The concept of music as a healing influence, one which can affect our health and behavior is at least as old as the writings of Aristotle and Plato and in some cultures, long before that. 

Music Therapy, as a 20th century profession formally began after World Wars I and II when community musicians of all types, both amateur and professional, traveled to Veterans hospitals around the country to play for the thousands of veterans suffering both physical and emotional trauma from the wars. The patients' notable physical and emotional responses to music led the doctors and nurses to request the hiring of musicians by the hospitals.

Listen in as I talk with Kristi Faby, the Director of Creative Arts Therapies at The South Shore Conservatory about the healing powers of music and how we can incorporate music therapy into our everyday lives.

Drink of the Week: Gin and Juice 

https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/2172/gin-and-juice

This episode is sponsored by Nickerson, a full-service branding, marketing, and PR and communications agency with team members in Boston, LA, Miami, and NYC. https://nickersoncos.com/

Julie Brown:

Website- ​https://juliebrownbd.com/

Instagram- ​https://www.instagram.com/juliebrown_bd/

LinkedIn- ​https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-brown-b6942817/

Youtube- ​https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIwWVdayM2mYXzR9JNLJ55Q

Lovely Day Playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0YJaZb1K09tSg36fRpbmzS

Kristi Faby

www.ssmusic.org

k.faby@sscmusic.org

Episode Research

https://www.nm.org/about-us/northwestern-medicine-newsroom/nm-news-blog/power-of-music-to-cope-with-covid-19

https://www.musictherapy.org/about/musictherapy/

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/jpm.2020.0739

Social media feeds have been filled with tick talks and reels

of people singing and dancing.

The volume of these types of videos exploding during the ongoing pandemic.

And not because we had a lot of extra time, but because of the

simple fact that music helps us cope.

Welcome to episode 77 of this shit works.

I'm your host, Julie Brown.

And today.

I am joined by Christy.

Faby, the director of creative arts therapies at the south shore

conservatory, where we are discussing music therapy and its healing powers.

This episode is sponsored by Nickerson.

A full service, branding, marketing PR and communications agency

with team members in Boston.

Los Angeles, Miami and New York city.

Visit them at Nickerson C O S.

Dot com.

The concept of music as a healing influence, one which can affect our

health and behavior is at least as old as the writings of Aristotle and Plato.

And in some cultures long before that.

Music therapy as a 20th century profession, formally began

after world wars one and two.

When community musicians of all types, both amateur and professional.

Traveled to veteran's hospitals around the country to play for thousands

of veterans suffering, both physical and emotional trauma from the wars.

The patient's notable, physical and emotional responses to music led the

doctors and nurses to request the hiring of musicians by the hospitals.

When I think of music, I think of it as a constant thing.

That's in the environments that bring people together as in

concert venues, houses of worship.

Sports arenas, but it's also an environment in which we say goodbye.

I remember when my father was in hospice and the last days of his

life, multiple strokes had robbed him a visibility to move and talk.

What I learned is that even though he could not communicate with us.

He could still hear us.

The hospice facility had a musical therapist on staff and

she came in his room with her guitar and asked us if we wanted

Her to play any music.

None of us had any idea what Timmy might want to hear at a time like this.

And none of us are very mushy sentimental people.

So we ended up singing joy to the world.

But not the one you're thinking of.

We sang the three dog night, one, you know, The Jeremiah was a bullfrog one.

To this day, 12 years later, when I hear that song, I am transported

back to that moment, sitting on his hospice bed and it is a good memory.

It makes me smile.

A special report by the journal of palliative medicine.

Titled use of palliative care music therapy in hospital settings.

During COVID-19 published in 2021 states music with its powerful

sensory and emotional immediacy can uniquely bridge social distances,

reduce stress and promote wellbeing during the COVID 19 pandemic.

And palliative care music therapy has been shown to alleviate pain, depression,

anxiety, and breathlessness, and enhance patient sense of spiritual connection.

Christie is here to shade.

Christie is here today to share her experience.

Christie is here today to share her expertise and experiences with music

therapy and discuss how we can all begin to incorporate some of the benefits

of music therapy into our lives.

Even today.

Christy.

Hello, welcome to the podcast.

Hi, Julie, thank you so much for having.

So you didn't start off your career as a music therapist or you didn't be

go to school to be a music therapist.

You were actually going to be a lawyer.

What made you change your career direction?

Sure.

So, for my undergraduate degree, I went to Florida state university

and I was in the marching band.

I played saxophone.

