What is the Difference Between Music Therapy and Sound Therapy?

This is the All Time Question Isn’t it?

Where each person you ask may give you a different answer.  But as a Musician who is trained in Sound Healing, Sound Therapy, Sound Medicine and traditional Music Therapy, I feel that I can provide a most accurate and unbiased answer.

Music Therapy is a clinical intervention involving therapeutic use of musical composition, songwriting and/or song with music played live with classical or traditional instruments, by an accomplished Musician who is trained in music therapy. The goal of music therapy is to improve the emotional state of the individual by choosing and playing the right kind of music, songwriting and song to achieve the desired outcome.

The majority of Music Therapists work alongside mental health professionals from whom they receive referrals for special needs clients.  Music Therapists will travel from place to place with their instruments to play music at various institutional and/or community settings. Typically Music Therapy is conducted in groups but may also be conducted individually one on one if a person’s special needs requires it.

So if you are an accomplished musician, wishing to play, sing and write songs and musical composition as a therapeutic intervention, professional study in a Master of Music Therapy may be what you are looking for.

Sound Healing/ Sound Therapy is an Energy medicine and recognised Complementary Therapy where the practitioner uses a variety of instruments to create relaxing sounds in a certain manner for relaxation and meditation, working on all energetic and physical levels of the mind and body to clear energy blockages and balance energy flow for stress reduction and self-healing on a cellular level.

Sound Healing/Sound Therapy may or may not include the use of vocal toning of certain sounds, words or mantras but doesn’t include singing songs.  Sound Healing/Sound Therapy is based the sound frequencies of the instruments played in a meditative style either on or off the body, to produce homeostasis in all body systems.

Sound Healers/Sound Therapists are generally self employed and work in their own or are affiliated with a natural health clinic.

If your goal is to learn to work intuitively with the energy of sound in order to assist people to heal on all levels of mind, body and spirit, and you would like to either setup your own clinical practice, work in groups, or add to your existing natural and complementary therapy offerings, professional study in either of our Diplomas and/or our Advanced Diploma of Therapeutic Sound Medicine will be perfect for you!

There has never been a better time to commence your journey with Therapeutic Sound Medicine at Pythagoras Institute of Sound & Vibrational Healing!