Music Therapy Today - World Federation of Music Therapy

Musical Healing
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ss/stories/s140922.htm
Musical Healing
Source: www.cbsnews.com/ April 16, 2006
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/16/sunday/main1501200.shtml
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Glenn Schifano is a music therapist - one of five thousand in the United
States. He "performs" at Schneider Children's Hospital in Long Island
and his audiences are children with life threatening diseases like cancer
and heart disease. He plays not for money, not for fame, but to heal and
offer hope. "It seeks to dispel some of the frustrating, suffering that goes
on here," Schifano tells CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Dan Rather
of his music. "A child that really can non-verbalize some of their angst,
some of their pain can really verbally, through music, express that," he
says. "It can be very healing." Schifano started his rounds on this day
with 5-year-old Jake Brower, who less than two hours earlier had his 10th
brain operation. "To put the shaker in his hand and then to get him to
shake on his own, I think it was empowering for him and also empower-
ing for parent," Schifano says. Baby Sekura is suffering from a head
injury and Schifano is playing for both the baby and her father. "You can
just imagine dad feeling overwhelmingly anxious -- they both got into
this kind of lull and that is the hope, what you wanna do. That's, you
know, the baby to feel that the father is calm, the mother is calm, there is
safety there, there is security there," Schifano explains.
Odds and ends - themes and trends 442