I grew up playing the soon, which is a woodwind instrument.

And music has always been a huge part of my life.

I got my bachelor's degree in psychology, but I was also interested

in issues related to social justice.

So I got a certificate in international human rights.

And as part of that, I had an internship working with refugee clients at the

international rescue committee in Atlanta.

And I really loved this type of work.

And when I asked my professors, what sort of fields might be good for me?

They all said to go to law school.

And so 21 year old Christie thought this was the best choice for helping people.

So I completed my first year of law school and then after my

one hour I had a fellowship, but something felt really off to me.

It, I really liked working with the different clients that came

in, but I didn't necessarily love the legal aspects of the work or

what it entailed to be a lawyer.

So I took some time off.

And during that time I dusted off my bassoon and I practiced, and I

went back to Florida state for a master's degree in music therapy and

have been thrilled ever since that I was able to combine my passions

for advocacy and, um, innovation and progress and fighting for what's right.

The legal aspects that I loved into this profession, helping people using music as.

How do you combine them in your role now?

How do you work with people?

Sure.

So now I am a director of creative arts therapies.

So I have a largely an administrative role, so I can do a lot of

program planning and development.

Reaching out to different organizations who may need our services.

A lot of coaching of the therapist, a lot of education around what we do.

a lot of advocacy with explaining why our services are so important and, advocating

for our clients and their needs.

And so that's what I mean by.

Sort of aspects of law school that I was attracted to in my current role.

And then as a therapist, I've worked with people at the

beginning of life in the NICU.

I'm actually a NICU music therapist and I've worked with people at the

end of life in hospice, and actually got to do music therapy for somebody

while they were actively dying.

And they were able to let go during our music therapy

session with their child there.

So that was really, really special when.

Talk about your experience with music therapy.

I had the experience as the therapist in that scenario,

and it's just very powerful.

Tell me about, NICU music therapy.

Cause I don't think I've ever heard of that.

What does that entail and what are the.

For the patients.

Sure.

So there's different models of Nikki music therapy.

I was trained at Florida state university under Jane Standley and that's her area

of research is making music therapy and.

NICU music therapy is using , a combination of music and massage

techniques to ensure that little ones in the NICU who are constantly overstimulated

can acclimate more to their environment.

And it's more comfortable for them.

There's pagers going off.

There's like, That are going on and off there's family members

visiting other babies in the NICU.

And so it can be a very stressful environment for this little one or

two pound new person in the world.

And so we use different techniques to acclimate them to the, their environment.

And there's also a device called.

The pal and that's sort of a pacifier that's been invented,

but when the baby sucks on it, music plays to reinforce sucking.

So you can actually use music to help a newborn babies in the

NICU learn how to feed and sock, which is a problem for them.

Hm.

Is it always the same kind of music.

Is there like a specific sort of binaural beat or kind of music that you use

in the NICU and what is the science behind using that specific sound?

Yeah.

Sure.

So you want to use music that the parents can sing along to

with their babies and carry over.

And so there's actually a list that Jane Stanley has published of

songs that you can use in the NICU.

You want to make sure that they're not alerting songs.

You want to make sure that you start off.

Just your voice and you go very slowly as to not overwhelm them.

And you also want to make sure you're working with medical personnel to be

monitoring any vitals, to make sure that the baby's responding appropriately.

I think this is so interesting, working with NICU

and then also working in hospice.

So what, have your experiences been working in hospice?

I'm assuming the music is for the person who's passing on, but it's also there.

for the families as, as, as therapy, as for the family.

Definitely.

So it can look different depending on who you're working with.

Obviously, I had a practicum and graduate school went in hospice and we

would go visit clients where they were.

So one patient was in a skilled nursing facility.

There wasn't a lot of family around, so we just worked with that patient.

And then one of the patients in hospice was at their home.

And again, The family wasn't around while we were there.

So that looked different than when I was working in long-term care,

which is where the majority of my music therapy work has been so far,

where families are coming in and out.

A lot of times you have nursing assistants.

There, you have nurses, you have different activities, professionals, and you can

really involve everybody in the music.

but I call project that some music therapists do actually

incorporating technology, with family members are legacy projects.

And one of these is a heartbeat recording.

So there's actually a technology where you could.

Record a patient's heartbeat and you can time your music to the heartbeat

and record music over that and hand it on a CD to loved ones after they pass.

And so that's a therapeutic tool for family members, but it's also

just a therapeutic tool for the family members to be able to see.

What is still left of their loved ones, what they are

thinking that they can express.

