Another critical area that music therapy benefits the healthcare system is in patient satisfaction. Patients who receive music therapy rate their satisfaction an average of 3.4 points higher than patients who don’t receive music therapy (Gooding, 2014). For more specific information on cost-benefits, treatments, and outcomes in more settings with multiple populations, music therapy research articles can be accessed through PubMED, Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives, and other peer-reviewed journals.

Throughout my career thus far, I have worked in outpatient hospitals, home health, and schools, though most of my time is spent in patients’ homes. Due to the nature of home health, I develop long-term relationships, strong rapport, and collaboration with all my patients and their families, as well as other members on their treatment team. My services serve as a constant in their lives and a safe space for them to express their autonomy while also furthering their goals and improving their quality of life. Most of my personal caseload comes from a disability waiver through Medicaid and thus I work with disabled and neurodivergent patients in all stages of life.

Many of my clients have been on my caseload for years, some even since I first started in January 2022. One such patient, pseudonym “E”, was referred to me through the CLASS waiver and eventually stayed on my caseload through private pay after leaving the waiver program. “E” has GLASS syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that results in various levels of cognitive, speech, motor, behavioral, and emotional needs. She has also been diagnosed with secondary conditions such as aphasia, autism, cerebellar initiation interference, and generalized anxiety disorder. In addition to music therapy, she previously received recreation therapy and speech therapy, and she currently receives occupational therapy, equine-assisted therapy, medication therapy, and case management with a social worker. We have addressed a plethora of skills together, including fine motor isolation and control, acquiring new and strengthening pre-existing communication systems (such as American Sign Language, ProloQuo, verbal speech, and typing), autobiographical recollection, pattern recognition and recall, identifying emotions and perspective taking, increasing self-confidence, holding reciprocal conversations, orienting to time and place, making phone calls, and many other goals to improve her overall quality of life and mental health. One of her favorite interventions in our sessions is the news song, where we take turns showing a picture from our week, asking and answering questions about when, where, who, what, and why, describing the image using at least four adjectives, and finally identifying one emotion and engaging in a perspective-taking exercise involving making inferences and abstract reasoning.