At Christ Hospital, patient Ralph Garner does a one-handed clap for guitarist Ricard Goering. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        It's time to sing at Mother Margaret Hall in Delhi Township.

        Sister Paula Mary Russell plays the tune to “Let Me Call You Sweetheart,” and several of the older women surrounding her — all members of the Sisters of Charity order, and residents of the hall — sing along.

        One woman, though, stays quiet. She sits slumped in her wheelchair, ignoring the group. All of the old nuns suffer memory impairments, either from Alzheimer's disease or other ailments.

        But when Sister Paula Mary begins playing “By the Light of the Silv'ry Moon,” the quiet woman sits up and looks straight at her. She still doesn't sing, but it's clear from her focused gaze and straight posture that she's paying attention to the music Sister Paula Mary is making.

        It's a familiar transformation for Sister Paula Mary. “With the memory-impaired, there's such confusion,” she says. “When you start doing songs or hymns that are very familiar to them, it's such a wonderful thing. They know, "I know this. I can do this.'”

        Sister Paula Mary also leads a small drum circle with two residents of the hall. The drums “have a wonderful sound, and they're very therapeutic.”

        The singers and drummers at Mother Margaret Hall are among a growing number of Tristate practitioners demonstrating how music can heal. It's helping the memory-impaired reconnect with the world and easing stress before surgery or during procedures such as dialysis. It's helping people cope with grief. It's giving a focus on something beyond the pain of labor during childbirth.

        Music and rhythm have measurable effects on the body:

Sister Paula Mary Russell, Sister Julianna Barhorst and Sister Mary Theophane Costanza form a drumming cricle at Mother Margaret Hall in Delhi Township. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

        • Changes in blood pressure and pulse rates can be recorded.

        • Changes in brain waves are documented.

        • Changes in the way we process information is noticeable.

        The so-called “Mozart effect'' theorizes intricate melody can actually make people smarter — and is a powerful trigger of memory and emotion.

        “Music evokes a pretty vast array of neurochemical responses in the brain,” says Dr. Daniel Nelson, a psychiatrist and director of the children's psychiatric unit at Children's Hospital Medical Center. “With the way our brains are organized, the whole reason music evolved is because of its effects on our emotions.”

Hospitals play new tune
        Mainstream medical institutions are signing on to the notion of music healing.

        At Children's Hospital Medical Center, researchers are waiting for the results of a survey of patients on whether music helps ease their anxieties about surgery.

        Christ Hospital in Mount Auburn has a two-fold program for bringing music into patients' and visitors' lives. The hospital hosts monthly lunch-time concerts for staff and visitors, says Melanie Garner, special projects coordinator.

        And every week, musicians visit the oncology, rehabilitation, hemodialysis and chemotherapy units to perform for patients as they receive or wait for treatment. Volunteers include a guitarist, harpist, violinist and keyboard player, among others. The music program is funded through a grant from the Corbett Foundation.

        For hemodialysis patient Tom Rawlins, 41, of Amelia, the music makes treatment much more pleasant.

        “It's relaxing,” Mr. Rawlins says. “It distracts you from everything that's going on there.”

        Mr. Rawlins undergoes hemodialysis three times a week for four hours at a time because of complications from a staph infection he got in 1995 that resulted in renal failure.
       

Therapists use it
               Hospitals are scary, stressful places, Ms. Garner points out. “You're seldom there for any pleasant reason,” she says. Music helps make the environment a little more welcoming.

        People know instinctively that music can be healing, says Dr. Cathy Creger Rosenbaum, director of TriHealth Integrative Health and Medicine Center in Blue Ash.

        “We all intuitively know that. It helps us relax. It can help people communicate,” she says.

        Healing Touch and massage therapists at TriHealth and other sites routinely use music during treatments, Dr. Creger Rosenbaum says. It's often used “to transition from the outside world into a very peaceful environment,” she says.

        Music can heal when energy blockages strike a sour note, according to Nancy Holbrook, a certified reflexologist who uses music and color light healing with clients at her shop, Spice of Life Health Choices, in Fort Mitchell.

