How to harness the power of music.

Music is everywhere.  Music is all around us.  It is in the workplace, on TV, in computer games, at social events, stores, restaurants, weddings, funerals, around the campfire and found in every culture. Saints and despots from Francis of Assisi to Hitler have used music to further their ends. Yet we make little attempt to understand it.  We often take music for granted as "background," or a frivolity.  It's just 'there'.

Our team of experts have created music, which brings beautiful, therapeutic, family media to soothe children (and their parents!) who cope with stress, fear, illness or tantrums.  Let us explore how music affects the physiology, and how we can help you create an expertly-crafted toolbox to comfort your family and your child.

What is theraputic music?

Therapeutic music is a type of music that has been proven in thousands of clinical studies to provide the following benefits:

- Diminishes and relieves pain by increasing endorphin levels
- Reduces blood pressure and heart rate
- Stabilizes breathing
- Boosts immune system
- Relieves anxiety and encourages relaxation
- Generates a sense of safety and well-being
- Reduces insomnia
- Reduces depression
- Relieves muscular tension
- Stimulates memory recall
- Increases mental focus
- Supports meditation
- Alleviates symptoms of loneliness, fear and boredom
- Facilitates bonding experiences
- Stimulates the brain builds neurons and strengthens neural pathways
- Supports creative self-expression
- Eases the delivery process of the birthing mother
- Accelerates physical healing of post-surgery patients
- Increases blood oxygenation rates
- Aids digestion
- Reduces pharmacological drug dosages required for pain, anesthesia, and other medical objectives.

How is therapeutic music different?

"Music is the profoundest non-chemical medication." - Neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks
Therapeutic music is specifically designed and played to support restful psycho-physiological states. Some music not created to be therapeutic, nonetheless has therapeutic values because it contains elements found to be therapeutic.  ChildGood offers carefully crafted and selected music that offers therapeutic choices of rhythm, meter, tempo, instrument timbres, volume dynamics, melodic and harmonic content, orchestration, arrangement, performance, entrainment, and resonance.  It takes skill and experience to choose and organize this music in a therapeutic manner.

How and why can intense video game music and sounds often alienate the entire household?  Because most films and games are created to manipulate your body physiology to elicit a strong, emotional response.  At times this experience is desirable in a game, film or at a concert.  However, if a child is already upset and listens to more agitating music and/or relentless, game sound effects, the result is the predictable melt down.  ChildGood's Inner Comfort Series supports recovery from illness, better sleep and a restful environment of comfort that is beneficial for the whole family.

Dr. Oliver Sacks, a neurologist writes that there is a strong difference between recreational music and therapeutic music.  He explains, "The power of music to integrate and cure is quite fundamental. It is the profoundest non-chemical medication."

Why is therapeutic music effective?
First consider that music is sound, and sound is vibration. As various atomic structures vibrate, interact and commingle with each other, the points where their components intersect or bump into each other is where our senses are designed to perceive structure or matter. Current research demonstrates that the elements of matter found in the farthest reaches of our galaxy are found here on earth and in our bodies. We are literally made of the same stuff as the stars, and all that 'stuff' is vibrating.

Sound is vibration and matter is mostly empty space scattered with packets of vibrating energy. Music is the ordering of vibrations into peculiar patterns that our brains interpret as music, and to which our body intelligence responds. Recent advances in medical technology have developed and refined equipment that can now measure the physiological effects of music upon our brain, body and nervous system, and research has demonstrated that music affects our physiology in about seven minutes.

How does music affect our physiology?

"Every sickness is a musical problem. The healing therefore is a musical resolution. The shorter the resolution, the greater the musical talent of the doctor." - Novalis

Music affects our physiology in four ways:

1) Music can overwhelm the left side of our brain that processes language, thus allowing the right-side (the image-processing side) to be dominant. (Many of us see images when we close our eyes and listen to music.)

2) Music affects the limbic system that regulates and governs deep emotions and many involuntary physical operations and reactions i.e. pulse and blood pressure, fight/flight response, pain perception and response.

3) Music can change the rhythms of our body such as our heart beat and respiratory rate.

4) Music can energize and/or influence our thought processes by imposing an 'order' or upon our brain and can cause neurons to fire faster.  This effect has been the subject of extensive research with children and their learning processes.

Why is Therapuetic Music especially effective?
While you may find a selection of music on a favorite album that has therapeutic values, the next piece usually does not (unless it was created to be therapeutic). Composers often write music to evoke strong emotional responses, which can actually be the opposite of the effect desired to support deep rest and healing. Our music collections have therapeutic value, and as a bonus the careful sequencing of the tracks provides additional benefits.