Music Therapy: Final Edit
SAN MARCOS, Texas- In an apartment in San Marcos, Tx, the ambient and mellow sounds of a guitar and a piano fill the rooms.
Not for entertainment, but to calm down the mind of the man that lives there.
Gjemar Daniels, 25, a former college football player who has gone from playing defensive tackle, to now transitioning to being a training specialist for competency and development for the Human Health Service Commission, is the man who lives here. He utilizes music therapy as a tool to help him with his mental health.
“During some of my darkest moments, music gave me words of hope when I couldn’t find any myself,” Daniels said. “Gospel songs spoke life into me, shifted my focus from my pain to God’s promises, and reminded me that I wasn’t alone, the lyrics carried truth and encouragement that helped me fight against destructive thoughts and keep pressing forward.”
Daniels, who has experienced life through the lens of grief, depression, unemployment, and suicidal thoughts has relied on music therapy to calm his mind in these different times of uncertainty.
He has faced different trials like losing his grandfather and losing his job on numerous occasions.
After graduating with his Bachelor of science in Mass Communications from Texas State University, Daniels began to deal with depression not knowing where to go now. Now having graduated and finished his football playing days, he said a piece of his identity was stripped away. Not knowing how to go forward he began to deal with depression and uncertainty which took a huge toll on his mental health.
The music therapy Daniels uses has become an increasingly popular form of therapy that has been defined as an evidence-based practice that uses music interventions to improve the health and well-being of individuals.
According to the National Cancer Institute, music therapy is a type of therapy that uses music to help improve a person’s overall health and well-being. It may include creating, singing, moving, listening, and/or relaxing to music. Music therapy may be used to help relieve stress, pain, anxiety, and depression, but music therapy is just one component in the therapeutic approach to helping people heal.
“Music therapy truly helped me by creating a space to process my emotions in a healthy way,” Daniels said. “It gave me perspective and allowed me to connect with myself and with God on a deeper level. It wasn’t just background noise. It became a lifeline that guided my thoughts, steadied my emotions, and reminded me of the hope I have in Christ.”
Music therapy has been a focal point for healing throughout his life. He pairs music therapy with his belief and trust in God, which helps him find peace.
Daniels said that music has also been a way of coping and letting out emotions when it comes to grieving.
“When I had hard times like when my grandfather died, and I lost my job music allowed me to cope in hard times because it changed my mood and helped shift my mind and my focus at that time” Daniels said.
Music can be used for different reasons, so Daniels is intentional when he chooses the sounds he allows himself to hear.
“Music always evokes some type of presence,” Daniels said. “Whether that is good or bad when I was playing football they would play heavy metal music before the game which helped and got us ready to welcome in the presence of playing football. Now if I turn on gospel music it is getting me ready to be in the presence of God. If I play jazz, country, or blues it can evoke and get me ready to be in the presence of peace or something else.”
Joshua Emmanuel, 23, another former college football player, who now works as a career coach, has also experienced different trials in his life that have caused him to turn to music therapy.
Emmanuel graduated from Texas State University with a Bachelor of Science in psychology. He also went on to use his degree and work in the field by working for a suicide hotline.
“ Working in mental health, I’ve seen music help tremendously,” Emmanuel said. “It’s a great coping tool and emotion regulator.”
Emmanuel has experienced grief as well with the passing of his mother and brother. He has used music therapy as a way to let out his emotions and shift his mood.
“ When I lost my mother, music helped me cope because it reminded me of the good times, and it sparked emotions,” Emmanuel said. “It allowed me to think of the good and remember all of the good times that we had together and not focus on the absence of her.”
According to Emmanuel, the amygdala and the hippocampus parts of the brain are the main focuses for this research of music therapy. In the brain, the amygdala houses our emotions and is also the place where fear and anxiety reside. The hippocampus is where we find our emotional memories, like trauma.
“Breathing, meditating, walking, journaling, and music can really help relieve stress in the brain,” Emmanuel said about the other therapeutic tools he uses in addition to music therapy.
These are just some of the other tools that Emmanuel uses and pairs with music.
“When I was working as a suicide prevention counselor, we never used music directly as a tool, but we highly encouraged it to help our clients,” Emmanuel said. “Now, how efficient music therapy can be is subjective. It’s a great tool to use, but it should not be solely or heavily depended upon. Paired with other practices, it can be really effective.”
