Alex has been going through a rough patch and really needs some help, but money is tight. Therapy seems out of reach until he meets the unusual music therapist Jane. She has worked with several patients who couldn’t afford therapy but have agreed to this unique approach.

There’s a way for them to work together, she tells Alex.

Here’s how it works.

Jane and Alex explore Alex’s issues through music. Alex pours his heart into instruments and melodies, finding relief in every note. All those tough emotions are turned into rhythms, timbres, melodies, and harmonies.

The therapist then takes these unique sounds from their sessions and turns them into digital art (NFTs). It’s a unique music piece that holds all the emotions and breakthroughs from therapy sessions. An NFT forged from the darkest sides of a human being. The NFT can’t be any more personal than that.

And if you’re worried that it will break therapy patient confidentiality, no need to worry.

Alex’s name stays out of it. Everything is anonymous and the story behind each NFT is tweaked so no one knows it’s about him.

These NFTs are then put up for sale in a special collection, which we’ll call “Harmonic Catharsis”.

Three parties benefit from this:

• Alex (patient): he gets the therapy he needs free of charge.

• Jane (music therapist): finds a creative way to get paid for her work.

• Buyer: they get to own a part of someone’s journey crafted into a unique musical piece.

Although this is a hypothetical case, it seems that something as traditional as therapy can get a modern twist. So could this be a game-changer for the music therapy industry?

NFTs in mental health

Globally, mental health issues affect a staggering 970 million people, according to the World Health Organization.

That’s 1 in every 8 people having a mental disorder. It’s even more concerning when you look at a report just 20 years ago by the same organization which estimated mental problems at 450 million people worldwide.

That’s a troubling 115,6% increase.

So how do NFTs come into the picture?

These digital tokens, known for representing unique content, can be used to incentivize self-care, fund research, and even create virtual therapy sessions.

Self-care rewards

Imagine earning NFTs for practicing self-care, which you can then redeem for mental health services or cash.

This is what MoonFit is doing.

It’s a fitness app where you get digital rewards (NFTs) for staying active and burning calories. The goal is to make working out more fun by turning it into a game with rewards. You earn tokens for exercising which you then use to get more digital goodies or even cash.

Another app more focused on mental health is Proof of Meditation.

Whenever you meditate you earn tokens for sticking to your goals. The reward is an NFT that shows your heart rate during each session, which changes over time to visually track your meditation journey.

Funding mental health research

Researchers can turn their medical discoveries or research data into NFTs (which they’re calling IP-NFTs), and then people or groups can buy these NFTs to fund the research.

Usually, researchers spend a lot of time applying for grants or need to patent their discoveries, which can be slow and disappointing. But turning a piece of medical research or data into an NFT (i.e. a digital ownership certificate) can be used to fund the rest of the research.

What’s in it for the buyer? They might gain some rights related to the research (e.g. access to the results), or just the satisfaction of owning a piece of a potential future medical breakthrough.

This tech connects researchers directly with people who are interested in their work and willing to fund it.

No middleman required.

For instance, PsyDAO is at the intersection between psychedelics and mental health. Members of PsyDAO use NFTs to fund and own a piece of the research on psychedelics. They get to vote on what research to fund, what info to share, and how to use the findings, either sharing them with everyone or making some money off them fairly.

The decentralized organization wants to make sure psychedelic research isn’t controlled by big companies. And part of distributing control also falls into making sure the results from this research are available to everyone. It doesn’t seem they’ve been very active on social media recently, but hopefully, the organization is still active outside the virtual world.

Virtual therapy sessions via NFTs

Think of a digital mental health platform that gives NFTs as keys to unlock private, secure virtual therapy sessions. Clients purchase these NFTs, which then grant them access to a certain number of therapy sessions with licensed professionals.

MetaPsych, an online mental health clinic, is an example of this practice. They sell unique digital tokens (NFTs), that you can buy to get online therapy sessions.

What makes this different from regular online therapy? A couple of things:

• They’re transferable: like any NFT, these can be resold or transferred. This means if you buy a therapy session NFT but decide not to use it, you might be able to sell it to someone else who needs it.

• They have a global reach: because they’re on the blockchain, these NFTs can be purchased and used by people worldwide, making therapy more accessible, especially in those places where such services are limited.

• They allow for partial anonymity: since blockchain transactions can be pseudonymous, clients may have the option to engage in therapy without revealing their true identity, enhancing privacy.

NFTs could be the beginning of a new era for mental wellness, where access, affordability, and innovation converge.

Back to music therapy

Music therapy has been around since the times of Pythagoras, in ancient Greece, but has been refined over the centuries.

