Department News
Music's Healing Touch Soothes the
Sick, Stressed and Lonely

10/24/01
Jim La Velle

Music’s ability to make an imprint on our brains was demonstrated recently by a British study on the effects of music on the fetus in the last trimester of pregnancy.

The study found that one year after birth, the babies remembered the music heard in the womb and preferred it over unfamiliar tunes.

Few music therapists would be surprised. They’ve seen how music can influence human memory, emotional states and the way we process thoughts. They use the power of
music to calm the stressed and agitated and comfort the sick and lonely.

Music therapist Ellen Rayfield has been treating patients on campus since 1980, first as part of the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute and later in the UIC department of
psychiatry after the university took over the institute in 1994.

Rayfield says music can be used to treat many conditions she encounters regularly in the hospital.

“I was asked to see a patient who was having trouble sleeping. She was being treated for cancer and complained of being too cold to sleep. I brought in some CDs and as
we listened to soothing music, I asked her to envision a warm light growing in the center of her body. She started to unclench and soon was at the point of nodding off. She said it was the first time since her hospitalization that she’d felt warm enough and relaxed enough to sleep.”

If music can foster a sense of well-being, says Rayfield, it can also distance a patient from pain.

“For example, I was asked by a nurse to treat an extremely apprehensive woman who was about to have a central venous catheter placed. The procedure, which is often difficult and painful, was about to take place in her hospital room and several members of her family were on hand to lend support.

“I could see she was afraid and that the family members were upset, too. I asked her about her favorite music, which turned out to be gospel. So I began to sing a gospel song. Pretty soon she and her family joined me in singing while the medical team went about their preparations. She became so distracted and engaged by the singing she
barely reacted to the catheter being inserted.

“Later, the nurse told me she’d never seen the procedure go so smoothly.”

Music therapists treat patients of every age in a variety of settings, from children and adolescents dealing with developmental and emotional disabilities to adult and geriatric patients suffering from a variety of physical and emotional disorders.

If music is among the first things humans respond to, it is also among the last forgotten.

“Music memories are among the most persistent,” says Rayfield, “and music is one way to make a connection to patients otherwise out of touch.

“People who don’t respond to anything else have been known to get up and dance or sing when a stored memory is triggered.”

Rayfield, who occasionally plays the bassoon in the Evanston Ridgeville Park District Band, says all music therapists start out as musicians, then discover an interest
in therapy.

Music therapists must be accomplished in voice, piano, guitar and percussion, knowledgeable in composition, music theory and conducting, and flexible in a wide range of
music styles — classical to rap — since it is the patient who dictates the music used in therapy.

After acquiring at least a bachelor’s degree in music therapy, music therapists must complete a six-month internship in a program approved by the American Music
Therapy Association.

Every three months a new intern is accepted into the association-approved internship program headed by Rayfield in the department of psychiatry. The interns become part of the psychiatry department’s medical team and treat a wide variety of patients.

Just what approach the music therapist will take with a patient depends on the disability or illness.

“Sometimes seriously ill musicians become depressed because they can no longer play their instruments. I helped one guitarist undergoing chemotherapy to switch to an omnichord when he became too weak to work the frets. He and his wife were able to play together during the time he was here undergoing therapy, something that was
comforting to them both.

“With nonverbal patients, such as autistic children, we use drums, xylophones, tone bars — anything to give them a way to express themselves.

“Establishing rhythm patterns helps kids organize their thoughts.”

Disordered thinking is a symptom in several psychiatric conditions. In some cases, music may help restore order, she says.

“We had a number of inpatients being treated for schizophrenia who had musical training,” says Rayfield. “We encouraged them to form a combo and play together.

“At first the playing was, well, erratic, because their ability to think and to communicate with each other musically was impaired. But as their playing improved, so did their ability to organize their thoughts and interact with each other. They also reported a pronounced increase in self-esteem as staff and other patients recognized their abilities.”

Music can provide a touchstone to reality for patients who hear voices in their head. Listening to music on earphones stops the inner voices. Or it can bridge the terrible
isolation and fear felt by patients experiencing profound emotional illness.

“Even delusional and agitated people who need to be restrained become quieter and less lonely when music is shared with them,” says Rayfield.

“There is comfort in music. My job is to teach people how to access it.”