Emmanuel stressed that music therapy can prove to be very successful, but mostly so if paired alongside other treatments and techniques.
For Daniels it was breathing, music , and God. For Emmanuel it was mediating and music.
Emmanuel and Daniels aren’t alone in using music therapy as part of a therapy regimen. Music therapy has made a jump in growth within the last few years with a 13% growth rate of patients using it in some form, according to The Business Research Center.
Furthermore, music itself is very powerful and relatable to the listener which makes it easier for emotions to be evoked by certain sounds and songs.
When asked how music is so powerful and how it can universally influence and help people, Emmanuel said that music helps because it resonates with people and can move us by vibrations.
“These vibrations are what move us whether we are happy or sad,” Emmanuel said. “These vibrations that come from the music shifts us from wherever we are.”
According to The Business Research Center, the music therapy business is expected to grow another 13.4% by the end of 2029. The same report shows that the market size for music therapy reached an all-time high of $3.16 billion at the end of 2024.
“I believe music therapy will begin to be more popular and used because music is already a part of our everyday lives and many people are already using it to help them personally,” Emmanuel said.
Emmanuel believes that in the coming years music therapy will be relied on solely for the healing of trauma once we know how to use it correctly.
Christopher Cormier, 21, an integrated studies major, is also an advocate for music therapy. Throughout his life Cormier has leaned on and relied on music to help heal and cope with emotions.
Cormier was born into a music rich family going back before his grandparents with family members who were singers, songwriters, producers and musicians. Cormier has begun to make his own music to help release his emotions in a healthy way. Music is a part of who he is and how he displays a key piece of his heart and mind.
“Music when I listen to it, or make it, helps me harness the emotions that I feel,” Cormier said. “Whether I am feeling negative emotions I put it into music and it helps me become positive, or if I am feeling negative emotions and I decide to listen to music that’s uplifting or encouraging it helps me tune in with that positive emotion.”
Music is how Cormier practices therapy. It is not the traditional route of therapy, but for him this is what personally works the best for him.
“For me, music therapy is physically calming I can find myself being very anxious and or unsettled,” Cormier said. “It helps me to stay centered, relaxes my mind, eases my mind, and helps me get back in tune with a calm flow.”
Music is more than just a sound but an art form with him being an artist, the sounds being the canvas, and his spoken emotions through the sounds being the paint.
“Music gives me an outlet to express emotions that I don’t understand or know how to process,” Cormier said. “My sound communicates what I’m going through in a way that regular communication can’t.”
According to Cormier, he has always been quiet and introverted. Since a kid he always struggled to express his emotions and hasn’t been too high on opening up to a traditional therapist.
“Through the times in my life that I wasn’t too sure about expressing myself to a therapist I had music,” Cormier said. “Music allowed me to let out my emotions in a place that I felt was safe, and music was my way of crying and letting everything out.”
For Cormier, music therapy goes beyond the surface for him. Music is what keeps him feet moving and helps him remember his purpose.
“Music has been a useful tool in helping me conquer life’s problems because it’s self-motivating and sometimes acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy. It helps me get through hard times,” Cormier said.
According to Cormier, music to him can represent different things to him.The songs that he catches himself listening to are like the soundtrack of his life, meaning different songs represent and take him to a different point in his life, which then helps him cope and come to terms with the realities of those outcomes.
Emmanuel, Daniels, and Cormier all said that the certain sounds that help them are acoustic style sounds. They mention that the piano, acoustic music, and jazz help each of them process their emotions because it is very spaced out and mellow.
“The sounds of the guitar help me out when I am trying to decompress,” Cormier said. “ To me personally the sounds of an acoustic guitar almost can sound like a breath of fresh air which reminds me to just breathe.”
Cormier loves the use of music therapy because to him it helps him get back into the calm state that he wants and strives to be in.
“For those who may not know what it is, music therapy is like being at work and having a long day and then going home and getting a back massage or a foot massage,” Cormier said. “It is like the physical relaxation and decompressing that helps settle you and calm you down to be less tense.”
Music therapy is more than a sound. It is a way of life and it can be a key part of the healing journey.
Sources
The Business Reseach Center- https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/music-therapy-global-market-report
The National Cancer Institute- https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/music-therapy
