Music-Assisted Relaxation and Music Therapy for Mental Wellness
In today’s fast-paced world, stress, anxiety, and burnout are all too common. If you are looking holistic approaches for relief music-assisted relaxation (MAR) and music therapy are great options. This could look like professional support with a certified music therapy or learning new strategies for incorporating purposeful music listening into your routine. These evidence-based practices use music to reduce stress, promote calm, and support mental wellness.
Whether you’re managing anxiety, trauma, or simply need a way to relax, music may be the tool you didn’t know you needed.
What Is Music-Assisted Relaxation?
Music-assisted relaxation is a structured technique that uses calming music in combination with breathing, visualization, or guided meditation to reduce stress and support the body’s relaxation response.
Common elements include:
Instrumental music at 60–80 BPM
Guided breathing or progressive muscle relaxation
Visualization techniques
A quiet, calming setting
MAR helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting calm, lowering heart rate, and reducing cortisol levels. MAR can be brought into your music therapy sessions or used outside of sessions independently. If working with a music therapist, they can help you develop tools using it on your own.
Try Music-Assisted Relaxation at Home
✅ Create a Calming Playlist
Experiment with different music and see what effect it has on your mind and body. You can also work with a music therapist to develop a playlist specifically designed to promote relaxation. We often use a concept called rhythmic entrainment to capatilize on music and rhythm’s impact on our body.
✅ Pair With Breathing Exercises
One of our favourites is called square breathing (or box breathing). You can try it by inhaling for 4 seconds, hold for 4, exhale for 4, and hold for 4 more. You can pair this with recorded music or add an instrument. Check out our video on instagram to learn how.
✅ Try Visualization
Allow music to support a calming mental image — a beach, forest, or safe space. This sensory pairing enhances the relaxation response.
✅ Use It Before Bed
Set a routine: music + soft lighting + screen-free time = deeper rest. Listening to relaxing music before bed can help signal to your brain that it’s time to unwind. This
Music-Assisted Progressive Musle Relaxation
Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) is a technique that helps reduce stress and anxiety by systematically tensing and then relaxing different muscle groups. It teaches you to become aware of the difference between muscle tension and relaxation, allowing you to consciously relax.
When using PMR, you might realize you’re holding tension in your muscles without being consciously aware of it. The most common things people report are shoulder tension, neck tension, and jaw tension. Regular practice of PMR and other similar activities help us build a stronger mind-body connection, allowing us to recognize and release our body tension more effectively.
In music therapy, we can pair traditional PMR with improvised music to augment the experience and efficacy. Our body unconsciously responds to music, so we can use musical tension and release to experience even deeper relaxation.Want to try it for yourself? Listen to our recording of Kathleen guiding you through music-assisted progressive muscle relaxation.
*Disclaimer: please use this audio at your own discretion and risk. Our blog content is not therapy. Engaging with our content should not be seen as a replacement for therapy, nor should it be taken as professional advice.
When to Work With a Certified Music Therapist
While you can practice MAR on your own, working with a certified music therapist provides a personalized, therapeutic experience, especially for:
Trauma recovery
Emotional dysregulation
Depression or grief
Personal growth work
Anxiety disorders
If you're interested in getting started with your own music therapy reach out to book a matching consultation to get paired with the best fit on our team.
Stay tuned for other resources, including trainings for therapists and book recommendations.
