An introduction to music therapy: Interview with a Local Music Therapist

According to the American Music Therapy Association, music therapy can help with physical rehabilitation and facilitating movement, increasing people's motivation to become engaged in their treatment, providing emotional support for clients and their families, and providing an outlet for expression of feelings.

Specifically, music therapy is the use of music to reach a non-musical goal, whether it is physical, mental, or cognitive health. As a type of therapy that is both accessible and growing in popularity, it is becoming an increasingly effective way to improve people’s lives. To better understand this field, I interviewed Jillian Gawricki, whose expertise and passion provide a deeper insight into the world of music therapy.

Jillian Gawricki is a board-certified music therapist with her bachelor’s degree in music therapy and master’s in psychotherapy, both from State University of New York. She also has a supplemental certification in vocal psychotherapy, which she studied 3 years for under Dr. Diane Austin. She works with a wide audience, from infants in the NICU, individuals (of any age) with intellectual and development disabilities, and the older adult population suffering with memory disorders like dementia, Alzheimer's, etc. Her exposure to different age groups and different difficulties allow her to be flexible and creative in her work, designing music-based methods tailored to each individual’s physical, mental, or cognitive needs. Beyond her professional skills, she is strongly passionate about music, playing five instruments and using music therapy herself to manage anxiety. Mrs. Gawricki has been working with the Thrive Network in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey for the past five years. With her knowledge, Mrs. Gawricki allowed me to ask her various questions about music therapy, contributing a unique perspective of the impact of music therapy.

Personal connection:

Q: What inspired you to become a music therapist?

A: I’ve always been a vocalist since I was little, and I also played the French horn. I think I have always been inclined to help people, and one day, when I volunteered at CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) in high school, I was able to work with a young lady who had down syndrome. She was having difficulty retaining the prayers, and since I was the kind of kid to sing anything that came to my brain, being in musical theater, I started singing the prayer lines a little bit, and she sung them back to me. I thought that was pretty interesting, so I taught her Hail Mary that way, and when her mom came to pick her up I told her about what her daughter had learned and the mom started tearing up. I realized there had to be some type of correlation behind this, that this cannot be a fluke, so I started looking into this more. Mind you, at the time I wanted to be a music teacher, so when I saw that a music therapist was a career and that they worked with individuals with intellectual development disabilities I felt that this career made more sense. This is what jumpstarted me into becoming a music therapist.

Q: How would you explain music therapy to someone who’s never heard of it before?

A: In school they have us go over this, mainly because we have a lot of people come up to us and claim they are music therapists or use music therapeutically, and they do not realize they are using it inappropriately. Essentially, music therapy is using music with somebody to reach a non-musical goal, and the person facilitating it has training to safely do that with them. An unsafe example would be a person saying a certain song should make someone feel “happy” because of its upbeat tempo/lyrics. Even if the song itself is a feel-good song, if a client comes in with PTSD, maybe from a car crash where a loved one died, and the song was on the radio when this occurred. It could trigger a bad memory, making the client more upset. A music therapist would put 2-on-2 together and realize this song is not a good fit for this person, but someone that does not have the extensive knowledge a therapist has may ignore this or feel that it is just music. Music is not “just” music however, it is more than that. To guarantee to be as safe as possible as a music therapist, you get to know your client using a process called building rapport. You start with an intake, introducing yourself and discussing the clients’ strengths, how they view themselves, and their main problem. You get to know them better as a person, and then you can ask them if there are any songs that I should be cautious of. They might say no, and then as time goes on I can notice their body language as I play a certain song, and then I acknowledge this and the client and I will discuss this. It really is just learning the client.

Q: What role does music play in your own life outside of therapy (your personal connection to music, not just as a profession)?

A: I am a big musical girl. Music is a way to help me to relax, and I am a singer. I actually have two bachelor degrees, one in vocal performance. Singing is good for your blood pressure, so when I am feeling incredibly anxious I sing. I used to, in the past, do local shops, but after moving down to Jersey I haven’t been doing that. I also go to live concerts all the time, they are my jam. Something about being with people and so connected singing the same song feels so good.

Q: I understand that you play five instruments (guitar, piano, ukulele, percussion, and French horn), and sing. What do you find calming to play and why?

A: I find my voice the most calming to play because it is the easiest for me to do. A lot of people do not find singing to be calming, especially in front of others, but for me that is mine. The one I find the most stressful, however, is the piano because, since my hands are smaller, it is difficult to play four-fingered chords. I generally have to compromise with the chords, which make me feel overwhelmed.

Follow up: Which ones do the clients like the most?

A: The guitar, they love it. I believe it is a sensory thing, as I work a lot with clients struggling with PTSD and resource homes, and things of that nature have a lot to do with sensory needs. Most people do not know that until you work with it. The guitar, being very tactile (strum your fingers on the strings) and accessible, makes the clients feel like they are with you. That is just my theory though.

Scientific Insight

Q: What happens in the brain when somebody listens or creates music?

