Music for healing and for soothing

SHARON — Therapeutic music is a healing practice that helps patients at the end of their lives, using the science of sound.  

Melinda Gardiner of Hillsdale, N.Y., is director of the Music for Healing and Transition Program, Inc., and spoke — and played the lever harp — to a group of hospice volunteers at the Good Neighbors building in Sharon Monday, Sept. 27.

Gardiner said the use of music for healing purposes goes back to the ancient Greeks in Western culture, and said Celtic bards have long sung specific songs for births and deaths.

Therapeutic music began as a profession in the 1980s, she said. The practice has very specific parameters: Specially trained musicians play live, acoustic music at a patient’s bedside; it is designed for patients facing physical, mental or emotional challenges; it utilizes what Gardiner calls “the intrinsic healing elements of live music,†and the musician meets the patient’s needs at that particular time.

Practitioners of therapeutic music do not interact much with patients or family members (beyond casual conversation) as opposed to music therapy, which is a much more interactive discipline, used with individuals of all ages. Gardiner’s therapeutic music clients are usually in hospice care.

Finding the right music for someone nearing death, who might not be able to speak or indicate whether or not the music is having the desired effect, is tricky. Gardiner told a story of an elderly woman, who could not communicate. Her family, with the best intentions, had set up a CD player with discs of the patient’s favorite Italian music.

Gardiner said the patient was “quite agitated.â€

“The first thing I did was turn the music off. The woman was unable to speak — she was a prisoner of that music.

“So think about that when you offer music to people who can’t say yes or no.

“I just played a few chords [on the harp] and the woman’s affect changed completely.â€

So dramatic was the change, in fact, that the hospital chaplain looked in a little later and thought the woman had died.

She had fallen asleep.

What laymen might not realize is that music triggers memories — and the memories might not always be happy or timely.

“Sometimes familiar music is painful because the patient is finished with that part of life.â€

So the therapeutic musician improvises, follows the patient’s breathing patterns, and provides something unique to that moment.

Anyone interested in getting involved should be enough of a musician to keep the instrument in tune. (Stringed instruments such as the  harp, dulcimer or guitar are often used, being portable and easy to adjust to the dynamics of a hospital room.)

The therapeutic musician “should be able to play smoothly and simply,†said Gardiner.

She drew a parallel with the food one eats when ill.

“When you’re healthy, you take in all kinds of food. When you’ve got the flu, you want simple food.

“The music needs to be simple. Music can be really invasive.â€

For information, go online to therapeuticmusician.com.