But like you said, sometimes you can't speak, but you can still sing or sometimes

you're not moving, but you could tap your toes when the music comes on.

And that's very therapeutic for loved ones to see that, that, that light

is still there and the individual, and that never goes out because

hearing is the last sense to go.

So it's such a gift.

Yeah, I didn't realize that hearing was the last sense to go until I was told.

When my father was in hospice and you, we're just, you know, we're kind of,

you know, we're Irish and we're kind of like gallows, humor, kind of people.

We, we were tying to like make his last days, like really like vibrant and fun.

And that sounds terrible, but it's what we were trying to do.

And we were scolded by the people in the hospice facility because we, our

room was so loud and rambunctious.

Other people were not, I mean, everybody grieves in their own way, but we were

told that we had to stop laughing and having fun , because it was just other

people, you know, we were just, you can imagine with this voice and then

a room full of voice, people who have voices like this, you know what I mean?

But we are hospice, experience was, was very gregarious and.

It was just, it was very, it was very interesting.

So yeah.

Um, I would love to know, I mean, we're not in a position in our lives

where all the time where we are either facing something like a NICU,

situation or a hospice situation.

So how can people.

Knowing that music is a great tool for therapy.

Are there ways that people can start incorporating it in their lives?

And how would they do that?

What would that look like?

Yes, that's a great question.

So Dr.

Joy Allen at Berkeley, she's the head of their music therapy

department and she also directs their Institute for music and health.

Um, Her.

And I were meeting the other day and she said something that is brilliant,

that when you have a different issue, medically, it can range from you just

need a band-aid or you need to go into surgery and using music is the same way.

So when you meet.

Sort of a band-aid before you reach any type of point where you may

require a music therapist in your life.

, there's a tool called the ISO principle that We use in music therapy that you can

transfer over to your own personal life.

And that is the principle that you always meet somebody where they are.

So you look at the.

Breathing, you look at whether their eyes are open or closed.

You look at whether they're smiling and laughing or they're crying.

You look at whether they're hunched over or they're upright and you use the music

and you use how you present yourself to that individual to meet them where they

are and bring them along, um, to where they want to go based on their goals.

And we can do that in our own lives with music.

I know that there's a time where people loved creating playlist.

And I suggest that everybody create a playlist for themselves, for wellness,

and you can create a bedtime playlist.

You can create a fitness playlist.

You can create I'm really stressed out and I just need to relax, or I

need to energize myself playlist.

And, um, you would use the ISO principle to start where you

currently are in your mind.

And you would match the music to that.

And then you would elevate the music based on the tempo or the volume, or

how many musical layers there are.

If you want to boost your mood and boost your energy so you want to consider the

rhythm, you want to consider the volume.

you want to consider the texture of the music, which is just, do I just need

a simple guitar playing a melody, or am I ready for a singer and a guitar?

And am I ready to add the drums in?

And so you can use all these musical element.

To get you where you want to go.

So it's just about being mindful about what you're listening to and knowing

that that has an influence on your body, whether you're realizing or not,

um, rhythm such an important part.

Everyday life for us and of how our brains process things.

So just knowing that the music you're listening to affects you and

making your playlist to match a mood.

And Dr.

Suzanne Hanser also from Berkeley, has a great book out and it's called managing

your stress and pain through music.

And she actually has a worksheet in it that takes you through.

How do I evaluate my current mood?

How do I scan myself to know how I'm feeling?

What do I want to feel like?

What is some music that's been comforting for me and these certain

scenarios and how you can create your own sort of wellness playlist.

So there are great resources out there.

Yeah.

When I think about when I was a kid, we made, cassettes, and we

would do that for each other.

We would make these cassettes and they were like the summer of whatever

set, you know, summer of 92 cassette, music has a way of just transporting

you back to a time and place as well.

Like there's some times I hear a song and I am immediately back

to high school or back to, when I first met my husband or whatever.

I mean, it has a real power of, of just transforming you to another time.

Definitely.

And it's really interesting when you see the research and you work with

individuals with Alzheimer's with music, because there's actually.

Uh, recent findings within the past few years that musical memories

can not be lost to Alzheimer's and they may not remember the Beatles

might be too recent for their, for a 90 year old, but they will likely

remember something from the 1940s or.

Maybe 1950s., but it's pretty remarkable that that's still in there.

And the playlist that you made for your friends on the consents are

actually what you'll likely remember when you're older, because that's the

time where we're releasing all these sorts of hormones that are going to

make those memories stick in there.

