Music therapist

A music therapist uses music — playing, singing, listening, songwriting, and improvisation — as a clinical tool to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs. They assess each client, set therapeutic goals, and design musical experiences that might help a stroke patient regain speech, calm a child with autism, ease a hospice patient's anxiety, or lift mood in mental health treatment.

The role requires musicianship paired with clinical training, and practitioners work in hospitals, schools, rehabilitation centers, and senior care. Sessions are tailored and interactive, using the way music engages memory, movement, and emotion to reach goals conventional therapy alone may not.