What is Neurologic Music Therapy?
An evidence-based approach to therapy using the power of music.
NMT is a research-based system of standardized clinical techniques. It uses music and rhythm to stimulate the brain and help retrain sensorimotor, speech/language, and cognitive functions. It's a highly structured approach aimed at achieving specific, non-musical therapeutic goals.
While traditional music therapy has broad psychosocial, emotional, and cognitive goals, NMT is specifically focused on functional outcomes based on neuroscience. NMT techniques are standardized and replicable, directly targeting brain functions related to movement, speech, and cognition.
NMT leverages the brain's innate response to music. For example, the auditory system has a deep connection to the motor system. A therapist can use a strong, predictable rhythm to prime the motor system, helping a person with Parkinson's Disease improve their walking pattern and stride length.
Neurologic Music Therapy is an evidence-based treatment system that uses standardized, research-based techniques to treat the brain using specific elements of music such as rhythm, melody, dynamics, tempo, etc. The Neurologic Music Therapist is a stimulus specialist who is trained in the neuroscience of music perception, music production/creation, and music cognition. The Neurologic Music Therapist uses standardized techniques to address non-musical goals such as speech, physical movement, cognition and other functional abilities. The therapist focuses on the music as therapy, emphasizing specific elements of music in the construction of therapeutic exercises as research so indicates, in order to optimize function and/or reroute neuropathways to achieve functionality.