How can music support mental health? While hundreds of studies have been conducted to answer this question, the availability and application of music interventions for mental health remain limited. Part of the challenge is the multidisciplinary nature of this research and difficulties in synthesizing findings across different fields including psychology, neurology, psychiatry, music, and public health. […]

The healing power of music for mental health has been formally studied across many professions – from psychology to music therapy to nursing – dating back to the 1940s. A recent global scoping review evaluated published research on music-related interventions for serious mental health issues and underscored the therapeutic potential of music to support mental […]

“Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: That even as we grieved, we grew That even as we hurt, we hoped That even as we tired, we tried That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious” Amanda Gorman, the 2017 National Youth Poet Laureate, spoke these powerful words at the 2020 presidential inauguration […]

A growing chorus of scientists, researchers, musicians, clinicians, and patients interested in music and health now have a new network to help bring them together. On Tuesday, January 26, the Sound Health Network launched with an hourlong online event featuring renowned researchers like Francis Collins and clinicians like Sanjay Gupta alongside world-class musicians like Renée […]

When the pandemic put me in lockdown, I decided to make use of extra time at home by sorting through boxes of memorabilia in my closet. My goal: throw stuff out and reduce clutter. But as I blew the dust off old family photos, concert ticket stubs, baseball cards and playbills, I enjoyed a fringe […]

In the middle of lockdown, I was on an island fishing with my girlfriend. After selling our catch at the local store, we took an impromptu date to the museum and aquarium, admiring their collections. And, seeing as we were the only ones there (save for one sleepy museum attendant), we snapped an endless stream […]

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, natural disasters have further compounded the disruption to the lives of families and children across the United States. During one of the worst fire seasons on record in the West, a series of major wildfires burned down thousands of homes and millions of acres of land, displacing hundreds […]

Losing a loved one is one of the most tragic experiences we can go through, an experience that has become all too common during the COVID-19 pandemic. The resulting grief and heartbreak have caused an epidemic within the pandemic—a surge in survivor’s guilt. Survivor’s guilt is the lingering feeling that our own survival, or faring […]

In a village on the east coast of China, a farming couple and their “rural-style shuffle dance” has gone viral on TikTok. Their dancing is joyful and upbeat, sometimes taking place in front of fields of corn or grazing cows. And it has been therapeutic. The husband, Fan Deduo, had fallen into a depression following […]

More than two months into the pandemic, experts are raising concerns over the long-term mental health implications for healthcare and other frontline workers. Behind the hospital ward weddings, standing ovations and donated meals, there are thousands of doctors, nurses and paramedics who are exhausted, anxious and traumatized by their experiences caring for those with COVID-19. […]