy is growing rapidly. Music therapists are advised to network within their field through alumni groups and industry organizations such as the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), as well as by attending national and regional conferences.

Clinical musicianship on guitar, piano, percussion, and voice

Songwriting

Arranging

Client assessment

Establishing therapeutic relationships

Treatment planning

Research

Foundations in music (theory, history, and conducting)

This is a field where strong interpersonal skills are vital. The best music therapists are exceptionally perceptive when assessing a patient's needs and designing creative music-based experiences. This job also often requires high levels of empathy, emotional openness, and self-care. More than anything, a genuine desire to help others empower themselves through music is a fundamental quality for a music therapist.

Music therapists work different hours depending on their employment situation. A music therapist who works for a school may observe traditional daytime business hours, while one who works at a hospital, private practice, or community center may have a less consistent schedule. In rare cases, travel may be required.

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Music therapists are highly trained, board-certified practitioners who work with a wide variety of individuals to help manage pain, reduce stress, express emotion, enhance memory, improve communication, and promote physical rehabilitation. Their patients include those with developmental disorders, mental health disorders, neurological conditions, trauma, and other medical needs.

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A little more about what a music therapist is, how to become one, and what a music therapy porgram is!

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A little more about what a music therapist is, how to become one, and what a music therapy porgram is!

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A familiar song from the past can evoke distant memories. Because of this, people struggling with Alzheimer's or dementia sometimes visit music therapists, who can help them recall significant moments and rediscover their sense of identity.

Through music therapy, people can also practice cognitive and communication skills, counteract feelings of loneliness or powerlessness and improve their mood.

Music therapists are both skilled musicians and trained health care providers, and their job is to promote healing via musical experiences. They can use rhythm as a tool to instruct people with mobility impairments on how to walk at a safe and steady pace, and they can show people who have lost the ability to speak due to an illness or injury how to talk again through singing instruction.

The profession of music therapy requires a bachelor's degree at minimum, but music therapists often have graduate degrees. If you're contemplating a career in music therapy, here are some things you need to know.

What Is Music Therapy and Who Do Music Therapists Help?

Music therapy is an evidence-based clinical field that capitalizes on the positive ways music can influence the human mind.

"When your brain is exposed to music as a human, it activates the parts of your brain that are responsible for movement, language, attention, memory, emotion (and) executive function," says Brian Harris, CEO of MEDRhythms, a Maine-based music therapy company that specializes in treating neurological disorders. "It actually engages your brain unlike any other stimulus on earth."

Music therapists can address a wide array of health conditions, ranging from addiction problems to infant feeding difficulties to developmental disabilities, and they frequently comfort patients in pain. Music therapists can also sometimes gauge the level of awareness among patients who are comatose or semiconscious by observing the extent to which patients respond to certain songs, and they may also attempt to awaken such patients.

"Because music is a powerful stimulus, it can be used broadly across the board in health care, from mental health to end-of-life or hospice care," Harris says.

How to Start a Career as a Music Therapist

Most people who pursue an education in music therapy already have multiple years of experience honing their musical performance abilities.

"Keep practicing," says Joy Allen, chair of the music therapy department at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. "First and foremost, music therapists are musicians."

Potential music therapists should gain familiarity with multiple genres and styles of music, and they should learn how to play a variety of instruments, Allen says. Because music therapists typically play guitar and piano and often sing, anyone who intends to enter the music therapy field should learn those skills, she suggests.

To provide music therapy independently in the U.S., without guidance from an experienced music therapist, a person must fulfill the following requirements:

Complete specialized coursework in music therapy at the undergraduate level or higher from a music therapy program approved by the American Music Therapy Association. The association provides a directory of approved music therapy schools on its website.

Earn a bachelor's degree or better in music therapy or a directly related field, such as psychology.

Receive 1,200 hours of clinical training, including a supervised internship.

Pass a national board certification exam administered by the Certification Board for Music Therapists.

Fulfill any special requirements that apply within the state where delivering therapy. In some places, music therapists must officially register with state authorities, obtain a state-specific certification or qualify for a state license.

What You Learn in a Music Therapy Program

Bachelor's degrees in music therapy typically include coursework in musical foundations, such as music arrangement, composition, history and theory, plus clinical foundations classes in psychology and therapy. There is also usually an extensive music therapy curriculum, in addition to general education courses.

Master's or doctoral music therapy programs build on the lessons learned at the undergraduate level, and such programs are designed to increase a musical therapist's clinical skills and leadership abilities.

According to Allen, one way to judge the quality of a music therapy program is to find out how many and what types of clinical opportunities it offers. A solid music therapy program will teach students about diverse music styles and genres, and "the values and beliefs about music, health, and wellbeing from various cultural perspectives," she wrote in an email. It will also include instruction about the use of music therapy technologies such as electronic instruments and telehealth, she says.

Music Therapy Jobs and Salaries

The median salary among U.S. music therapists in 2021 was $59,500, and employment within the field is likely to be 10% to 15% higher in 2030 than it was in 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET occupational directory.

The first degree programs in music therapy in the U.S. were established in the 1940s.

Amy Marroquin, a senior music therapist with TIRR Memorial Hermann hospital in Houston - the No. 2 rehabilitation hospital in the U.S. News national hospital rankings - recalls that decades ago, when she informed her parents that she wanted to be a music therapist, they told her they didn't know about that occupation.

Marroquin says the music therapy profession has more visibility now than when she started her career, but music therapists still often have to explain what they do and justify its value. "Be prepared to have to, at some point in your career, stand up for your career and stand up for music therapy," she says.

Music therapy can be particularly helpful for clients who aren't chatty or who are unreceptive to talk therapy, since clients can choose to play an instrument instead of using words, experts say.

"It's a medium that is nonverbal, so someone can engage in music without having to speak necessarily, and that can help people to express feelings," says Jane Creagan, director of professional programs at the American Music Therapy Association. "Also, music is generally enjoyable and nonthreatening. People tend to engage in music making more readily than they would in something else."

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A familiar song from the past can evoke distant memories. Because of this, people struggling with Alzheimer's or dementia sometimes visit music therapists, who can help them recall significant moments and rediscover their sense of identity. Through music therapy, people can also practice cognitive and communication skills, counteract feelings of loneliness or powerlessness and improve their mood.

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A college I am interested in: Illinois State University, they have a great music and psychology program I have heard. 

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A college I am interested in: Illinois State University, they have a great music and psychology program I have heard. 

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The Illinois State Redbirds are the athletic teams that represent Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. Teams play at the NCAA Division I level ( FCS in football). The football team competes in the Missouri Valley Football Conference while most other teams compete in the Missouri Valley Conference.