Hospice of Midland is introducing a new therapy on the list, the gift of music. It all started with a music therapist at "Rays of Hope Children's Grief Centre" in Midland, after she saw how much it made an impact on children
“OH IT’S A GOOD DAY..FOR SINGING A SONG..” sings Stephanie Seaton music therapist.
We all have our own ways of coping with trauma or even just a bad day, but countless research shows the affects music can have emotionally.
“It’s better if they come to terms with that diagnosis and that's hard because there’s so many factors that go into it. They have families that they care for that they know is going to grieve. Or maybe they don’t know what’s on the other side, there's a lot of dealing with spiritual issues.." said Seaton.
Besides being a form of peace, the power of music is also known for opening communication with patients struggling with mental barriers, Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.
“They’ll hear me start playing and you know 'I hear something, I see someone playing'. And then one of my favorite parts is getting that eye contact, that’s huge for socialization and also emotional processing. Seeing like this person sees me, who I guess we would call absent cognitively they're suddenly present," said Seaton.
It goes a little something like this..
“So I might come in and ask her how she’s doing and have a little guitar in the background and she may tell me it’s a hard day. And I'm like 'ok, well what’s making it hard today? Ah, I didn't want to get up, I didn't want to get out of bed today, I didn't want to put on my shoes. My daughter was supposed to visit but she didn’t.' So then I would come in, change it up and say..
"Oh it's a hard day for singing a song, it's a hard day for moving along, it's a hard day what else could go wrong? It's a hard day from morning till' night.." sings Seaton.
We’ve all been through something that’s still eating at us or has changed us forever.. but the important thing is hope for healing and a happy future..
"Ok well it’s a hard day, how can we make it better? It's all about changing their focus from their pain to the future and what they could do to make it better," said Seaton.