Therapists use all sorts of musical activities, like playing instruments, singing, listening to tunes, or even writing songs, to help people with their mental and physical health.

There are different ways therapists do this.

Some use music to get people to open up and chat more in therapy. Others encourage patients to create music as a way to express themselves or to build confidence. There are methods where people listen to certain types of music to relax or stir up certain emotions and memories.

Music therapy is like a lab for figuring out how music affects us.

So, how do NFTs fit into this?

Apart from what we’ve seen above for mental health in general, we can come back to what we talked about in the intro: turning those therapy sessions into music NFTs.

I’ve tried to find more information about this, but it’s a novel idea that was suggested to me by Salih Gülbay, a music therapist trying to implement this idea in Barcelona.

Creating the NFT

The process would be straightforward. The therapist would record the music created during each session. This could be anything from a simple melody hummed by the patient to a complex song composed with several instruments.

The music could be gathered from multiple sessions as well. And this compilation could be themed. For example, each piece could represent a different stage of emotional growth or challenge — several tracks representing a bigger narrative.

Those tracks would then be mixed by the therapist or a third party to get a decent sound quality for the final product. The idea is to have the minimum intervention by the therapist or sound engineer so that

a) No more time is wasted mixing or arranging the music.

b) The product is faithful to the original patient’s composition.

Once the therapist has the final musical mix, it’s converted into an NFT. The file is uploaded onto a blockchain platform that supports NFTs. Think of it as a digital ledger that keeps track of who owns the NFT. Once it’s on the blockchain, the music is officially an NFT ready to be sold.

Risks

Even if it’s an innovative way to value and share the therapeutic journey, there are some risks involved.

• Privacy concerns: the patient’s emotions and experiences would be out there for someone to buy. Sharing this publicly, even with consent, can leave the patient feeling exposed or vulnerable later on. Also, they could regret having something so personal in the public domain.

• Emotional impact: knowing the therapy sessions are being turned into a product could affect how the patient expresses themself in session. They might hold back, knowing someone else would own the result of their journey.

• Market pressure: there’s a risk that the therapy would focus more on creating a sellable product rather than the patient’s healing. No one wants to feel like an item that can be sold to the highest bidder.

Tackling these issues

First, the therapist should ensure that any music turned into NFTs is completely anonymous. They could even alter the lyrics to avoid any identifiable information about the patient.

Second, the therapist should have regular check-ins with the patient to how this process of turning their therapy into NFTs is affecting them and adjust the approach as needed.

This one ties with the third one, where the patient’s feedback will be the key to the whole process being successful. The therapist could actively involve patients in shaping how their music therapy sessions are turned into NFTs. Think of having them part of the decision-making process on which parts of the session to use, how they are presented, and where the money should go.

Fourth, the therapist must provide all the info about what turning their therapy sessions into NFTs entails, including potential future implications. The patient should know what they’re signing off on.

Finally, there should be a transparent revenue system generated from the NFT. A portion of the proceeds could go to the patient or to a cause they care about. This could help mitigate the feeling of being “sold”.

Some other considerations

Who actually owns that music?

Traditionally, the one who writes a song owns it. But in therapy, it’s a bit fuzzy because the patient creates it in a session with their therapist. It’s super important to get this sorted out before anything goes public as an NFT.

The therapists should have an agreement in place that clearly outlines how intellectual property rights are handled: who has the ownership rights, how the music can be used (e.g., using it for academic or promotional purposes), and how profits are shared.

Any legal headaches should be avoided early on.

Also, it’s important to be careful about how these music files are stored and shared. For NFTs, this means making sure the platforms used are secure and that the music isn’t going to be hacked or stolen.

We don’t want digitized therapy music to have a life of its own out there on the internet.

Final thoughts

On the surface, it sounds like we’re commercializing personal growth.

While this might be the case (partially) and much work should be done to reduce all the risks involved in this practice, there’s one additional angle that might be interesting to explore.

Take Jacob Collier’s IHarmU series:

In this series of videos, Jacob takes everyday videos of people singing and turns them into rich and complex musical experiences.

Based on this example, musicians who worked on these pieces wouldn’t be just adding layers to a track. They would be amplifying and enriching the patient’s music journey, helping transform the pain into something even more elevated.

The patient would see their emotions, their journey, being valued and validated by artists, by the public, and by the market.

It would be a form of recognition and validation unprecedented in therapy.

This might be the creation of a new form of therapeutic expression that could resonate far beyond the confines of a therapist’s office.

Are we redefining how we process and celebrate personal growth with NFTs?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.