In general, lively music stimulates the listener while dulcet melodies have a calming effect. French music therapist Dr. Alfred Tomatis discovered that there are three times as many nerve connections between the ear and the brain as there are between the eye and the brain. This may explain why using music as a treatment modality in mental illness has such a remarkable impact. Music also affects circulating levels of stress hormones in the body. Langmuir is involved in research to understand how levels of one such hormone, cortisol, are influenced by musical experiences.
Music therapy can also be helpful to clients with co-occurring mental health and addiction problems.
But because many people abuse substances to self-medicate, the primary focus of treatment is to deal with underlying mental health issues as the primary treatment, and the addictive behaviours secondarily. Many techniques can be used to work therapeutically. Chhina favours the use of improvisation, allowing clients to focus not on what the music sounds like, but on how it feels to create it. The therapist can learn what clients are expressing in music that they cannot express in words. This can open up many avenues of expression and healing, but is not necessarily the best way to work with all clients.