Sound the Soul: Music Therapy and Cancer Patients
Source: www.mca.org.au
Topic: Music Therapy
Sort Desciption: I have been practicing as a music therapist working with people who have cancer, aged 16 to 90+, at The Royal Melbourne Hospital ...
Content Inside: Sound the Soul: Music Therapy and Cancer Patients Emma O’Brien ‘In music therapy there is a power, and in that power there is healing’ Greg, 42 yr old bone marrow transplant patient and cancer survivor (The Age, 2003) Background of the music therapy program I have been practicing as a music therapist working with people who have cancer, aged 16 to 90+, at The Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) for the past 7 1/2 years. I originally began the program as a pilot during my final year of post-graduate music therapy training (June, 1997) at the University of Melbourne. Throughout our two year course we are placed with practising music therapists, getting hands on experience of all the methods and applications we learn. At times we are able to set up placements with supervision from another discipline. I approached RMH and received enthusiastic feedback from many units, commencing a 6-month pilot music therapy program in oncology, the bone marrow transplant unit, palliative care, early psychosis, and rehabilitation. I was overwhelmed by the support from the medical and nursing staff and other allied health practitioners. It was an excellent opportunity for the units to experience music therapy; perhaps the fact it was free was also appealing, and of course it provided me with an enormous learning curve. I will always be grateful to the patients that I met in those first six months who guided my practice and embraced this new program with enthusiasm. They gave me precious insights into their struggles and triumphs and certainly reshaped my view of the world. Working in the hospital environment consolidated my belief in the therapy inherent in music, and its ability to connect with people as a universal language that goes beyond words. Seeing the role of music in uplifting their spirits and easing their pain reinforced for me that I had made the right career choice, changing from primarily being a performer to being a music therapist. I left after the agreed ...
music therapy and cancer patients