Music Therapy and Mental Health | Lucia Clohessy | TEDxWCMephamHigh

We listen to music to get pumped up about something, to find personal peace, to sympathize and allow our emotions an outlet. It makes sense that music therapy would help us to heal and thrive in the most difficult times of our lives. Lucia focuses on how music today and throughout history helps mental wellness. Lucia Clohessy is a professional singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and published poet from New York City, but true harmony occurs when Lucia is using her music to help others. A graduate of the Music Therapy and Psychology program at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Lucia hopes to one day open her own mental health and substance abuse treatment facility that incorporates alternative therapies in the process of healing. Lucia is presently pursuing her certification as a Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor, and currently serves as a music therapy intern with the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Additionally, Lucia is the co-founder of The Nicky Clohessy #18 Foundation, a non-profit organization that brings awareness to the prescription drug epidemic. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

31 Comments

  1. Keep your brain healthy and young with music! "Whether you need to relax, increase your energy, improve your thinking, or just get motivated for the day, music can provide extra support when you need it the most,", according to Harvard Health.

  2. Take a -10 and add a positive 10 and balance occurs. When angered or irritated by morons, Slayer, Bad Religion or the Misfits worked for me. But when it's really time to relax, there's always my sweet Norah Jones.

  3. Amazing presentation and beautiful story. I’m studying Music Therapy at Berklee College of Music right now as well. I’m applying to medical school afterwards to be a psychiatrist. I hope to help those who have experienced trauma heal through an integrative and holistic approach, specifically emphasizing: Nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, sleep, music therapy etc. We are all in this together! It is inspiring and exciting to see other music therapists making a meaningful difference in the field!

    If you’re interested in hearing some of the meaningful music that I’ve written, my artist name is,
    “Brother Gabriel”

    I hope you all have a beautiful day.

  4. I can relate to the panic attacks and anxiety…which intensified after the passing of my friend and piano teacher. The only thing to help me get through the sadness is music. I have only begun to see how music therapy can help others, I may need to read up more on how it helps anxiety and depression.

  5. Listening to music can be enjoyable, but is it also good for your heart? Patients who suffered episodes of chest pain soon after a heart attack, known as early post-infarction angina, had significantly lower levels of anxiety and pain if they listened to music for 30 minutes a day, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC).

    Nearly 700,000 people survive a heart attack in the U.S. each year, and it is estimated that roughly 1 in 9 heart attack survivors experience subsequent episodes of chest pain and anxiety within the first 48 hours. The new research suggests music, combined with standard therapies such as medications, could be a simple, accessible measure that patients can do at home to potentially reduce these symptoms and help prevent subsequent cardiac events.

    "There have been very few studies analyzing the effects of music on heart conditions," said Predrag Mitrovic, MD, PhD, professor of cardiology at the University of Belgrade School of Medicine and the study's lead author. "Based on our findings, we believe music therapy can help all patients after a heart attack, not only patients with early post-infarction angina. It's also very easy and inexpensive to implement."

    The researchers recruited 350 patients diagnosed with heart attack and early post-infarction angina at a medical center in Serbia. Half were randomly assigned to receive standard treatment while half were assigned to regular music sessions in addition to standard treatment. For most patients, standard treatment included a variety of medications such as nitrates, aspirin, clot-preventing drugs, beta blockers, statins, calcium channel blockers, blood pressure-lowering medications and the angina-reducing drug ranolazine.

    Patients receiving music therapy first underwent a test to determine which musical genre their body was likely to respond to positively. Participants listened to nine 30-second samples of music they found soothing, while researchers assessed each participant's body for automatic, involuntary responses to the music samples based on dilation or narrowing of the pupils. Researchers then fine-tuned the selection by working with the patient to determine the optimal music tempo and tonality.

    Participants were asked to listen to their designated musical selection for 30 minutes each day whenever it was convenient for them to sit, ideally while resting with their eyes closed. Patients continued with these daily listening sessions for seven years, documenting their sessions in a log. They returned to the medical center for follow-up assessments every three months for the first year and annually thereafter.

    At the end of seven years, music therapy was found to be more effective than standard treatment alone in terms of reducing anxiety, pain sensation and pain distress. The patients with music therapy, on average,

    had anxiety scores one-third lower than those on standard treatment and reported lower angina symptoms by about one-quarter. These patients also had significantly lower rates of certain heart conditions, including an 18% reduction in the rate of heart failure; 23% lower rate of subsequent heart attack; 20% lower rate of needing coronary artery bypass graft surgery; and 16% lower rate of cardiac death.

    Mitrovic said the music may work by helping to counteract the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, the part of the nervous system that drives the "fight-or-flight" response when a person faces a stressful situation. Because it increases heart rate and blood pressure, a sympathetic response can put added strain on the cardiovascular system.

    "Unrelieved anxiety can produce an increase in sympathetic nervous system activity, leading to an increase in cardiac workload," Mitrovic said. He suggested regular sessions of listening to music could interrupt that cascade of events by reducing the anxiety associated with angina after a heart attack.

    The researchers plan to further analyze the data to determine whether music therapy may show benefits for certain subgroups of patients, such as those in a certain age range or those with other health conditions like diabetes.

  6. “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” — Nikola Tesla

    To understand anything non-physical, one needs a certain level of creativity and imagination. Frequencies are hard to see but easy to feel.

  7. Indeed …mental health related issues are one of the most prominent causes for increasing mortality across the globe. We really need to pin point the fact that even the slightest symptoms seeks attention and needs a patient ear !! Music therapy was, is and will always be a great boon to the living kind, and especially the human society. Lets also appreciate the fact that mental health issues should never be taken as social stigmas so that all of them can speak out more openly, just alike Lucia.

  8. Just love !! Said it well mental health in Ohio is very few.. 25 yrs carrying Depression on my back found Music Therapy now on my way back to a level ground where walking is peaceful again .. ty <3

  9. I am reading a course in miracles . I keep having little weird moments. I don't listen to music normally. On my drive home I put on kenny Rogers . IV come home and just been listening to what ever comes to mind . IV cried , laughed . And came to this video. it was meant to be . What an amazing young lady . You inspired me at 57 , IV just realised I love listening to music, not murder documentaries ..thank you ❤

  10. There are at least SOME people who, with AMT, would no longer need meds and THAT is wy AMT isn't so well known. It is a conspiracy of silence and I plan to do something about it.

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