Health & Wellness: The Sounds of Wellness

By Nanette Wiser

We all know music soothes the savage beast. But did you know that music and healing sounds can quiet the mind and body, and improve a patient’s ability to beat certain illnesses and conditions?

Lately, we’re seeing a lot of interest in music therapy. NBC’s Today Show hosted a weeklong series. It even has a professional organization and mission. The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA, 2005) defines MT as the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.

I discovered this first-hand during my father’s last days, when hospice provided a guitarist who came in and sang his favorite songs, a little jazz and “You Are My Sunshine” and he smiled gratefully and clapped, despite his discomfort. Music was a huge part of his life, and he cheered up during and after his weekly private performance.

A new music program at Elmcroft of Pinecrest Largo helps caregivers incorporate music into their daily work with seniors who suffer from Alzheimer’s or memory loss.  Assisted living is using music and singing yoga to help seniors breathe more deeply and improve cognitive function. One hospital in the area often used nostalgia, movies and musicals to help orthopedic patients improve more quickly and manage their pain through the power of pleasant memories.

Music therapy is also used with people suffering from traumatic brain injury, even stroke. Music is processed throughout the brain simultaneously and has been shown to help neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to reform neural pathways around a damaged area in order to regain functioning.Music therapy benefits adults, teens and children in multiple setting. These Tampa Bay programs offer their services, and many local hospitals provide therapy support as well. 

South Pasadena’s Mission of Music Sweet Music is to contract Board Certified Music Therapists to provide children and adults with illnesses, diseases and disorders with Music Therapy sessions and the special musical instruments used in Music Therapy.  The ultimate goal is to support skill development in areas such as communication, academic learning, daily living skills, motor functioning, social skills, behavior, and mental health. These are common goal areas of children and adults with diagnoses such as autism, neurologic impairments, orthopedic impairments, speech impediment, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and other disabilities.  

Music Therapy St. Pete helps improve health outcomes and increase patient satisfaction for skilled nursing facilities, day care treatment centers, schools, neuromuscular rehab facilities, medical hospitals, hospice programs, community mental health centers, drug and alcohol programs, and most clinical settings.

Tampa Bay Institute for Music Therapy provides inpatient and outpatient music therapy, as well as individual sessions and visits to assisted living. They recognize that music therapy has been shown to improve mood and various physiological measures, and decrease stress, perception of pain, and fatigue, increasing patient satisfaction.

At DTSP’s Peace of Yoga, Monday’s 5-6pm Sound and Movement Yoga with Travis Lacey blends the healing properties of the vibrations from the instruments (gong, digeriedoo, drum and more).

Leave a Comment