LEARNING BY DOING
The Sounds of Solace
Music therapy offers patients comfort and connection.
by Joanie Eppinga and Eamonn Neff
The music therapy team at Golisano Children's Hospital is a Naz family. From left to right: Madison Grimaldi 鈥21 (intern), Rosemary (Rosie) Obi 鈥10G, Madeline Mitchell 鈥20, Kaylee Gray 鈥21 (intern), and Elaine Kong 鈥11 pose at the hospital in Rochester, New York, in 2022.
鈥淢usic heals,鈥 says Bryan Hunter, a music therapy faculty member at Nazareth College from 1982 to 2020. 鈥淭hat idea is very old 鈥 it goes back at least to the Greeks.鈥
It鈥檚 a notion that has been revitalized in the last 70 years, which is how long music therapy has existed as a profession, says Hunter, who started the music therapy program at University of Rochester Medicine鈥檚 Golisano Children鈥檚 Hospital in 1997. But what exactly does a music therapist do?聽
In the course of a day, a music therapist might help a patient select an instrument to play or write a song, or review current research. The belief that music can help with pain relief, focus, expression of feelings, and more has increasingly been codified, and Nazareth offers both an undergraduate and a graduate music therapy degree聽鈥 and in 2022 begins a music therapy equivalency certificate as well.
Students are drawn to the blend of music and mental health and to Nazareth's "vibrant department," says Melissa Reed 鈥01, 鈥06G, an assistant clinical professor in music therapy. 鈥淥ur students contribute to our community every day, working in nursing homes, schools, and other clinical settings."
The students receive rigorous training. Becoming a Music Therapist 鈥 Board Certified (MT-BC) involves first getting a degree by taking classes in music fundamentals, the life sciences, psychology, and several instruments, coupled with clinical placements under supervision. Then comes a six-month full-time internship, followed by a three-hour board exam that covers musical concepts, case scenarios, clinical applications, and research in the field.
Their thorough training is important to music therapists, says Rosemary (Rosie) Obi 鈥10G, an inpatient music therapist at Golisano Children鈥檚 Hospital who earned her master鈥檚 degree in music therapy from Nazareth in 2010. The first music therapist at Golisano, Obi developed the program over the past 21 years, in which time it has trained more than 70 Nazareth practicum students and interns. Obi says that the profession鈥檚 evidence-based nature confers credibility, so she wants people to know that music therapy is based on science.
鈥淲hen I first tell people I鈥檓 a music therapist,鈥 Obi says, 鈥渢hey often say, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 so nice.鈥 And it is nice! It鈥檚 a wonderful career, and I love it! But it鈥檚 also a hard career, and it has value beyond niceness.鈥澛
Research supports Obi鈥檚 assessment, with both qualitative and quantitative studies showing the value of music therapy. Hunter explains that music 鈥渙rganizes the neural response鈥 and involves both sides of the brain. 鈥淢usic helps relax people,鈥 he says. 鈥淲e can apply that finding systematically to those with high anxiety or in distressing situations.鈥澛
Therapists emphasize that patients don鈥檛 need to have musical inclination or talent to benefit from music therapy. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to be a musician to receive it,鈥 says Madison Grimaldi 鈥21, currently an intern at Golisano. 鈥淓vidence shows that it provides benefits even if a patient just listens.鈥澛
One such benefit, Hunter notes, is that music therapy can alleviate pain. He says that Obi headed a music therapy study for children who received painful injections to help them with muscle spasticity. 鈥淪he鈥檇 sing to them,鈥 Hunter says, 鈥渁nd get them to sing through the procedure 鈥 and they were hardly aware that they were getting those shots.鈥
Elaine Kong 鈥11, another music therapist at Golisano, agrees. 鈥淲e鈥檙e using music strategically for a non-music goal: to help patients stabilize their physiological state and decrease pain,鈥 she says.
Kong began at the hospital six years ago as a part-timer, and then expanded her work to the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. Now, thanks partly to funding provided by donations from The Battle of the Beaks, Nazareth鈥檚 annual basketball competition with St. John Fisher, services have been expanded, more Nazareth interns work with patients, and Kong works full-time to assist patients.
One such patient is Emily Lokken, a teenager who has been receiving music therapy since she was a toddler. Emily鈥檚 mother, Sarah Lokken, says of the treatment, 鈥淚鈥檝e seen it take my child from needing expensive pain medication to being able to do procedures just by having the music therapist in the room with her.
鈥淚鈥檓 sold on it!鈥
Emily鈥檚 enthusiasm for music therapy is similarly evident. 鈥淚 like singing songs and getting my mood out,鈥 she says. 鈥淲hat I like most is it helps me cope emotionally.鈥
鈥淢usic therapy helps Emily get out what she鈥檚 thinking and feeling as the patient,鈥 Lokken says. 鈥淪he may tell a physician she鈥檚 fine, but you might find out through her music that she鈥檚 struggling with something 鈥 she may not even know it herself. She writes down her feelings, and then she puts it into a song.鈥
Self-expression is indeed an important element of music therapy, especially for nonverbal people such as stroke victims, those with Alzheimer鈥檚, and pre-verbal children. Music therapists both see patients鈥 expression of feeling and relate to it. Madeline Mitchell 鈥20, who completed a music therapy internship at Golisano and was hired on as a full-time music therapist last year, says, 鈥淲hen I鈥檓 working with a patient, I feel amazing 鈥 just seeing the direct results of what I do feeds my soul.鈥
One of those results, according to both therapists and patients, is the relationship that forms between them. 鈥淩osie鈥檚 like part of our family,鈥 Sarah Lokken says, and Emily concurs: 鈥淚 feel like I鈥檝e known Rosie my whole life. Our relationship is very strong.鈥
That bond is important to therapists. 鈥淚 love the connections I make with my patients,鈥 Grimaldi says. 鈥淪eeing patients start to trust you makes it a more meaningful and special experience.鈥 Kaylee Gray 鈥21, another music therapy intern at Golisano, agrees: 鈥淪ometimes we see patients for such a short time,鈥 she says, 鈥渂ut music can bring on those connections and empower patients so quickly.鈥
Emily says she can鈥檛 foresee there ever being a time when she鈥檇 want to forgo the empowering benefits of music therapy, and her mother adds, 鈥淭his therapy has helped Emily develop coping mechanisms that will carry her lifelong.鈥
There鈥檚 a reason that, as Hunter notes, Apollo was the god of both music and medicine. For Golisano patients and their Nazareth-trained music therapists, the combined art and science of music therapy strikes a harmonious and healing chord.
Joanie Eppinga is a freelance writer and editor in Madison, Wisconsin. Eamonn Neff is a freelance writer in Everett, Washington.
Rosemary (Rosie) Obi '10G leads a weekly music therapy group for patients hospitalized at Golisano Children鈥檚 Hospital. (The photo was taken before the COVID-19 pandemic.)
Rosemary (Rosie) Obi and music therapy client Emily Lokken sang the national anthem (2019) at Nazareth's Battle of the Beaks, an annual event that has raised $150,000 for Golisano Children's Hospital and particularly music therapy there.
Elaine Kong 鈥11 works in the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. (The photo was taken before the COVID-19 pandemic.)