Music therapy is an interpersonal process in which the therapist uses music and all of its facets—physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic, and spiritual—to help clients to improve or maintain their health. In some instances, the client's needs are addressed directly through music; in others they are addressed through the relationships that develop between the client and therapist. Music therapy is used with individuals of all ages and with a variety of conditions, including: psychiatric disorders, medical problems, physical handicaps, sensory impairments, developmental disabilities, substance abuse, communication disorders, interpersonal problems, and aging. It is also used to: improve learning, build self-esteem, reduce stress, support physical exercise, and facilitate a host of other health-related activities.

Music therapists are found in nearly every area of the helping professions. Some commonly found practices include developmental work (communication, motor skills, etc.) with individuals with special needs, songwriting and listening in reminiscence/orientation work with the elderly, processing and relaxation work, and rhythmic entrainment for physical rehabilitation in stroke victims.

The Turco-Persian psychologist and music theorist al-Farabi (872?950), known as "Alpharabius" in Europe, dealt with music therapy in his treatise Meanings of the Intellect, where he discussed the therapeutic effects of music on the soul.Amber Haque (2004), "Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists", Journal of Religion and Health 43 (4): 357-377 363. Robert Burton wrote in the 17th century in his classic work, The Anatomy of Melancholy, that music and dance were critical in treating mental illness, especially melancholia.cf. The Anatomy of Melancholy, Robert Burton, subsection 3, on and after line 3480, "Music a Remedy":

But to leave all declamatory speeches in praise 3481 of divine music, I will confine myself to my proper subject: besides that excellent power it hath to expel many other diseases, it is a sovereign remedy against 3482 despair and melancholy, and will drive away the devil himself. Canus, a Rhodian fiddler, in 3483 Philostratus, when Apollonius was inquisitive to know what he could do with his pipe, told him, "That he would make a melancholy man merry, and him that was merry much merrier than before, a lover more enamoured, a religious man more devout." Ismenias the Theban, 3484 Chiron the centaur, is said to have cured this and many other

diseases by music alone: as now they do those, saith 3485 Bodine, that are troubled with St. Vitus's Bedlam dance. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10800/10800-8.txt] "Humanities are the Hormones: A Tarantella Comes to Newfoundland. What should we do about it?" by Dr. John Crellin, MUNMED, newsletter of the Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1996. Aung, Steven K.H., Lee, Mathew H.M., "Music, Sounds, Medicine, and Meditation: An Integrative Approach to the Healing Arts", Alternative & Complementary Therapies, Oct 2004, Vol. 10, No. 5: 266-270. [http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/act.2004.10.266?journalCode=act]

It is considered one of the expressive therapies.