Integrative Health through Music Therapy: Accompanying the Journey from Illness to Wellness

297 Pages·2016·7.69 MB·English

by  Suzanne B. Hanser (auth.)

SUZANNE B. HANSER
INTEGRATIVE HEALTH
THROUGH MUSIC THERAPY
ACCOMPANYING THE JOURNEY
FROM ILLNESS TO WELLNESS
Integrative Health through Music Therapy

Suzanne   B .   Hanser
Integrative Health
through Music
Therapy
Accompanying the Journey
from Illness to Wellness
Suzanne   B.   Hanser
Music Th erapy
Berklee College of Music
Boston , Massachusetts , USA
ISBN 978-1-137-38476-8 ISBN 978-1-137-38477-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-38477-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016940853
© Th e Editor(s) (if applicable) and Th e Author(s) 2016
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Dedicated to the memory of two mystics,
Sam Hanser and Louise Montello,
And to the mystic within you.

Foreword
O ne evening while I was serving as the Attending Physician on the Family
Medicine Inpatient Unit of Boston Medical Center, I was called to see a
patient for agitation. Th is young gentleman had a history of alcoholism
and was showing signs of delirium tremens, a condition where someone
experiences severe psychomotor agitation due to biological withdrawal
from alcohol. He displayed the hallucinations, restlessness, and combat-
iveness that so often accompany this condition. He was so disoriented
and upset that he wanted to leave the hospital and bolted for the door.
Due to his mental state, he was not able to make safe decisions for him-
self and could also be harmful to others. Th e standard protocol in these
situations is to call hospital security who often come and physically need
to control the person through restraints. In fact, similar circumstances
had occurred already in the previous 48 hours necessitating tense con-
frontations between the patient and security personnel. Fortunately, at
the time of this incident, we were also conducting a research study of the
impact of music therapy on hospitalized patients. Although this patient
was not enrolled for the study, I quickly called for our music therapist
who was on the fl oor treating other patients. She came with her guitar,
and immediately started to engage this man with music. She was able to
help him sit down and begin to sing along with her on some rhythm and
blues songs which he apparently knew well. At fi rst, he sang very softly
with her, and over the course of 10 minutes, became more relaxed and
vii
viii Foreword
soon was willing to cooperate with the nursing staff . Th e need to restrain
him or call security was obviated. An episode of crisis had been solved in
a patient-centered whole person manner.
For me, that was a turning point in how I perceived music therapy. Th e
music therapist played a vital role in that moment for the patient, for me
as the treating physician, and for the hospital staff . Over the last decade, I
have had the good fortune to collaborate with Suzanne B. Hanser, Chair
of the Music Th erapy Department at Berklee College of Music, to bring
music therapy into our integrative patient care model. Our Program for
Integrative Medicine and Health Disparities is based at Boston Medical
Center, an urban safety-net hospital that serves a predominantly low
income minority population. As a result, together we have enabled music
therapists to serve patients who otherwise would not have access to this
innovative and eff ective treatment.
I n my role as Director of Integrative Medicine, my goal is not only to
cure disease, but also to help others heal themselves through developing
a sense of connection between mind, body and spirit. I have personally
experienced the infl uence of music therapy in doing just that. One music
therapist participated in our integrative medicine group visit model of
care. She used techniques such as guided meditation with live music to
enable a group of Spanish-speaking women to better cope with chronic
pain. Another music therapist achieved remarkable results with a Haitian
cancer support group, where she engaged participants in writing their
own lyrics, joyously singing their own songs and playing percussion. I
was privileged to both participate and witness a remarkable feeling of
community that transpired. In another outpatient music therapy group,
a mother arrived with her pre-teen son who had chronic behavioral prob-
lems. She was immensely gratifi ed to be able to attend the groups, as she
felt music therapy reached her son, while other interventions such as ‘talk
therapy’ had failed. As research collaborators, Suzanne and I have had the
opportunity to learn from each other as we have collaborated on studies
to document and measure the signifi cant impact that we have observed
clinically. Th is has required quantitative and qualitative measures, and
also analysis of song lyrics and musical outcomes that display something
beyond the objective data.
Foreword ix
Th e modern healthcare system strives to meet what the Institute for
Healthcare Improvement has coined as the triple aim: improve health
outcomes for patients and populations, increase patient satisfaction with
their care, and reduce overall healthcare costs. Others have suggested there
is a fourth aim: enhance the vitality, resilience and wellbeing of health-
care providers so they can carry out the triple aim. For practitioners,
researchers, and advocates of music therapy, the challenge is to identify
how music therapy truly contributes to any one or more of the four aims.
What are the conditions, settings, and patient populations where music
therapy, in all its various forms, could make its greatest impact? How
can we capture the true value of music therapy? How can we integrate
music therapy into a holistic model to meet patient needs and improve
the healthcare environment? How can we help patients fi nd comfort,
awakening, coping, acceptance and peace?
Th e average physician has little or no exposure or awareness of music
therapy and how it may diff er from passive music listening. For those
who are aware, I suspect the majority would believe that music therapy
would have the potential to be a n ice service to off er patients. Th e chal-
lenge for advocates of music therapy is how to infl uence the health care com-
munity—providers, nurses, administrators, payers and many others—to shift
their view of music therapy from nice to necessary.
T o address these questions, music therapists, researchers and educa-
tors of music therapy need credible expert guidance on the fi eld. Skills,
tools, and an attitudinal shift are essential for healing to occur. I ntegrative
Health through Music Th erapy: Accompanying the Journey from Illness to
Wellness prepares music therapists and other practitioners to move music
therapy into the mainstream of healthcare. Th rough the languages
of holistic health, integrative medicine, and music therapy, Integrative
Health through Music Th erapy inspires patient and provider along the path
to becoming well.
Robert   Saper ,
Boston University School of Medicine
Boston , MA , USA