Empathy & Emotions & Music Therapy

From the archives: June 2025

In a world where screens dominate our attention, the power of human connection is fading—but could music be the key to bringing it back?  Today we have access to so many versions of technology that enhance our lives and our livelihood everyday. Along with these technological advances comes challenges as well as people who are increasing their time on technology and decreasing their time interacting with other humans. 

If you have ever felt an emotion when listening to music this study will definitely resonate with you.  Using various research methods, researchers investigated the impact of music therapy on empathy development in adolescents with mild intellectual disabilities. They used observations, parent reports, and conversations to understand children’s emotions and music preferences. Empathy was measured through a special questionnaire and a picture-based test. 

Dividing the participants into two groups, one group received music therapy and the other group followed a regular school program without music.  Therapists were trained with a manual that included music techniques, empathy exercises, visuals, and one-on-one talks. Interventions included improvisations, role playing, discussion and reflection. Results showed that the music therapy group developed more empathy than the control group, suggesting that music's emotional impact may help boost empathy more effectively than traditional teaching methods.

This means adolescents with intellectual disabilities may experience and understand the emotions of others through music, resulting in increased empathy. As a music therapist at several elementary schools,  teaching empathy is something I can see a need for everyday. 

For more information on how music therapy, including how music can help with emotional regulation, identification and coping skills, please visit https://centralohiomusictherapy.com or www.musictherapy.org.

Kelsey Lawrence, LPMT, MT-BC

Central Ohio Music Therapy, LLC

Huang, C. and Gu, S. (2024).  Effectiveness of music therapy in enhancing empathy and emotional recognition in adolescents with intellectual disabilites.  Acta Psychologica 243 (2024) 104152.  Doi: 10/106/j.actpsy.2020.104152