        All energy — music, light, the body's energy field or chi or chakras — vibrates at a certain frequency. With light, that frequency determines what color — or lack of color — is visible to the human eye. In music, frequency determines the tone or key humans hear. Using the right frequency of music or light can clear blockages in the body, Ms. Holbrook says.

        “If you sing, aaaaahh, you feel that vibration. The vibration sets up a vibration in the whole body, and it moves energy and it moves blockages,” she says. Sounding the right tone can help clear up problems in different parts of the body. For the heart, she says, the tone of “aaah” is used.

        “You use sound therapy to heal yourself,” she says.

        The simple act of singing or chanting can lift a person's mood, Ms. Holbrook points out. And speaking up can make a world of difference in a person's emotional and physical health.

        “People are really afraid to use their voice,” she says. “But what happens on another level is, as a woman in our society, my voice has been shut down. I tend to keep things to myself and not speak up. Toning has helped me say my truths.”

Drum circle leader

               Noreen Wessling, 63, of Milford leads a drum circle every month at her home. Some months, as many as 20 people show up to share their rhythms on her back deck.

        “I think it has a very definite healing quality to it,” Ms. Wessling, who began drumming in 1992, says. “It helps you release stresses in a very different way. A lot of things go on in drumming that I don't even have the words to explain.

        “... At almost every session, there are times when the energy of the group gets so coherent that even though some of the people have never drummed before, they all begin drumming together, to the same rhythm. The energy gets so in train that there's this great feeling of oneness. It is hypnotic.”
       

Calming effect on children
               Dr. Nelson uses music with his young patients in group therapy settings. He plays a guitar.

        “As a child first comes into the group, I think it makes what we're doing seem less ominous. A lot of kids will think I'm "the music teacher,' something that's more familiar to them,” he says.

        Many of the patients Dr. Nelson works with are dealing with fears of abandonment, severe rage or the inability to control their anger. Some have attempted suicide, others have attacked parents, teachers or others.

        Music serves a number of functions during the group sessions, Dr. Nelson says. As patients talk about their experiences, the music serves to transition them in and out of their “talk time,” making it easier for them to open up and to calm down.

        The music also helps them process the information they're hearing during the sessions. Some studies have shown that listening to music while studying or reading new information can help improve retention.

        And music helps the youngsters express their emotions through dance and other exercise in the group sessions.

        “They can talk about it. They can put it in a place where they can work with it, and the music helps them move on to the next activity,” he says.

        Listeners can identify with others' experiences through emotions, Dr. Nelson says. “Music can take you into your despair and help you explore. How many songs have been written about losing your boyfriend or losing your girlfriend? Somebody can empathize with your pain, good things happen to your neurochemistry,” he says.

        But music can also stir up negative emotions, including anger and aggression, and children who are exposed to music with aggressive or violent themes can be desensitized to violence in the same way as children exposed to violent films or television shows, Dr. Nelson says.

        “If there's not any filtering of it, any processing of it, any discussion of it, that can amplify very negative, very malevolent behaviors,” he says.

        When Sister Terry Thorman of the Sisters of Charity works with patients at Mercy Health Partners Western Hills, she has to be careful to choose music that won't evoke sad memories.

        “Music opens up a lot of emotions, particularly in our hospice units,” Sister Terry, a registered music therapist, says. “We use music to remember, to reminisce and to pray for strength and courage in facing death, to unite the whole family,” she says.
       

Benefits are numerous
               Music therapy “cuts across a number of disciplines” in health care, Sister Terry says, tying together pastoral care, nursing, physical therapy and medicine.

        Sister Paula Mary recalls a day at Mother Margaret Hall when several of the residents in the memory-impaired group were anxious and restless. Hoping to calm them, she began playing “Hail Holy Queen,'' an old and beloved Catholic hymn. The residents immediately began singing along, and Sister Paula Mary could see them relax as the hymn took hold.

        “I didn't tell them to sing. I said nothing to them. That's the power of the music.”

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