How music therapy can benefit your mental health journey

JACKSON, Tenn. — Stress, depression, mental illness, and just negative brain patterns can be overwhelming — but if you are looking for an option that could help you in your journey, read on.

Music can be drowned out and overlooked, but studies have been conducted showing the correlation between music and mental health.

We spoke with Dr. Patrick K. Porter, the inventor of BrainTap, who shared some important correlations between music, the brain and mental illness.

“And music is a form of brainwave entrainment,” Dr. Porter said. “It means training your brain to activate a higher spectrum of healing resources, which are within our body and our brain.”

And because music is so accessible, it gives you the fluidity to use it according to your needs and timing.

“I think doing this at home is super important, but you might have to go to a clinician first to kind of teach you how to do it. But you can do it,” said Porter. “Everyone owns a cell phone, pretty much, so you can tune into whatever services you want. Of course, what we do is we use Brainwave Entrainment to do that.”

Dr. Porter suggested these three times throughout the day to specifically listen to music and the types to choose. In the mornings, he suggested upbeat motivational music. Afternoons are for more relaxing music as the neurological system is resetting. And at night, he suggested listening to easy, slow music to help regulate your nervous system.

“They do that during those three times a day, and they’re going to use music to its most efficient,” Dr. Porter said. “We found with the nervous system, it lasts about 72 hours. So you need to be doing something every 72 hours at least to re-regulate the way the brain and body organize around stress.”

But one of the key components that Dr. Porter mentioned was for the music to be something the listener enjoys, because it is all subjective.

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