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The Healing Arts In Palliative Care

November 13, 2017 - 08:05 AM YOU MAY HAVE HEARD that art can be therapeutic for those grappling with cancer or its aftermath. But what kinds of art can have these benefits, and how can patients and survivors decide which forms to pursue? What instruction and other help do they need?A recent conference in New York City offered a glimpse of some art forms that can be part of a palliative care plan designed to reduce suffering and improve quality of life. During the June 7, all-day palliative art conference sponsored by End of Life Choices New York and the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, presenters demonstrated how their art therapy programs help patients and their loved ones — no matter where......

Health Matters: Musical Healing for Kids

November 09, 2017 - 08:05 AM Music and laughter are probably not the sounds you would expect to hear from inside a hospital. But at Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida patients are encouraged to get out of their rooms and enjoy themselves. Doug MacGregor, Arts in Healthcare program coordinator says it’s all part of a nationwide movement focused on bringing art into the hospital. “It’s part of the Arts in Healthcare program. We use arts of all different kinds, expressive arts. We use theatre, we use music, and we use art to keep our patients busy.” Arts in Healthcare are designed to bring expressive and healing arts into the hospital. The goal is to help reduce stress and......

The Healing Transformation of Music

November 08, 2017 - 08:29 AM Modern life continues to be challenging. People find that they are assuming several roles: father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, partner, parent, child, student, professor, administrator. Technology is ever present with us. People have their I-Phones, Smart Phones where they are incessantly gazing at screens, reading and sending E-Mail, perhaps even staying detached and isolated from others. Where do people go for solace and peace in our modern digital age? Some opt for church, going to religious sacred sites, others may go to museums, and then there are others who attend the symphony. On October 29,2017, I had the pleasure to attend the Mendelssohn Reformation concert......

Healing Harmonies: Music Used to Treat Stroke, Dementia, and Even Cancer

October 29, 2017 - 08:05 AM Maybe you've heard the age-old saying, "Music has charms to soothe the savage beast." Back then, people believed in the healing power of music. Today, hundreds of years later, medical research shows they were onto something. Music therapy is now a growing part of many treatments. For example, when a massive stroke tried to take James Rodriguez's speech, the Music and Medicine program at Virginia's Sentara Healthcarehelped him get it back. James belts out "Amazing Grace" and all the old hymns that bring back happy memories from his days in the church choir. How Music Therapy Works We actually use more of our brain when we sing the same phrase versus when we speak......

Nature of Things Documentary Says Music Essential To Humanity

October 27, 2017 - 08:05 AM A fascinating new Nature of Things documentary created by two Edmontonians reveals music’s role in human evolution, while also exploring the power of song to heal body and mind. Images and settings in I Got Rhythm: The Science of Song include a baby crying, perhaps sympathetically, as her mother sings woefully, deaf rapper Sean Forbes teasing Def Jam records in a music video, and the sound of one of the world’s oldest found instruments — a four-note mammoth ivory flute dating back to the Ice Age. Interviews with scientists discuss experiments with brain reactions to songs played live versus canned, and the astonishing effect of music on the mobility of......

Egyptian Doctors, Therapists Explore Healing Powers Of Music

October 25, 2017 - 08:05 AM CAIRO — Have you ever thought about how music can be used in psychotherapy or to regulate blood pressure? For Egyptians, the answer is probably no. On Oct. 8, the Ministry of Health announced that it would hold a survey on non-infectious chronic diseases such as high blood pressure in a number of provinces so that needs for medicine and treatment can be reassessed. A source from the Ministry of Health told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that music therapy is unlikely to be part of this study. “Despite our belief that the percentage of people with high blood pressure in Egypt is one of the highest [in the Middle East] due to heavy......

Las Vegas Philharmonic Shows Music’s Healing Power At Concert

October 22, 2017 - 12:44 PM As Las Vegas reels, music heals. Donato Cabrera, the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s music director, has firsthand knowledge of music’s healing power — and will help the orchestra demonstrate exactly that at Saturday’s Smith Center concert. Initially conceived as an Oktoberfest celebration, the performance has metamorphosed into a musical tribute keyed to “standing strong,” Cabrera notes, in the wake of the Oct. 1 mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival. First responders from Las Vegas’ police, fire and emergency services, along with victims and their families, have been invited to attend the concert at no charge. (Limited free......

Can Music Heal Trauma? Exploring the Therapeutic Powers of Sound

October 17, 2017 - 08:05 AM An increasing number of music therapists are now treating people touched by traumas both big and small, highlighting humanity’s deepest connections with music in the process. Imagine you are a newborn baby in an intensive care unit. Maybe you were born prematurely, or didn’t get enough oxygen during the delivery. There might be an IV in your tiny arm, with a small board holding it down so you can’t rip it out. You might have a tube going into your nose. You are alone, finally stabilizing after a traumatic event. But then, the doctors come in. “It’s as if you are finally safe in your nice warm bed and suddenly, out of nowhere, someone rips the sheets off of......

Jeff Miers: The healing power of music

October 08, 2017 - 08:05 AM Sometimes it seems to me that the music knows more than I do. Lyrics from a favorite Flaming Lips tune of mine had been popping into my head at random all through June and July, and I was simultaneously trying to ignore them and discern whatever it was they were trying to tell me. The Lips' song "In the Morning of the Magicians" pokes its finger into some serious existential issues, as its narrator makes his way through the brief-but-emotionally-resonant space between the first morning bird's call and the rising of the sun. It begins with the singer pondering the qualitative differences between love and hate, his thinking still a bit fuzzy as he emerges from a dream. It ends with a rather......

Using music to break barriers in homelessness, mental health

September 26, 2017 - 07:00 AM In a session here at Psych Congress, Vijay Gupta, MM, director of Street Symphony and violinist, illustrated the power of music in mental health and homelessness. Gupta established Street Symphony, a classical music outreach non-profit organization that performs for homeless and criminalized individuals in Los Angeles. The session began with a performance of a Schumann piece by Gupta and his colleagues. According to Gupta, Schumann struggled with mental illness himself, as did Bach, Beethoven and several other famous classical musicians. “[I began to realize] in this music, I wasn’t just telling the story of some dead white guy,” Gupta said. “But I was......

News

The Healing Arts In Palliative Care

Health Matters: Musical Healing for Kids

The Healing Transformation of Music

Healing Harmonies: Music Used to Treat Stroke, Dementia, and Even Cancer

Nature of Things Documentary Says Music Essential To Humanity

Egyptian Doctors, Therapists Explore Healing Powers Of Music

Las Vegas Philharmonic Shows Music’s Healing Power At Concert

Can Music Heal Trauma? Exploring the Therapeutic Powers of Sound

Jeff Miers: The healing power of music

Using music to break barriers in homelessness, mental health

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