Music For Kiddos Podcast
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What do medical music therapists do? How do music therapists use music for procedural support?
To answer these questions and more, we sat down with music therapist Amy Love of Pediatric Music Therapy to talk about the work she does as a music therapist working in a medical setting.
If you haven’t met Amy yet, allow me to introduce her. Amy Love, MA, MT-BC, CPMT is a music therapist who currently works for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN where she developed initial programming for patients with rare and acute diagnoses from around the world. She is also the founder of Pediatric Music Therapy, a website that provides continuing education opportunities, support and resources for students and board-certified music therapists interested in expanding their knowledge of medical music therapy. Amy joined us on episode 21 of the Music For Kiddos Podcast to talk about supporting children during medical procedures as a music therapist.
What is procedural support?
Procedural support or “support during medical procedures” involves providing comfort and aid to a child or adult during invasive medical procedures to effectively cope with the event. Music therapists then, use music and “aspects of the therapeutic relationship” to support the use of healthy coping skills and decrease distress of clients during medical procedures (Ghetti, 2012).
What are some ways music therapists use music to support individuals during medical procedures?
Music therapists utilize music for procedural support in various ways such as:
providing music-assisted relaxation by continuously playing music (often, client’s preferred) and matching the tempo of the music to a patient’s breathing rate and gradually slowing down the tempo of the music in an attempt to reduce distress or the child’s level of emotional or physical arousal
actively engaging the child in musicing or music-making (listening, playing, composing, etc. as permitted by the procedure) to reduce awareness or decrease the perception of pain or anxiety produced by the medical intervention the child is receiving
providing music experiences as an outlet for “musical” expression and release of pain or anxiety experienced during the procedure such as engaging the child in drumming as physical release for the pain the child is experiencing (Tuden, 2001 as cited in Ghetti, 2012).
What type of music is provided?
The music provided will depend on the child’s preferences or music that has deemed conducive and necessary to support the child during the procedure. When you tune in to episode 21 of the Music For Kiddos Podcast, you’ll hear Amy Love’s original song “Sally the Snake” that provides opportunities for choice, rapport building, and self-regulation
Download Amy Love’s original song
“Sally The Snake”
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References:
Ghetti, C. M. (2012). Music therapy as procedural support for invasive medical procedures: Toward the development of music therapy theory. Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 21(1), 3-35.
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