Florida State University professor advances music therapy through research and innovative healthcare training
Florida – For many people, music is simply part of everyday life. A favorite song can change a mood, bring back a memory or make a stressful moment feel a little easier. But in healthcare, music can serve a much more specific purpose.
At Florida State University, Professor of Music Therapy Lori Gooding is helping students and the broader healthcare field understand that distinction. Through research, clinical education and specialized programs, Gooding is working to advance music therapy as an evidence-based healthcare practice that can be adapted to individual patients and a wide range of needs.
Music has been connected to healing for centuries, but modern music therapy involves much more than putting on relaxing songs. It is a trained profession that combines musical techniques with clinical knowledge and individualized treatment.
Gooding said one of the biggest challenges facing the field is the public’s limited understanding of what professional music therapy actually involves.
“A lot of people don’t recognize that music therapy is a profession you train for, that you have academic and clinical training, that there’s a board certification exam you have to pass and there’s licensure in many states,” Gooding said.
That professional preparation is an important part of separating music therapy from the everyday experience of listening to music. People may use music on their own to relax, exercise, concentrate or deal with difficult emotions. While those experiences can be meaningful, clinical music therapy takes a more structured approach.
“The difference between that and what we do in music therapy is that we are going in and assessing an individualized need, and we are using music within the context of a therapeutic relationship to help someone restore, maintain or improve their functioning,” Gooding said.
At FSU’s College of Music, that approach is built into a program that has been recognized nationally for its long history in music therapy education. The university says its graduates have a 100% placement rate and go on to work in a variety of settings.
Those settings include hospitals and other areas of medicine, mental health programs, special education, hospice care and services for older adults. The range reflects how broadly music therapy can be used and how different the goals of treatment can be from one patient to another.
For Gooding, research is a major part of preparing students for that work. She wants graduates to understand not only how existing music therapy techniques are used, but also how research can continue to shape and improve the profession.
“I think one of the things that makes us unique is we are really grounded in research; we’re really integrating what the current evidence is,” Gooding noted. “They’re also learning how to generate new evidence. It’s going to not just keep practice current but actually push practice forward. It’s that combination, I think, that sets us apart.”
That research-centered approach also extends into specialized clinical education. FSU works with Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare to offer a NICU-MT certificate program through the College of Music. The program focuses on music therapy in neonatal intensive care, where patients are closely monitored and interventions must be carefully adjusted.
In that environment, music therapists cannot simply choose an activity and assume it will work the same way for every patient. They have to pay attention to what is happening physically and make changes as needed.
“We’re watching the monitors for their heart rate, their respiration rate, the oxygen saturation rate, and so on,” Gooding said. “And based on what’s happening, knowing where those levels need to be, and watching what’s happening while we’re doing the music intervention, we actually adjust what we’re doing.”
The work fits with FSU Health’s broader effort to connect healthcare, research, education and innovation. Music therapy can intersect with several of those areas because its potential applications stretch from physical care to emotional and psychological support.
Information cited by FSU from the National Alliance on Mental Illness describes a variety of possible benefits associated with music therapy, including lowering blood pressure, improving memory, enhancing social skills and reducing muscle tension.
Mental health is another area where Gooding sees particular value. Music therapy can be incorporated into established relaxation techniques, giving patients another way to regulate their responses to stress and anxiety.
“A lot of people do relaxation exercises like deep breathing, that kind of thing,” Gooding said. “We take those similar concepts and pair it with music, so that if someone is feeling anxious, or if they’re noticing that their heart rate is elevating, they can use the steady pulse of a piece of music or a music exercise or experience to help their body kind of get in line with that steady pulse, which is going to help literally physiologically slow them down.”
The approach can also be useful when working with adolescents. Talking directly about personal struggles is not always easy, particularly for young people who may have difficulty finding the words to explain what they are experiencing.
Music can provide another starting point for those conversations. Therapists may use song lyrics that relate to a young person’s experiences and allow the patient to discuss the music before talking directly about themselves.
“Where it might be a challenge for someone to engage in just one-on-one talking directly about themselves, we can find a song that has lyrics that are relevant to what that person is going through, and that creates a space that allows people to say, ‘Well, I noticed this in the song, you know what? I do that sometimes too,’” Gooding said.
The flexibility of music therapy is central to the way Gooding describes the profession. There is no single type of music that works for every patient, and a piece that calms one person could have the opposite effect on someone else.
That is why patient preference can be an important part of the process.
“One person could love heavy metal music and find that relaxing because it’s their favorite kind of music, whereas for another person, that’s going to increase their anxiety,” Gooding said. “We really lean into that patient-preferred piece to try to connect with them.”
That individualized approach is one of the defining features of clinical music therapy. Rather than treating music itself as a universal cure, therapists consider the person’s needs, preferences and treatment goals before deciding how music can be incorporated into care.
For FSU students preparing to enter the profession, that means learning to combine musical skills with clinical judgment and research. Their training is designed to prepare them for patients whose needs can vary dramatically, whether they are working in a hospital, a mental health setting, a school, hospice or with older adults.
Gooding’s work reflects the growing role that music therapy can play in healthcare while also emphasizing the professional standards behind it. The field may have roots in the longstanding human connection between music and healing, but today’s practitioners rely on academic preparation, clinical experience and research to guide their work.
Through its College of Music, specialized partnerships and focus on evidence-based education, FSU continues to develop students who can carry that work into healthcare settings. For Gooding, the goal is not simply to show that people enjoy music or feel better when they hear a favorite song. It is to understand how music can be intentionally used within a therapeutic relationship to address specific needs.
As music therapy continues to develop, that distinction may become increasingly important. What sounds like a simple song or musical exercise can become part of a carefully planned clinical intervention when it is guided by a trained professional and tailored to the person receiving care.
