Music Therapy

What is music therapy?

Music therapy is a psychological intervention delivered by registered music therapists. The British Association for Music Therapy says you need not be musical to take part.

Many people first touch an instrument at their first session. It is not a music lesson.

Sound reaches some people when words cannot. The music is the conversation here, not a warm-up for one.

Sources: BAMT: music therapy overview, BAMT: music therapist, BAMT: myths debunked

How it works

The work is built on live musical interaction between you and your therapist. A wide range of styles and instruments can be used, including the voice. The music is often improvised.

Your therapist is not performing for you. Nor are you performing for them.

You might play, or listen, or sit in the quiet between. Nothing is rehearsed. Your therapist follows what you do rather than leading you through a piece.

Sources: BAMT: music therapy overview, BAMT: myths debunked

What sessions look like

Music therapy runs one to one or in a group. Like most therapy, a session usually lasts about fifty minutes.

An NHS trust running arts therapies says you need not be good at music. It adds that you need no previous experience of it.

Nobody is listening for mistakes. Some sessions are loud. Others are almost silent, and that counts too.

Sources: BAMT: music therapy overview, BACP: counselling, SABP: arts therapy

Who it might suit

It can be a good fit if you:

• Find speech hard, or have lost it
• Already turn to music when things get heavy
• Have sat through talking therapy and got nowhere
• Would rather not be asked to explain yourself
• Are looking for help for someone who cannot easily use words

The British Association for Music Therapy names people who find verbal communication difficult. It says the therapy benefits people across the whole of life.

Sources: BAMT: music therapist, BAMT: music therapy overview

Who provides it

Music therapist is a title protected in law. The Health and Care Professions Council keeps the register. Using a protected title with intent to deceive is a criminal offence.

BAMT says UK practice requires a master's course it validates. Nine training courses run across the UK.

In September 2026 the register held about 6,200 arts therapists. That count covers music, art and drama together, because the regulator does not split it.

Sources: HCPC: protected titles, HCPC: misuse of title, BAMT: training, HCPC: register summary

The evidence

Of the three creative therapies on this site, music therapy has the most research behind it.

Cochrane reviewed music therapy for depression in 2017. Its authors found that music therapy added to usual treatment seems to improve depressive symptoms. The same review says small study numbers make that hard to be sure of.

A separate Cochrane review looked at schizophrenia and pooled eighteen trials. Its authors wrote that music therapy seems to help, and that more research is needed to confirm it. They rated the evidence low to moderate quality.

That review also reported that at least twenty sessions may be needed for a clear effect. A short course may not be a fair test.

A 2022 Cochrane review of autistic people found music therapy probably improves things overall. The same review found it probably does not increase adverse events.

NICE says to consider offering arts therapies to people with psychosis. It gives the same advice for children and young people. Consider is a weaker word than offer, which NICE uses elsewhere in the same guideline.

NICE does not name music therapy in its guidance on depression. NHS Talking Therapies does not list it either, so the NHS route runs through community mental health services. An NHS trust running arts therapies says there has been little research to show conclusively that they help.

If you are weighing up a few options, our guide to the different approaches sets them side by side.

Sources: Aalbers et al. 2017, Geretsegger et al. 2017, Geretsegger et al. 2022, NICE CG178, NICE CG155, NICE NG222, NHS England: talking therapies manual, ELFT: ERA trial