FOR YOUR HEALTH: Using music as a means to help with healing
Physical therapy is used to help the body recover and regain use and strength after injury or surgery.
Occupational therapy helps develop the coordination to complete day to day activities like dressing and cooking. Speech therapy helps with swallowing and talking. These are commonly talked about and used therapies.
University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center offers another type of therapy that helps with stress management, healing and recovery: music therapy. Board certified music therapist Rebekah Smith, MT-BC, uses music as a means to help patients on their recovery and wellness journey here at UH Samaritan.
What is music therapy? Bekah states that in its simplest form, music therapy is using music to treat “non-musical” goals, or clinical goals. This means different types of music therapy interventions are used to help address a patient’s most immediate needs, such as pain perception, anxiety, stress, or emotional support and coping.
Music as a means of of self-care, relaxation
Bekah also uses music therapy within the community to promote wellness through education and special events. These opportunities are used to teach things like music as a means of emotional regulation, self-care, or ways to relax and reduce anxiety throughout the day.
Some additional goals addressed by music therapists when providing care to patients include promoting stimulation or relaxation, facilitating memory or reminiscence, procedural support, enhancing mood, and promoting normalization of environment.
Once the main goals are identified, there are different types of interventions that can be utilized by the therapist to target them. For example, some interventions may include live music listening, songwriting, therapeutic singing, or improvisation through instrument play and lyrics.
Other music therapy interventions can include music assisted meditations and using technology devices to record or compose music
When a patient is in the hospital they see doctors, nurses, physical therapists and many other care providers. When a provider like a doctor or a nurse feels a patient is experiencing pain, experiencing high anxiety or stress, or is having an emotionally difficult time, they can refer the patient to music therapy, much like they would refer a patient who had a hip replacement to physical therapy.
Extra support for mental, emotional wellness
This referral will provide extra support to the patient, help maintain their mental and emotional wellness, and improve their overall outcome. The music therapist then sees each referred patient in their own room developing a specialized treatment plan for each patient.
As a University Hospitals Connor Whole Health music therapist, Bekah also focuses on using music therapy as a holistic means of treating the whole patient through offering different modalities. One example is the evidenced-based use of music therapy to support sleep.
Funded by Cleveland State University, Bekah conducted research during her undergrad studies which showed promising results in improving the sleep quality of a High School athlete suffering from post-concussion syndrome. Bekah also developed a sleep hygiene packet and guided sleep meditation track during her internship at UH Parma to support inpatient sleep quality.
Bekah is working on developing integrative programming to continue using her expertise and provide a wider variety of services to the patients at UH Samaritan Medical Center and Sleep Center.
University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center has providers to treat illness and injury, uses a multidisciplinary care team approach when caring for patients, and continues to uphold the commitment to provide compassionate care to the community. If you need a primary care provider, a specialist, or even an outpatient test, call 419-289-0941 or visit uhhospitals.org/schedule to schedule an appointment.
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: University Hospitals Samaritan sing praises of music therapy