The Role of Music Therapy

Music therapy can have a role in caring for the seriously ill and dying; it is one method that can help to ease pain and stress at the end of life.

• From Growth House's Goodbyes blog, by Deborah Bradley Ruder, she relates the role of harpist Nancy Kleiman. Kleiman shares her music across a variety of settings.

She doesn't have an assigned spot but goes where she is needed, whether to patient rooms or common areas. While riding in a crowded hospital elevator one day, a woman turned to her and said, "Do you ever play for patients? My mother is dying." "I'm right behind you," is Nancy's typical reply.

• Pallimed's new Case Conferences blog takes cases from the University of Pittsburgh Institute to Enhance Palliative Care and posts them twice a month, allowing comments and discussions. In the latest post, Andrea Scheve, MM, NMT, MT-BC, writes about the use of music and musical life reviews for a heart transplant patient.

Musical life reviews are a way for people to celebrate their lives, their love for each other, and their family traditions. Just as certain olfactory sensations can trigger memories and emotional reactions, auditory sensations (music) are linked to memories and emotions, making the life review process seamless in musical form.