And memories that are tied to emotions are more likely to stay in your brain.

So.

That's the type of music that you'll be wanting to listen to

in your eighties and nineties.

One

Great.

The hospice facility is going to really love it.

When I ask somebody to come in and play nineties hip hop.

Hmm.

you have a good music therapist, they will play that for you.

That's great.

Um, is the music therapy, something that somebody like?

So, you know, I I've seen a therapy for anxiety and like people go

to marriage counseling and some people will go to, a sex therapist.

Is there a way you can, is it, is it something that's always

combined with something else?

Or can you say I need music therapy?

Like how you'd never hear somebody saying, oh, I'm going to, well, I

don't you do, but you don't hear it was saying, I'm going to a music therapist.

You hear people say, I'm going to a therapist for this and this and this, but

is how, how does that work with with, can somebody just say I need music therapy.

Sure.

So there's different types of music therapists, there's music therapists

that are also licensed mental health counselors as part of their training.

And so that's somebody that would be trained in traditional talk therapy and

can also utilize music therapy techniques.

So that would be probably somebody that's appropriate for something

that you're talking about.

There's also people who work in mental health, using guided

imagery in music therapy.

and different mindfulness techniques, which would be great in your scenario.

Um,

the individuals that I can think of that.

It's just part of their routine and it's part of their family's routine

to say we're going to music therapy now would be somebody like a person

with autism who really benefits from the social connection of music therapy

and music is really, uh, a language that they can use to communicate

back and forth with their therapist and establish that positive rapport.

And work on communication and things like that., and also processing emotions and

self-regulation, and I also see, children with developmental delays where music

therapy as a standalone therapy for them.

And of course they may receive physical therapy and occupational therapy

and speech, language pathology, but music therapy would be considered

a service like that for them.

There's also, we have a music therapist at south shore conservatory who goes and

sings music one-on-one with an individual with Alzheimer's and their home.

And So, that's an individual that just thought, Hey, I could

benefit from music therapy.

So that's where I see that being more common.

But I do know that there's a lot of music therapists out there that

work in the mental health space.

Psych is not my specialty, but I'm a neurologic music therapist.

And so I work a lot with individuals who have had strokes

or traumatic brain injuries.

Alzheimer's Parkinson's autism, et cetera.

Is there any pushback on music therapy as not a, not a

science, like, not like, not as strict science that people do.

People think it's a little too squishy or

Right.

not rigid enough as a, as a scientific protocol for using it.

Yeah, sure.

Um, actually that is a problem that music therapists encounter very frequently.

I think the look of somebody coming in with a guitar on their back and

carrying the instruments, maybe it looks a little hippy to some people.

Um, not that there's anything wrong with that, but, , There's so much research,

like you said, since the world wars that we can point to, to show here's

what happens on a brain scan when your brain is exposed to music, here's what

happens, to your ventral vagal system.

When you establish a positive rapport with your therapist and you have these positive

interactions, here's what happens with anxiety levels based on a case study of a

person who received music therapy before their operation, et cetera, to point to.

And I think part of really advocating for What we do is being able to speak

the language of the people we talk to.

So if you're working in the hospital, The way that you document

is going to be similar to the way a nurse or a social worker or a

speech pathologist with document.

If you're working in a school you better know about IEP is and what

goes on that and being able to speak that language and that's how we're

able to help change people's minds.

What I'd love to know is , is this something that corporations can

bring in you think about all the perks we have, for our different companies.

And a lot of it is around, , wellness and whatnot.

So how could corporations say we're going to Institute

music therapy , in our office?

Like, how would that, what would that look like?

Yeah.

So they would reach out to a music therapy department and they could reach out to

south shore conservatory and contact me if they wanted to, to talk about it.

, a lot of workplaces are going to need this type of programming

in the wake of the pandemic.

And, part of what we offer is we have yoga and mindful.

As a part of our creative arts therapist, team, we also have dance therapy because

we know that movement is really important.

And our dance therapist is a licensed mental health professional.

And we have drum circles that we offer, which is a really like?

loose, accessible way for people to be able to connect with themselves

and form a community and not feel the pressure of, oh, I don't see me or I

don't play music because anything you create outside of yourself is great.

I don't know the exact research behind it, but in a lot

of the research that I've done on music and music for confidence,

like the idea that a steady beat.

So like you were mentioned drum circles, the idea of a steady beat is something

that somehow in our evolutionary process, it's something that we are

tied to is just that beat of a drama.

