There continues to be a dearth of randomized and controlled psychiatric music therapy literature. Additionally, of the existing published quantitative literature concerning music therapy for people diagnosed with mental illnesses, many of the control conditions were “active” as patients received some sort of treatment. The purpose of this study was to measure the effects of single-session music therapy on state anxiety and meaning of life in patients hospitalized on an acute psychiatric setting utilizing a singlesession pure wait-list control condition. Participants (N = 69) were randomly assigned by group to experimental (music therapy followed by a posttest) or control (pretest followed by music therapy) conditions. The single-session music therapy treatment consisted of live patient-preferred music, active rhythm-based interventions, and a brief lyric analysis intervention to identify supports in the hospital and in the community. Results for both subscales of meaning in life were not significant and mean differences were negligible. Although not significant, participants in the music therapy condition tended to have lower mean state anxiety scores. Participants’ written posttest comments supported the use of music therapy on the unit. Results are discussed in context of the current quantitative psychiatric music therapy literature base. Implications for music therapy treatment, limitations of the study, and suggestions for future research are provided.