Catharsis Application Program

Psycho Emotional Therapy

Music & Art as Medicine

Music and art are found in every single human culture. For millennia, it has been recognized for their therapeutic value and healing qualities. The ancient Greek and Egyptian physicians believed that music and imagery could heal both the body and the soul.


The act of creative engagement brings us into the moment. It puts us in touch with who we are and connects us with others. It helps us break through our mental/emotional barriers and moves us forward.


With the advent of modern medicine music and art were disregarded as viable therapeutic tools.


Recently, however, there has been a growing interest by the medical research community to understand how the use of music and art affects patients and physicians:


The American Psychological Association is emphasizing how music can improve health: "Researchers are exploring how music therapy can improve health outcomes among a variety of patient populations, including premature infants and people with depression and Parkinson’s disease…" (see:


Likewise, on Psychology Today an article written by Catherine Ulbricht Pharm.D. emphasizes how "Music has been studied as an integrative therapy for many conditions." (see:


We can read on Isthmus: "…The combination of music and neuroscience is a hot topic these days, and there is an exciting convergence happening between neuroscientists and musicians. Neuroscientists explain now how music affects the brain…" (see:


The interest in the effects of music on the brain has led to a new branch of research called neuromusicology which explores how the nervous system reacts to music and how music has a therapeutic effect on the mind and body.



And the evidence is in — music activates every known part of the brain.

The effect Music & Drawing on the Brain

The health benefits of creative self-expression are abundant. Whether challenged with a physical illness, in need of stabilizing your emotions or looking for an outlet to enhance your well-being, expressing your creative imagination through art and music can be a viable and transforming healing process leading to balance and vitality.

MUSIC - Activates the visual cortex - Improve verbal IQ & mathematical abilities - Increase levels of melatonin, serotonin endorphins and dopamine - Improves memory performance, concentration and attention - Enhances.


See this interesting article about the way music improves the brain, by Dr. Jockers :

Dr Jockers

Listening to harmonic sounds and music also:

  • Slows down and equalizes brain waves
  • Normalizes heartbeat, pulse rate and blood pressure
  • Regulates stress-related hormones
  • Boosts the immune function
  • Strengthens memory and learning
  • Increases endurance and productivity
  • Improves the quality of sleep
  • Elevates mood and reduces anxiety

DRAWING - Improves hand-eye coordination - Memories and experiences become stronger, more vivid, & easier to access - Enhances creative problem solving & intuition - Increase production of serotonin, endorphins, dopamine, and norepinephrine - Produces an overall state of alertness

Maurits Cornelis Escher - 1948

Expression through drawing and painting also:

  • Enhances access to the right side of the brain allowing for greater creative problem solving
  • Strengthens focus and increases attention
  • Reduces stress and pain with increased production of endorphins
  • Activates the production of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, improving mood
  • Enhances intuition.
  • Increases production of neural synapses enhancing brain function

Vibration and health

Every cell in our body radiates a vibration or frequency. When our internal environment resonates at its optimal frequency we maintain a balanced system. Recently a team of researchers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have measured the frequency at which red blood cells vibrate and have shown that those frequencies reflect the health of the cells.

In the 1960’s, a Swiss medical physician, Dr. Hans Jenny,  realized the importance of vibration and sound and initiated a study on a wave phenomena called cymatics. When sand, fluid or powder were placed on a metal plate then vibrated with a special frequency generator, intricate patterns that were unique to each individual vibration occurred. The experiment showed that sound can alter form at different frequencies and that sound actually creates and maintains form. He called these inherent patterns of vibration the “harmonic principle”.

Double Hexagon Cymatic Image, made with CymaScope,

an advanced cymatic research instrument.

Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Phantasy Quartet” made visible on the CymaScope

Source :

The work of Japanese scientist Dr. Masaru Emoto demonstrates the potent effects of sound on water crystals. He played classical music and traditional folk music through speakers next to water samples. He then froze and photographed the crystalline structures after each musical selection. What he observed was that each water sample formed unique and beautifully geometric crystals. In contrast, the water crystal's basic hexagonal structure broke into pieces when heavy metal music was played. Since our bodies are made up of 70 percent water, imagine how the sounds and vibrations of our external environment could affect our internal cellular function and in time our state of health.

Imagine - John Lennon

Source :

Music on the Mind


Anyone who has listened to music knows the incredible power

it can have over both thoughts and emotions.

This is Your Brain on Music - The Science of Human Obsession

Source: Dr. Daniel J.Levitin

Our knowledge of the brain’s involvement when listening to music was not realized until the early 1990s with the emergence of functional brain imaging. Music is processed in many different areas of our brain.

  • Music has been used as a source of healing and rejuvenation since ancient times.  Anyone who has listened to music knows the incredible power it can have over both thoughts and emotions.
  • Many neuroscientists believe that humans are hardwired for music. This is evident in our observation of mothers soothing their babies with sounds, a behavior only found in humans, to help form a bond between mother and child. Sound, both as pure tones and as music, can affect an incredible number of physiological and psychological conditions.
  • Modern medical research has demonstrated that music is a whole brain phenomenon, modifying brain activity waves and has been shown to have broadly positive effects on our lives. Music activates so many parts of our brain that neuroscientists cannot establish a center for music in the brain as we do for a neural activity such as language. When we are exposed to music, our frontal and temporal lobes begin to process the sounds while other brain activity is working to interpret the pitch rhythm and melody.
  • While music affects auditory cortex directly, it is the involvement of the frontal lobes which evoke emotions and thoughts. When listening to music there is an increase of activity in the cerebellum which can prompt an emotional reaction and our desire to move with the melody. The nerve pathways between the hemispheres called the corpus callosum are activated, resulting in the stimulation of both the left (math & organization) and right (creative, emotional) brain.
  • Music listening enhances learning and memory through structures in the limbic system. The amygdala is involved with focused attention and processing emotions, while the hippocampus plays an essential role in transferring information into memories. Incorporating music into classroom activities has been shown to have broadly positive effects on learning, motivation, and behavior.
  • Music is a powerful medium generating a whole brain phenomenon. It influences our mood, our behavior, how we think and how we respond to our environment and others.
  • Besides the effect it has directly on the brain, music has a profound effect on our physiology. Our heartbeat and breathing responds to match the rhythm of a sound. Music listeners have a higher number of immune cells called "natural killer cells" that attack infected and cancerous cells. Chronic stress increases the hormone cortisol to abnormally high levels which has a negative effect on many bodily functions such as thyroid function and glucose metabolism. Music has been shown to lower cortisol levels by reestablishing our internal homeostasis.
  • Music is crucial in our life. Creative expression is crucial too.  Indeed, art is synonymous with expression, and expression is synonymous with emotional release. Images made up our thought processes before words and although language is our dominant form of communication, we still continue to form thought through images. Some of our habituated defenses associated with verbalization can be averted through art activity. Emotions which are difficult to articulate verbally can have greater opportunity for release through artistic expression.

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