Connecting families to music therapy, with Jenna Marcovitz, MA

Music therapy can support pediatric patients across physical, emotional, and developmental domains—but first, families need to know the service exists. In a follow-up conversation to her previous discussion with Contemporary Pediatrics on music therapy’s wide-ranging benefits for children, Jenna Marcovitz, MA, MT-BC, CCLS, RMT, director of music therapy at UCLA Health, emphasized the role of pediatricians in connecting families with these valuable services. Sharing even basic outcomes, such as support for speech and language development, can serve as an entry point into care.

“The first step, I think a great resource could be suggesting music therapy to patients and families—maybe they haven't even heard of it,” Marcovitz said. For families in the United States, she recommends the American Music Therapy Association’s online directory to locate board-certified professionals.

“It’s a great starting point,” she said. “You can find organizations that provide music therapy or private practice professionals who can provide, even in-home music therapy services or telehealth music therapy services.” Globally, the World Federation of Music Therapy offers similar access to regional directories.

In an earlier conversation, Marcovitz outlined how music therapy is tailored to clinical goals and delivered through evidence-based interventions in a therapeutic relationship. “Although music entertainment can have therapeutic benefit, it isn’t always necessarily targeting a physical goal,” she explained previously. “In music therapy, that is what we do. In situations where you are working with patients and families that are under immense amounts of stress and existential and emotional distress, music therapy can provide a space for them to really process their emotions,” Marcovitz said. “We know emotions are connected to our whole body health.”

By collaborating with multidisciplinary healthcare teams and centering individualized goals, Marcovitz and her colleagues aim to integrate music therapy not just as a creative complement to care, but as a foundational component of holistic pediatric treatment.

Click here to watch Marcovitz explain how music therapy helps in pediatric care.

Disclosure: Jenna Marcovitz discloses grants/research funding for music therapy interns.