A: I love this question. There have been several studies about this, but the simplest answer I can give you is that there is an area of grey matter in our brain that connects both hemispheres of our brain. They found that this area reacts to music, it has been shown from several MRI machines. A good example of this is the opera singer Renee Fleming, they did an entire study on her where she sang some of her pieces under an MRI machine, and they found all areas of her brain were lighting up. Not just the speech part, it was the motor part, the memory part. I am using the lamix terms for this to be more accessible but all these areas were lighting up. So, they can translate this to people who have TBI (Traumatic Brain Injuries) and help them in situations like regaining motor skills, speech, cognitive function, etc. A good example of this is Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head which led to a delay in her speech and a split brain surgery. A music therapist did a type of rhythm exercise with her, and she was able to bridge the two parts of her brain because of the brain matter.

Follow up: How does the brain response translate into changes into one’s mood?

A: It definitely affects your hormones. The hippocampus, the front part of your brain which is responsible for regulating your hormones, gets stimulated from music. From this, your brain releases hormones like dopamine, cortisol, etc, whatever hormone relates to your emotion. For example, when you are sad it is natural that you want to listen to sad music because your body needs to release the sad emotion.

Q: How do elements of music like rhythm, melody, and tempo influence the body?

A: It is kind of similar to what I was saying before, it helps activate different parts like the motor cortex and brain stem. I remember one internship I had at the Manhattan Children’s Center in New York, and I was able to see how music can help with fine and gross motor skills. Fine motor skills are smaller, precise ones in smaller muscles like in the fingers, while gross motor skills are regarding larger muscle groups doing coordinated movements. There are some kids and adults that have issues with these, so music can help connect the brain and strengthen all these core muscles. Basically, it activates so much in your brain that you are working on all of these.

We also use tempos for different goals in music therapy. Sometimes I use it for attentiveness, so for some kids with ADHD or on the Autism Spectrum, I will use songs with changing tempos and they have to focus on the tempos. It is fun for the clients, but they are also learning skills that they can use when they have to do a task. I generally do not use only fast or slow tempos, but  the only time I would use only a slow tempo would be for infants in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit, for babies born prematurely). They use a lot of different methods to work on suckling, and they use very slow, lullaby-like music to do so. It is very adorable, you have to see this.”

Q: Can all of this have the potential to alter brain chemistry in situations like anxiety and depression?

A: Yes, it totally does. I have had many clients express how they feel during their termination (last) session, and they have consistently improved tremendously, saying they are giving themselves permission to exist again, they feel more connected to themselves and things are brighter. It is hard to tell without any scientific measuring, but it is something I have observed, which I can confirm has changed.

Application

Q: What type of goals do you work on with clients (cognitive, mental, physical)?

A: As it is already established, we do work on cognitive (fine and gross motor skills) and mental goals, but we can also use music to reach physical goals. Going back to the NICU babies, they’ve made methods using music to help with heart rate and suckling, speeding up how long they are in the hospital for. Also, there are music therapy studies for increasing respiratory rate, as well as blood pressure, heart conditions, and traumatic brain injuries. They have done wonders for the developmental and intellectual community for autism spectrum disorder. I have seen such a turn around for those kids, where they went from maybe 5 words spoken to 50 words. I think that music therapy can be a wonderful, wonderful thing if used properly and done by a board-certified music therapist.

Q: I understand you have worked with all types of clients (nursing homes, children, adults, etc). How do your approaches differ depending on who you are with (genres of music, instruments, etc)?

A: It depends on the population, it depends on the client. We can work on anything from regulation (calming the body and being mindful of your space), to increasing self-esteem, increasing stress tolerance, to self expression (how much are you talking about yourself and how are you efficiently expressing your emotions). There are four different types of music therapy: recreative (recreating a song), improvisational (improvising a song), receptive (listening to music), and compositional (playing music that is already there). You will generally use one of these methods and go from there. It is a big question, so I hope this answers it.”

Q: What does a typical session look like?

A: If it is an individual session, I have the piano set up in the corner and the guitar/ukulele already tuned. I usually have a few percussive instruments sitting around. I check in with the client, asking them how they are doing, and then I allow them to guide and I go with them. A group session, however, has a lot more people so it has to be more structured. Usually I will have a lot of instruments in the middle of the room, and I start with a greeting song, then get into the meat of the session, and finally an ending song.

Q: What type of music is most calming to play during a music therapy session?

A: This is a difficult question because everyone has different preferred music. Remember the car crash analogy I used before, it is the same with music: everybody has different calming music. For anybody interested in music therapy, I would tell them “what calms you down?”. What calms you down probably is not what calms down. For example, my mom finds country music calming, while I find metal calming. If anybody is interested in music therapy, I would tell them to find any music they need at the moment and put that into a playlist.

Closing

Jillian Gawricki's journey shows that music therapy is more than playing notes, it is about connecting with people to understand their stories and help them heal. From singing prayers in high school to guiding adults with memory disorders, she has seen how music can trigger emotions and improve physical abilities. By combining her passion for music with therapeutic training, Mrs. Gawricki creates sessions that are meaningful and transformative. In general, she proves that music is not just a “catchy tune,” it is a tool for growth and connection.