Recently, a family member of mine was in Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento, Calif., for about three days. One afternoon while I was there, a lady knocked on the door and asked if she could talk with us a minute, so we invited her in.
Her name was Janice Freeman-Bell, and she is part of a music ministry that this particular hospital offers to its patients. Janice, a harpist, is a clinical music practitioner at Mercy General, where she started the program under the supervision of Spiritual Care Services.
Janice said, “One day, I went into the office with my harp and explained my plan to them. Once they listened to me play, they allowed me about a year of volunteer service, in which time I successfully showed that music could enhance the healing process and ease the life-to-death transition. And it has just grown from there.”
After listening to her play I can understand why – it was beautiful. Relaxing, calming and very “soul-healing,” to say the least, which is the purpose behind the program.
I asked her what songs she was playing and she said, “Oh, you wouldn’t know them if I told you. I feel if I play a song someone knows, then they play the song along with me in their head. But if I play one no one has ever heard, then they spend more effort in listening to the music, which in turn makes a bigger impact on their healing.” That makes perfect sense to me; however, she did abide my wish of playing “Amazing Grace,” which was so gentle and sweet and, well - amazing.
There are five clinical musicians on staff at Mercy General, and each plays a different instrument. On one of the days, the guitar player visited, and it was almost as beautiful, but I am being partial because the harp is one of my very favorite instruments. However, the objective was met: their music was healing and therapeutic, even to me. Although I wasn’t the patient, it helped to relieve the stress and anxiety of dealing with a hospitalization away from home.
Mrs. Freeman-Bell and I struck up a friendship, and I invited her to come to Little Rock and maybe expose her music program to a few of the hospitals there, since they don’t have one. She is all for that venture, so I have hopes it transpires. I would love to have a harpist be a guest in my home, too. What a treat that would be!
Anyway, I got extremely interested in learning more about therapeutic music, so Janice gave me some information on her program, and on the general benefits of the music.
As I said earlier, the musicians at Mercy are certified music practitioners under the ministerial services. They are part of the interdisciplinary team and often coordinate music care with the medical and chaplaincy staff.
In the words of Janice, therapeutic music at bedside is not music for entertainment; rather, it’s a music discipline with a direct focus on the patient and his or her needs. Their goal is not to impress, but to help heal. Music practitioners tend to focus on gently metered, therapeutic improvisational melodies or non-familiar melodies. Research has shown that in the hospital setting, the non-familiar tunes relax patients on a cellular level instead of engaging the brain in anticipating parts of a familiar piece of music.
As my minister of music, Rev. Rick Crouch, so perfectly put it, “I believe that music is one of the ways God heals the soul, as well as the body. Music ‘speaks’ in words that we cannot utter.” I could not agree more.
Hopefully, it will not be too long in the future before more hospitals start offering this healing service to their patients. It surely makes an uncomfortable and highly stressful stay more relaxed. It is definitely “balm for the heart and soul.”