And I, you know, even think about like, Well going back to wars, but

you always had a Fife and drum and wars because that's how you kept beat

and kept people, together bands of

Yes.

gather.

So it just makes sense that that is something that would in a very primal way

is some, is a way that you would unite us.

It totally makes sense.

And when you strip everything away and you just look at the essence

of what's keeping us alive as human beings, it's a beating of our heart.

So it's so essential.

And if something is off with the rhythm of your heart, There's something that might

be wrong and you go see a doctor about it.

So the study rhythm like indicates that we're doing well.

, and it's something that ties us to everybody.

And I think I was reading some research on the polyvagal theory and they were

talking about when you are around someone who makes you really, really happy and.

Can include a dog, like spending time with your dog.

I have a dog named banjo and when you're with them, we actually in.

To, each other's rhythms in a really lovely way that is amazing as living

beings, how important that rhythm is.

It really shows that.

And another part about rhythm is music therapists actually work closely with

physical therapists and occupational therapists in some instances and rehab

with gait training, with individuals, with Parkinson's for instance,

and using a steady beach to even.

There gate.

And so it's that powerful.

So people want to learn more about you and the work that you do and music

therapy and incorporating it into their personal lives or in their companies.

How can they get in touch with you?

Yes, they can visit SSE music.org/c a T.

They can also email me at K dot.

As in Frank, a B as in boy, y@socmusic.org.

So K dot faby@ssemusic.org.

And to learn more about music therapy in general, you can go to music

therapy.org, and that's the website for the American music therapy

association, which guides our profession.

Oh, that's excellent.

Okay.

So I will listeners, you don't have to remember all that.

I'll put it in the show notes.

I'll put links to that in all the show notes.

Thank you so much.

This was really lovely.

This is a great conversation.

Thank you so much, truly.

I really enjoy talking to you and thank you for your interest in

the creative arts and wellness.

I think it's really needed right now.

Great.

All right, thanks.

So what does music therapy have to do with networking?

Well with a cursory glance, you might not think much.

But like most things in our life that don't seem to have a

greater connection or a meeting.

If you dig deeper, you might just see how it all goes together.

Like Kristi said, there's an undeniable fact that each and every one of us is

carried along by the steady, rhythmic beat of our heart inside our chest.

And there is now quite a bit of evidence that shared musical preferences create

and strengthen social relationships.

Music has also been shown to boost oxytocin levels with the brain,

which heightens our sense of trust and favoribility towards others.

So when building relationships with others, can you find a way

to allow music to be one of the things that you share and bond over?

Can you share music with others in your network?

Remember the cassettes we used to make both the nostalgia of the

physical cassette is lost, but you can still recreate that feeling with

a thoughtfully curated playlist.

I remember at the beginning of the pandemic, when bill Withers died.

I created a playlist for all the people on my email newsletter list, entitled it.

Lovely day.

The playlist was a compilation of all of my favorite bill with her songs and also

others that had that same feel, good vibe.

I emailed the list to everyone so I could share the good vibe with

them and ask them to add their favorite field goods to the playlist.

If they wanted.

So many people wrote me back and thanked me for sending them the playlist.

Some added their favorite songs to it as well.

The playlist still exists.

Actually, um, I'll add a link to it in the show notes so that you

can get in on the good vibes to.

Is there a song that you hear that always reminds you of someone.

Do they know it?

If not send them a link to the song and let them know, say, Hey,

I don't know what it is, but this song always makes me think of you.

Or, Hey, remember when we were doing this and this song came on or we were on that

road trip, or we were at that conference.

That's fun.

Yes, music therapy is important.

In the big, important, scary times of our lives, like Kristy

does helping babies in NICU.

We're helping someone transition to the other side.

But it's also important in the small everyday moments too.

So, how can you begin to use music to better connect with

the people in your life?

I mentioned in the interview that when I'm in hospice, the facility

probably won't like me asking the music therapist to play nineties hip hop.

Well, I'm on my death bed.

And that's exactly where the inspiration for this week's cocktail comes from.

It's gin and juice inspired by the popular hip hop song, gin and juice.

Bye Snoop dog from his 1993 debut album doggy style.

And it is nothing but Tanqueray and fruit juice.

What kind of root juice?

Won't whatever you feel like.

But the difference.

Cocktail guide calls for orange juice and pink grapefruit juice.

All right friends, that's it.

I hope you liked today's episode.

Once again, if you have time, please take a moment to like, and review and

subscribe and share with your friends.

And until next week, Cheers