Music’s Power to Enhance Brain Function

In 2007 L. Jay Mitchell founded Greenbrier Academy for Girls as a residential therapeutic boarding school for teen girls struggling with non-acute mental, emotional, and social problems including low self-esteem, interpersonal conflicts, depression, anxiety, and addictions. The school anchors its approach in the theory of applied relationality, which L. Jay Mitchell co-developed, as well as in therapeutic programs that help young people find their own strengths and capacities for relationship-building and good character.

Led by its licensed therapists, Greenbrier offers daily drum circles. These drum circles, based on the art of traditional African drumming, foster a sense of community while teaching rhythm, musicianship, and performance skills. Not incidentally, drumming also has been demonstrated to help decrease anxiety, calm the mind, and promote focus and concentration. It also unites disparate functions of the brain and enhances creativity.

As numerous studies have shown over the decades, music also holds the power to help trauma survivors as well as those who deal with depression and anxiety. On both an individual and a community level, music allows for the holistic processing of traumatic events and opens new avenues for understanding and moving forward.

As one study sponsored by the American Music Therapy Association demonstrated, 7,000 survivors of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and their families participating in a music therapy program discovered new ways to lower stress, relax, and improve their coping mechanisms.