Music for Healing

An interview with Deborah Brown, Certified Music Practitioner
By Laurie Long

As Deborah plays her 16 string psaltery (similar to a small harp), you start to relax and feel your tensions drain away. The ringing of the phone, the traffic outside, the sirens in the distance…all fade into the background. Deborah is a CMP, a Certified Music Practitioner, qualified to provide therapeutic music to the chronically ill, elderly, critically ill, and the dying.

A CMP is a graduate from The Music for Healing and Transition Program, a course of study that includes medical and musical classes. CMPs provide live music as a service, not an entertainment. They are trained to be responsible and unobtrusive while providing beneficial, therapeutic music to an individual patient. The program can take 1-2 years to complete and includes a 45 hour internship playing music to patients in hospitals, hospices, and nursing homes. Most of the students in the program are either musicians, or healthcare workers with related interests in music.

And the scientific evidence supporting music for healing? Numerous studies have shown the benefit of music on the human nervous system. At the California State University in Fresno, studies showed that migraine patients who have started and continue to listen regularly to their favorite music have one-sixth as many headaches. Premature babies at UCLA in Los Angeles and at Georgia Baptist Medical Center in Atlanta gained weight faster and used oxygen more efficiently. Babies at the Tallahassee Memorial Regional Medical Center have shorter stays in the Intensive Care Unit when music was played for them daily, compared with babies in control groups without music. When used by surgical patients, music reduced the need for anesthesia and pain relievers. Even the National Institutes of Health and the US Senate Subcommittee on Aging have funded research on the use of music in PT and medical settings.

Research has shown that music can equalize and slow down brain waves, affect respiration, heartbeat and pulse, reduce muscle tension, increase endorphin levels, regulate stress-related hormones, boost the immune system, stimulate digestion and produce a feeling of well-being. More hospitals and medical institutions are now recognizing the benefits of music. Some are providing professionals for music therapy as a service to their patients.

Deborah herself has played to patients at Bayview and Parkshore in Seattle, and Stevens Hospital in Edmonds. The individual sessions are usually 20-30 minutes long. Deborah is a professional musician, classically trained as a pianist, harpsichordist, choral conductor, and specialist in elementary music education, but took up the psaltery for her work as a CMP. She finds that the gentle sounds of the psaltery are very soothing to her clients.  "People who are ill are often very sensitive to sound and need a quiet environment," she explained. "The psaltery is perfect for this."

Deborah has been a musician all her life, but only recently chose to become a Music Practitioner. "I never imagined I would do this," she said. "I first heard about it two years ago. My mother had passed away recently and then a close friend suddenly died of a heart attack. Losing people you love is always tremendous shock. I was talking about all this with another musician friend who has been fighting against cancer. She told me about this new field of therapeutic music."

"Once I started investigating it," she explained, "I was hooked". Deborah finished the Music for Healing and Transition Program in just one year. 

Deborah has played to a wide variety of patients; for newborns, for Alzheimer's patients, and for hospice patients. "I played for the newborns at Stevens Hospital," she recollects. "When I arrived they were screaming, but as soon as I started playing they all stopped crying. I play lullabies for them - Brahms, a slowed-down Mozart sonata theme, and similar gentle music."

The elderly patients often respond to old, familiar tunes. "I was playing for a lady who had a stroke," she explains, "and I discovered she was originally Scottish. So I started playing old Scottish tunes for her. She could hardly move, but she managed to smile. I also played for a woman with Parkinson's. The first time I played for her in the afternoon, when she was not able to indicate any visible response. The nurse suggested I come in the morning when she was more alert and sometimes able to talk. When I walked in she was so happy. She said 'Oh, I'm so glad you came back because I wanted to tell you how much I loved the music! 'It's such a wonderful feeling to be able to do that for someone."

Deborah has played for Alzheimer's patients and for hospice patients. She also makes calls to housebound and bedbound patients at home. Some of her clients have chronic diseases like MS, and some suffer from other aliments. Deborah tailors her music to the individual. "It's a very personal thing," she explains. "I gather information about the client and try to get a feeling for who they are and what they are about. Then I play music based on what I have learned and perceived. As I observe responses (or lack of responses) from the client, I sometimes change the music while I am playing."

"I'm now at the age where some of my friends are starting to pass on," Deborah explains. "This is leading me to a larger view of life; to an appreciation that in the continuum of life, dying is an important part of living."

"This has opened a door for me," Deborah says. "I hope my music can be a comfort and support to others who are in need of physical, mental, or spiritual healing."

Deborah Brown, CMP, can be contacted by phone at 206-322-9477
or by e-mail at Dbrown2559@aol.com.

The Music for Healing and Transition Program website is: ww.mhtp.org

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