Music therapy is an evidence-based expressive arts intervention that is increasingly being integrated in health care centers throughout the country to aid in treating a variety of medical conditions: developmental disabilities, Alzheimer's disease, substance-abuse disorders, brain injuries, physical disabilities and chronic pain. The emphasis in music therapy is not on musical ability or mastery, but rather engaging in the sensory experience of sound, performance, movement, instrumentation or voice to affect change in the patient's well being.

Model of Wellness
Daniel's Music Foundation (DMF) is an innovative, non-profit, volunteer-run organization providing free music programs for people with disabilities from age three to adulthood in the New York City area. Its members have a range of disabilities, including Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, sensory processing disorders and paraplegia, to name a few. DMF aims to enable its members to benefit from training in musical instruments, voice, rhythm, song writing and more to experience emotional expression, community bonding, and the joy that music can provide. DMF members undergo 5- to 10-week classes in musical training and have a public recital twice a year. Staff includes a gifted group of volunteers, many of whom are music therapists, musicologists, college professors and performing musicians.

DMF seeks to build a community of people of all different abilities through music. "For the members and the caregivers who bring them to sessions, I believe they immediately get the sense that no one is judging them that regardless of their diagnosis, music is for all and they are not alone," explained musicologist Stephanie Jensen-Moulton, PhD. "Often medical intervention is about overcoming disability versus [simply] claiming who you are. Of course, it is beneficial to strive and work on getting from point A to point B. But an important alternative is often overlooked: living in your body. and finding joy and expression now, here in the present," Jensen-Moulton continued. "It is amazing to see the non-verbal members respond to music with some kind of phonation and then form words. There are connections being made."

Daniel's Story
Daniel's Music Foundation is the result of one personal journey of music and recovery. Daniel Trush, now 25, suffered a rupture of one of his five brain aneurysms while playing basketball at 12 years old. He was in a coma for a month and hospitalized for 341 days, then underwent years of rehabilitation. Music played a key role in helping him restore his life. "When Daniel was in a coma, he was connected to 16 IV lines beeping constantly," recalled Daniel's father, Ken. "I started playing music as a way to comfort myself and to communicate to Daniel." At first Ken played songs that communicated his feelings, like "I'm Not Giving You Up" by Gloria Estefan. "Then I made up my own song: 'I believe in you. no matter how long it takes. I would be with you.'" His father sang these words to Daniel nightly.Though Daniel did not speak for six months after awakening from the coma, his family and caregivers observed him mouthing the words to the song. "He retained the music and [we knew] that communication was going on," his father said. As Daniel recovered, he added words to the song that Ken had composed.

"Music was our common language," Ken stated. "I saw how music became the vehicle for Daniel to express himself, to gain self-esteem, build confidence and be creative." Ken noted the importance of balancing corrective goals with expressive goals. Daniel, for example, struggled significantly with mobility issues. "If you are constantly doing something that is wrong, it is easy to feel, 'I am wrong.'

​Through music, Daniel had the experience of doing something right." After three years of active rehabilitation, Daniel stopped all therapies but continued with music. After discharge from rehabilitation, Daniel has continued music therapy weekly for the past 9 years. He has learned to play the keyboard and has written original songs. After graduating from high school, Daniel started non-matriculated classes at Hunter College in New York City, where he took classes with Jensen-Moulton. "She helped me to find my passion for music," Daniel explained. Daniel also expressed interest in using music to connect with and help others, especially children. "I found that Daniel had a good ear for music, and then we started ear training," Jensen-Moulton said. "When I met Daniel, he changed my perspective on people with brain trauma, his spirit and enthusiasm for learning was infectious. We have been taught to view people with disabilities through a pre-assumed lens, despite who the person is as an individual.. and what their capabilities are." Today, as the co-founder of DMF, Daniel is actively involved in all areas of the foundation. One day a week he also volunteers at the pediatric unit of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine in New York, where he spent close to nine months in 1997 and 1998 during his recovery.

Music & Medical Recovery
Integrating Music Therapy Into Rehab OT's can explore integrating music therapy interventions on two levels. Individually, therapists can identify a client's specific treatment needs and then work with a music therapist to integrate this in sessions. When OT practitioners are formulating treatment plans with patients, it can be helpful to note the following benefits of music interventions that parallel common rehabilitation goals. Sensory stimulation. Music can provide both sensory and intellectual stimulation to patients. Music can stimulate the imagination, and can be energizing or distracting when one is fatigued, for example. Relaxation. Music can have a calming effect and can provide a patient with an "emotional break," either actively by engaging in playing an instrument or passively by listening to pleasurable music. Stress relief. Music is used in hospitals for a wide variety of treatment situations: producing calm to induce sleep, or lessening muscle tension for the purpose of relaxation. Self-expression. Music intervention can allow for creative ways to respond to mental health needs. It can elicit new feelings, lift mood or stimulate emotional release.

