3437 MacArthur Rd
Whitehall, PA
18052

WLVT, channel 39 Tempo! has aired a news segment on Music Therapy Associates.
They will have a link to watch it on the computer at www.wlvt.org/tempo/infolinks2006-07.htm

Music therapy is the prescribed use of music as a tool in assisting a client to achieve non-music related goals. It is a well-established allied health modality such as physical therapy, speech therapy or occupational therapy. Music therapists utilize the unique characteristics/attributes of sound and rhythm to assist clients in attaining behavioral and educational goals. A wide variety of behavioral, social, psychological, communicative, physical, sensory motor and cognitive functioning goals can be addressed. The effectiveness of music therapy is often a result of the relationship between the music therapist and client. Additionally, music therapy also can also include adaptive music instruction. Music therapists have been trained in music, physiology, anatomy, neurology, psychology, human development, and counseling.

The idea of music as a healing influence that can affect health and behavior is at least as old as the writings of Aristotle and Plato. However, the discipline began in earnest after World War II when community musicians of all types, both amateur and professional, visited hospitals around the United States to play for the thousands of veterans suffering both physical and emotional trauma. The patients' notable physical and emotional responses to music led doctors and nurses to request the hiring of musicians by the hospitals.
 
It was soon evident that the hospital musicians needed prior training before conducting therapy in a medical facility. The demand grew for a college curriculum. The first music therapy degree program in the world was founded at Michigan State University in 1944.
 
In 1998, the American Music Therapy Association was founded as a union of the National Association for Music Therapy and the American Association for Music Therapy.