Music Therapy is thriving at Boston’s Children’s Hospital

Music Therapy

Music therapy is thriving at Boston’s Children’s Hospital.  Less than 20 years ago, music therapy did not have a big presence at Boston Children’s Hospital.  Music therapists,once marginalized in a hospital setting, are now represented by four full-time accredited music therapists and spend 130 hours per week delivering music therapy services to the children there.

According to the site statnews.com, “Music therapy in children’s hospitals has grown over the past decade, particularly in the neonatal intensive care unit, said association spokesman Al Bumanis. Research has shown music therapy helps patients in a range of settings, including reducing preoperative anxiety, improving motor control, and helping premature babies develop.”

Deforia Lane, Ph.D., MT-BC works at Rainbow Babies and Children’s hospital in Cleveland.  She is one of the most successful and well-known music therapists working today.  She tells the story of being called into the room of a pregnant woman who was brain-dead, but the baby was still doing OK.  Dr. Lane recounted that she had no idea how she was going to deliver music therapy services to an unborn baby.  She says that she sent up a fervent prayer, asking God to guide her hands and her mind and her voice.

As Deforia Lane walked into the room, the mother lay there with eyes closed and machines quietly beeping.   Deforia knew what to do:  she walked over to this serene-looking mother, put her hands gently on the woman’s abdomen and felt the baby move just a little.  At that same moment she begin to sing softly “Jesus Loves Me, This I know.”  As she sang, the baby began to move and make her presence known.  Dr. Lane report that for the next few weeks she provided this “music therapy” to the unborn baby until it was time for the baby to be delivered.  When the moment came, a healthy baby girl was delivered and the Mom was unplugged from life support.

At Boston Children’s Hospital all kinds of children and their families are being healed and symptoms ameliorated.  Learn about music therapy in Boston here:  https://www.statnews.com/2016/06/27/music-therapy-children-hospitals/