​Engaging in music can also strengthen non-musical areas such as communication skills and social functioning. It can sharpen cognitive functioning through eliciting musical responses. On a programmatic level, currently there are promising protocols for adapting music therapy interventions in rehab settings. Dr. Barry Bittman, consulting neurologist to DMF and director of the Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute, conducts research on the therapeutic effects of music. One model, Recreational Music Making (RMM), is an approach to guide patients through the process of playing a musical instrument without the goals of mastery or performance. The organization Health Rhythms has music intervention protocols that have been applied to cancer patients, at-risk youth and the elderly. "Musical interventions can become an enabling strategy," explains Bittman.

​"Despite the challenges a patient may face, you can engage them at any level with music, through sound, movement, listening; and this aids in a patient achieving wellness. In addition, for progressive disabilities, music can alter pain perception and has the ability to improve quality of life regardless of the progression of a medical condition." Reflecting back on the journey through Daniel's rehabilitation, Ken and Daniel emphasize that music therapy and organizations like DMF can facilitate growth and healing in part through the communities they build. When Daniel was in acute rehab he underwent five interventions a day. "I would have a lot of one-on-one, and it would be just me. I had little opportunity for group interaction," Daniel explained.
​
After seeing the amazing progress Daniel has made through music, the Trush family hopes that Daniel's Music Foundation can be replicated in other communities. "We believe that every community could benefit from having a music program," Ken Trush said.

As the year draws to a close, it is a time of celebration for all the advances in science and technology this year, which impact our health for the better. It is also a time for reflection and for supporting the health advocacy causes that are important to us. The season of giving has arrived!

Local, global, or issue-specific, the sophisticated online world of charitable giving can guide you on how to be an effective giver, with detailed resource tools to help you achieve the type of impact you would like to make with your donation.

The buzz of energy around New Year’s health resolutions has come and gone. No reason to be discouraged; we still have 11 more months to keep trying.
 
What I have learned from interviewing people over the years on goal setting is that unrealistic expectations can often deflate the
momentum of initial motivation. Successful goal achievers who do make it to a  desired endpoint get there not with magic, but with a formula of the basics—time, patience, repetition, and support. World Fitness Calculator and Superbetter, tech tools based on simple health principles can help boost your  body-mind wellness goals for the year.

David Milarch, a fourth generation tree farmer in Northern Michigan with a bent for rugged living, had a near death experience in the hospital, after refusing dialysis and facing liver failure. He had died, left his body and returned, but with a message from spirit guides telling him his work was not done yet. The earth’s trees were in trouble, and he needed to clone Champion trees to protect their genetics for the future of the planet.

Milarch, fueled by the message from the angels, co-founded The Champion Tree Project. Twenty years later, with a modest staff, he has accomplished what skeptics and scientists said could not be done: cloned the earth’s biggest and oldest trees – among them Sequoias and Redwoods - that have stood the test of time and are the most resilient to climate change.    

Few would dispute the countless benefits of exercise, but for
persons with complex medical conditions, standard exercise
programs are often not the right solution. Organizations such as NCPAD offer excellent education on modified  exercise programs specific to each health condition. The take-away guideline of this New York Times article is to engage in as much exercise as your body will tolerate. With medical  supervision, a variety of ways exist to adapt exercises to  provide challenge and accommodate limitations. Keep searching for the right type of exercise for your body. Movement creates momentum and health.

The gentle, meditative, paced movements of Tai Chi hold promise as a path of restorative exercise for those struggling with mobility challenges. A widely practiced Chinese martial art, Tai Chi improves balance, aids in stress relief, and promotes circulation of the "chi" (energy) - a therapeutic effect common in eastern healing modalities yielding balance in the body. The Arthritis Foundation sponsors a unique Tai Chi program, Sun Style,  created by Dr. Paul Lam. This program is composed of a series of movements tailored to the needs of persons diagnosed with arthritis.

Each time I attend a live musical performance, I am always awed by the soul-piercing effect of music on the audience, be it jazz, blues, gospel, rock, or classical. I witness how music moves the listener spurring relief, joy, play, or an escape into imagination.

Earlier this summer, I visited the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy and spoke with director,
Dr. Alan Turry, on the healing aspects of music and the unique treatment approach of the center.

“Pull on a single thread in nature, and you will find it
attached to everything in the universe,” says the naturalist John Muir. These words  came to mind when I recently discovered the cinematic artwork of mouth painter,  Moses Hamilton, 37, who lives in Kauai, Hawaii.  

Capturing subjects ranging from the mundane to the transcendent, Hamilton’s paintings draw the viewer into the breathtaking landscapes of Hawaii and tell a moving visual story of the island’s people. 

Mindfulness, the  practice of bringing our attention purposefully to the present moment, is taught widely in healthcare treatment as a tool to aid in stress relief and coping.
 
I recently spoke with  Ashley Mask, Manager of Visitor Experience and Access Programs at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York about Mindful  Connections, a guided monthly 90-minute art tour of the museum for persons with  dementia and their caregivers.