Music Therapy, Harmonizing Life’s Final Passage, presented by Rima Joy Starr at the NHO Conference
I am rather leery of the term music therapy. It has the ring of chakras, vocal toning, energy alignments, vibrations and other things esoteric. I have learned that in the long run these kinds of things just don’t pan out for me. So you can imagine my delight when upon entering this workshop there was absolutely no pretense. At the front of the room sitting behind a small Casio keyboard was a stately woman, obviously a performer, who was singing old songs and warmly inviting the session’s participants to join in. It was quite remarkable, and can you believe that in a few minutes we were all happily singing along as if we were old friends? From that moment on I was hooked on music therapy.
Rima Joy Starr has studied and knows all about the esoteric end of music therapy. She just doesn’t go there. Her work is somewhat different, she is a performer who brings people into the present. This is why she says that when she is doing her work she feels “close to God.” It sounds so simple and yet how often we forget, this is all that we can do! We can not cause healing, we can only set up the space for it to happen. In this case the music helps a great deal but healing is still in the province of the individual.
OK, we do bring technique and experience to our work. We bring our tricks. After Rima had demonstrated her techniques on us, a (formerly) grumpy audience, she went on to tell her story. She had been a music therapist for many years in a psychiatric setting, had done some hospice volunteering, and then, eventually, through a set of compelling coincidences took a job as a music therapist for the Jacob Perlow Hospice at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan. From the first day her experiences have shown her the profound effects that participating in music can have on those who are dying.
When Rima enters a room with music it is an experience which isn’t illness related. Besides providing a pleasant diversion, it “brings all the good things out.” It is an opportunity for joy, sadness, expression, communication. Rima found early on that she must match the mood that she sees in the room. If she tries to bring in her own agenda…forget it. This calls for a high level of attention and is not easy, but the music facilitates it.
Music has an organizing effect on the environment in that it is time ordered. It has the ability to stimulate memories, modify mood, soothe pain and calm & relax. It provides a mastery experience when everything else may be out of control. It can serve to bond the family or strengthen the patient’s spiritual connection. In her workshop, Rima gave examples, played a tape of one of her patients singing and showed a video of “Sibby.” This demonstrated the wonderful effects of music on someone who is seemingly confused and otherwise unable to communicate.
