American
Music Therapy Association, Southeast Region (AMTA-SER)Conference in Chattanooga,
TN
From March 20-23, 2013 I attended "Music Therapy:
Entrain for the Future," the Conference of
the American Music Therapy Association, Southeast
Region. The conference was a lot of fun, very
informative and was attended by music therapy
professionals as well as students.
There was a great keynote
presentation by Tim Ringgold, a well known music therapist
from Oakland, CA. He told us with words, music, and
pictures, the story of his first-born child.
She was b
orn with a very rare condition that caused
her to have almost no skin on her body. . Although she
only survived for 18 months, the family was
transformed by what they went through, and created
a charity dedicated to finding a cure. Very
inspirational! His daughter's condition was Epidermolysis Bullosa and the blog he created is
called
www.bellasblessings.com. I highly
recommend checking this out!
I also attended an exciting seminar on
West African
drumming for music therapists, and an informative
session on "iPad for Music Therapy: Tool or
Toy." As the proud owner of a new iPad, I was
thrilled to find out about all kinds of new apps for
music and video. Of course, all of the people
that I met there were as kind, helpful and friendly
as could be and I've made dozens of new friends that
have all offered to help me and be available to me
as I endeavor to get my Surgical Serenity Solution
out to hospitals and patients around the world!
One of the most exciting connections that I made at
this conference was with some music therapy
composers who are interested in adding newly
composed soundtracks to our current Surgical
Serenity music. Eventually we will have music
in dozens of genres for patients and hospitals to
choose from! Suggestions and recommendations
are always welcomed! I was also so pleased to
meet some music therapists that have been on my
Healing Music list for years, but I had never met
them! Overall, it was a great conference and
I'm looking forward to the national conference in
Jacksonville!
Healing Music Blog
Music and the NICU: NY Times reports on newest
study
On Monday, April 15, the New York Time reported
on yet another study documenting the benefits of
music with preemies in the NICU (neo-natal
intensive care unit). It’s one of those many
music healing/music medicine phenomena wherein
an ancient practice, known since the beginning
of time as lulling or singing softly to your
newborn for calming, soothing, and comforting,
is studied in modern times and found to be
beneficial! And it’s a good thing!
When I started my family back in 1975, I know
that I wanted to do everything as naturally as
possible. I knew that, as a professional
musician and music teacher, that my unborn and
newborn baby would be hearing lots of music all
day every day. Today, my oldest daughter is a
professional music in Boston and hear daughters
also hear music, classical music, all day, every
day. There is no question that when a baby is
growing inside the mother, the baby can hear
mother’s heartbeat, digestive sounds, and
eventually, her voice. When a mother sings to
her unborn baby, that baby begins to associate
her mother’s voice with love, safety, security
and protection. This is exactly why I encourage
all pregnant women to sing or hum softly to
their unborn child. You never know when baby may
decide to come early, for whatever reason, and
if mother has been singing all along, those same
songs will prove to be a huge asset.
The study reported in the NY
Times documents that babies who are sung to by
their mothers, gain weight faster, stabilize
their body temperature and pulse sooner and are
ultimately discharged sooner!
Benefits of Surgery with
Music: Medical Research Documents
As the word spreads about your options for using music during
surgery, the studies come out, documenting the benefits, and the
list of benefits grows and grows. Here are a few of the main
benefits for the patient having general anesthesia:
For the patient: Slow, steady, and soothing instrumental music can:
Decrease anxiety and the need for as much anxiety
medication
Decrease the amount of propofol needed as a
result of patients level of relaxation
Decrease the amount of pain medication needed
during and after surgery
Decrease the amount of time in the recovery area
as a result of
Less nausea and vomiting
Less dizziness and confusion
Faster recovery and back to work because of
less anesthesia
For the surgeon: Upbeat, steady tempo, instrumental
music can:
Improve focus
Maintain energy level
Decrease distractibility
For the hospital: Benefits of using separate music for
patient and surgeon
Safer procedures with less side-effects
Patients safely discharged sooner because of less
anesthesia and pain meds
Customer satisfaction sky-rockets
More patients are able to be seen during the day
My sincerest hope is that one day all hospitals will use music in their
operating rooms to soothe and comfort the patient in a natural and
effective way, through cordless, pre-programmed headphones, while the
surgeon has his favorite upbeat music that allows him to have a laser
focus and plenty of energy through speakers in the OR. There is ample
research to document all of these benefits. Click HERE to see a
presentation on Music with Surgery. Please feel free to contact me with
any questions!
For decades, scientists have been telling us
that the brain is the last unexplored frontier. Although we
still have so much more to learn, we have definitely learned
lots of new and wonderful information in the last 25 years,
things to PET scans and other new technologies for observing
the brain while it’s listening to music! Dr. Daniel
Levitan has done some of the most fascinating and compelling
research on what happens in the brain when different kinds
of music are played.
Recently CNN published the following article, which I wanted
to share with my readers! Enjoy!
(CNN) – Whether you are rocking out to Macklemore & Ryan
Lewis in your car or reading with Bach in your bedroom,
music has a special ability to pump us up or calm us down.
Scientists are still trying to figure out what’s going on in
our brains when we listen to music and how it produces such
potent effects on the psyche.
“We’re using music to better understand brain function in
general,” said Daniel Levitin, a prominent psychologist
who studies the neuroscience of music at McGill University
in Montreal.
Three studies published this month explore how the brain
responds to music. The quest to dissect exactly what
chemical processes occur when we put our headphones on is
far from over, but scientists have come across some clues.
For nearly two decades, I've been helping people use the music that
they already love to heal their lives and increase their wellness
quotient!
I
am one of the world's only clinical musicologists and hold
a Masters degree in piano performance, a Ph.D. in
musicology and a Master of Social Work in clinical social work. I
am also a licensed clinical social worker. I work with people and
diagnoses of all kinds, enabling them to find healing, acceptance and
hope.
I love
performing, researching, and teaching and have put them all together
in a career called "Music Medicine."
Dr. Alice H. Cash is often asked to share her
Grand Rounds Presentation with hospitals' doctors and staff. Learn
what is currently happening around the world and the results they are
having.
"It was the
easiest of all hand surgeries! I was listening to music, then a slight
lull of nothing and then back to the music. Wonderfully comfortable. The
best surgical experience yet. I am honored to know, worked with and
utilized Dr. Cash's magnificent creation. I do hope the medical field
understands the import of her invention!"
I
am one of the world's only clinical musicologists and hold
a Masters degree in piano performance, a Ph.D. in
musicology and a Master of Social Work in clinical social work. I
am also a licensed clinical social worker. I work with people and
diagnoses of all kinds, enabling them to find healing, acceptance and
hope.
