Integrating Music Therapy Into Perinatal Mental Health Care
Music therapy can help clients reconnect with that part of themselves again—not through performance or pressure, but through emotional expression, reflection, regulation, and meaningful connection.
Pregnancy, postpartum, infertility, grief, and the transition into parenthood can bring emotions that don’t fit neatly into words. Sometimes people know exactly what they’re feeling but struggle to express it. Other times, they feel disconnected from themselves entirely.
For many people, music already plays an important role in how they process emotion, regulate stress, remember who they are, or move through difficult experiences. Music therapy builds on that connection intentionally within the therapeutic process.
At The Perinatal & Reproductive Wellness Group, music therapy can be integrated into mental health care in ways that are individualized, collaborative, and grounded in each client’s goals. Sometimes music becomes a central part of therapy. Other times, it enters more organically—a song that keeps resurfacing emotionally, a playlist that no longer feels comforting, or the realization that somewhere in the transition to parenthood, a person lost connection to parts of themselves that once felt familiar.
In the postpartum period, for many parents, life becomes filled with children’s music, routines, care-giving, and survival. In the process, people can lose their musical sense of self.
What is Music Therapy?
Sometimes the music itself becomes a container for emotions that feel too overwhelming to say directly. The structure of rhythm, melody, and repetition can help clients process difficult experiences in a way that feels safer, more accessible, or less emotionally overwhelming than conversation alone.
Music therapy is a clinical, evidence-based practice provided by a board-certified music therapist (MT-BC). These clinicians complete specialized training, a clinical internship, and national certification to use music intentionally within therapeutic treatment.
But music therapy is not simply listening to relaxing background music or creating the “perfect calming playlist.”
There’s no single right type of music in therapy. What matters most is the emotional connection someone has to the music itself.
For one person, regulation might come through quiet acoustic music. For another, it may come through intense rock music that matches the emotional intensity they’re experiencing before gradually helping them come back down into a more regulated state. Music therapy meets people where they are emotionally rather than trying to force them into a feeling they’re not ready for yet.
Sessions may include:
Songwriting or song rewriting
Lyric analysis and emotional processing
Music-based relaxation and regulation work
Exploration of identity and emotional expression
Grief processing
Parent-infant bonding support
Integration with traditional talk therapy approaches
Music Therapy in the Perinatal Period
The perinatal period can hold joy, grief, anxiety, ambivalence, identity shifts, trauma, disconnection, and enormous emotional change—often all at the same time.
Music therapy can support clients through experiences such as:
Postpartum anxiety and overwhelm
Difficulty feeling connected to oneself after becoming a parent
Grief after infertility, pregnancy loss, or infant loss
Birth trauma or difficult postpartum transitions
Emotional regulation and distress tolerance
Processing complicated feelings about motherhood or parenthood
Bonding and attachment work with infants
Reconnecting with sources of comfort, identity, and self-expression
For some clients, music therapy may involve building playlists that genuinely help them feel grounded or emotionally supported—not just music that is traditionally considered “relaxing,” but music that feels personally regulating and familiar to them.
For others, songwriting can become part of grief work or postpartum processing. Sometimes clients use music therapy to express emotions they feel guilty saying out loud: fear, resentment, numbness, sadness, anger, disappointment, or uncertainty. Therapy creates space for those emotions to exist without judgment.
Music therapy can also support nervous system regulation by helping clients move through intense emotional states gradually and intentionally. Because music engages emotional, sensory, and physiological systems simultaneously, it can become a powerful tool for grounding, regulation, and emotional processing.
Mackenzie Knick, LPC-A, MT-BC
Mackenzie Knick is a board-certified music therapist and counselor who integrates music therapy and mental health counseling within her work at The Perinatal & Reproductive Wellness Group.
Her background includes crisis and trauma-focused mental health work, as well as experience supporting clients navigating emotional overwhelm, grief, identity transitions, and major life changes. Her approach to therapy is warm, collaborative, and deeply individualized, integrating both counseling techniques and music therapy interventions depending on what feels supportive for each client.
Mackenzie is especially passionate about the ways music can help people reconnect with themselves during seasons where identity, emotional regulation, or connection feel difficult to access. Her work is grounded in the belief that music therapy is not about musical talent or performance—it is about using music intentionally to support emotional processing, regulation, expression, and healing.
Services are currently offered virtually, with music therapy interventions thoughtfully adapted for the online therapy setting.
Interested in Learning More?
If you’re curious about whether music therapy could support you during pregnancy, postpartum, infertility, grief, or another reproductive transition, we invite you to reach out through our contact form to learn more about services at The Perinatal & Reproductive Wellness Group.