 here are hundreds of stories to
tell about how music therapy has transformed children’s lives. No, there are thousands. Tens of thousands!” exclaims Fran Herman, a Toronto-based music therapist, author, artist and music therapy advocate for more than 50 years. Herman, known internationally for her early work with children with disabilities at what is now called Bloorview Kids Rehab, in Toronto, has been a life-long believer in the transformative power of music and its ability to improve the mental, physical and emotional functioning of individuals. “Music can be a powerful tool for change,” says Herman. “The effect music can have on those in need of its energy and spirit can be astonishing.”
As the music plays
“We think of Fran Herman as a pioneer in music therapy,” says Andrea Lamont, a music therapist at Bloorview Kids Rehab. “She laid the groundwork for everything we do now.” The hospital serves patients with challenges that vary from severe developmental disabilities, to acquired brain injuries, and emphasizes creative expression through the arts as a component of recovery. Lamont, who works in the Complex Continuing Care unit with children who require 24-hour care, explains, “We’re helping patients cope with hospitalisation through the act of being creative...music is a natural part of any nurturing relationship from birth to death. Through our whole life span we use music to help ourselves cope with challenges, so we’re just using it in a more organised and purposeful way when we go in as music therapists.”
Music therapy can help raise spirits, restore calm, provide emotional release and offer a means of self-expression to children, whatever their physical, cognitive or emotional challenges. Demand is growing for accredited music therapists in hospitals, clinics, schools and private practice (music therapy degree programs are offered at 6 Canadian universities), where they work as part of an interdisciplinary team developing a program of care based on each child’s special needs.
A meeting place
“Music is the place we meet,” explains Ruth Roberts, a music therapist at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto who works with patients with cancer and blood disorders and in the palliative care unit. “My work here is to provide them the time apart, a space where they can be free to express themselves and access their inner strength and resources for what they’re going through…music is a very powerful way to illicit a response from a child.”
Roberts brings her guitar, her flute and her voice to the patient’s bedside to engage the child in singing, song writing or just listening to the music. “The goal is not to cheer them up,” she explains.
“Certainly you want to bring them joy, but we know with music it’s much better to meet them where they are, so if they’re feeling sad, it’s better to acknowledge that in some way.” Roberts may play familiar music, but there’s an improvisational component as well, where she makes up songs or music on the spot to reflect the child’s response, and mirrors it back to them. One little girl said she hates taking pills, so they sang a song about that.
The families also take comfort in the music. “Anything that relieves a child’s pain or brings them joy eases the parents’ experience and stress,” continues Roberts, who sometimes records or videotapes the sessions as a keepsake for the families. Often, the parents are |
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invited to stay for the music therapy session; sometimes they value the time apart. On their return, the child is always eager to share what happened in the session. Roberts adds, “I’ve had nurses say it improves a child’s mood, they become more talkative and parents notice a difference.”
Without words
Music therapist Esther Thane runs a private practice for children with autism at her studio and a program for special needs elementary school children in the North Vancouver School District. She uses unusual instruments – horns, harmonicas, duck whistles, owl whistles, slide whistles and kazoos – and composes her own songs to keep the kids’ attention. “Change only happens if the musical experience is fun and enticing,” she explains. “When the child is engaging out of inner motivation, the work seems almost effortless.”
Thane’s school programs involve weekly sessions with small groups of special needs children and the aides assigned to work with them. Here the students, who attend integrated elementary school classes, learn the social skills they need to be successful in school life such as turn-taking, raising their hand, giving eye contact, and the more complex relationship skills – negotiating and compromising. “All of these kinds of social interactive skills can be addressed through musical experiences,” says Thane. It’s also about empowerment. “Making little choices like I want to choose which instrument I use, what song I want to write, can be a huge empowerment for a child and it lets them explore their emotions without always having to go to a verbal place.”
“One little girl said she hates
taking pills, so we sang a song about that.”
- RUTH ROBERTS | The music man
Kerry Burke, a private practitioner and teacher in the music therapy program at Capilano University, BC for over 30 years, leads 50 groups a week of two, three and four-year olds at pre-schools and daycare centres in Vancouver. He arrives dressed in his quirky, tie-dyed attire, toting an assortment of strange and wonderful puppets and instruments (many, homemade) – from bamboo xylophones to shiny maracas, triangles, drums and guitars. His goal is to help the kids learn about music and to deal with their different issues. “If I get the right music,” comments Burke, “it’ll get the shy girl to come out, the blaster boys to calm down and sit still, and the child who doesn’t speak English and has no idea of what’s going on to come over and take a look.” You have to keep them interested, Burke insists. “Kids are easily bored. They love new things, so I bring new things, odd things.” They dance. They sing. Laughter abounds. They love the novelty; the puppet stories; the music. H&L
Music therapy at work and more at: musictherapy.ca
friendsofmusictherapy.com musictherapytrust.ca
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