Music can bring joy, awaken emotions, and restore the body and soul. Some practitioners also use it to bring healing to those in need.
Former Mapleton resident and musician Paul Haslem uses therapeutic music sessions to enhance care for medical patients. Haslem spoke on therapeutic music at the Seniors Centre for Excellence July congregate dining program.
While living in the United States, Haslem visited a museum in Michigan. Intrigued by an unusual musical instrument on display at the museum, he began researching it.
“The instrument, a hammered dulcimer, was magical and sounded like fairies dancing,” Haslem said.
“As it was not available in local music stores, I contacted the Smithsonian Institute for help with building my own instrument. Instructions on how to play the hammered dulcimer came from another fellow I saw at a different demonstration.”
The hammered dulcimer is an ancient musical instrument and the oldest known form of percussive stringed instrument. The unusually-shaped instrument provides a simple primitive sound from the 64 attached strings.
“It’s like carrying around a small piano. Like a piano, the dulcimer has to be tuned on a regular basis,” Haslem said.
The instrument is played with wooden hammers similar to hammers used in a piano. For his own use, Haslem created a number of different-sized hammers – some padded with soft leather, others bare wood, and each producing a different sound.
In the 1980s, Haslem performed instrumental guitar music at folk festivals across North America, using songs played on the hammered dulcimer to break up the guitar set. By the 1990s the role was reversed with the popularity of the hammered dulcimer music.
Haslem also developed story-telling skills during this period. At the time, followers of Haslem commented that his music was relaxing. Children danced to the music and mothers of children with special needs used Haslem’s CDs to calm their children.
“My younger sister had two boys that doctors wanted to put on Ritalin. Instead of Ritalin my sister used music from my CD. People began playing my music to their dogs during thunderstorms or during periods of anxiety, calming them,” Haslem said.
In 2015, Haslem was introduced to the Music for Healing and Transition Program, a one-year program involving five long weekends of classroom work followed by self study online and a period of practicum. Haslem did his practicum at Women’s College Hospital, Toronto and the Fordwich Village Nursing Home.
Upon completion of the program, Haslem became a certified music practitioner.
“I am not a music therapist. A music therapist assesses the person and music is the primary tool used in therapy sessions. Patients must take an active role in the therapy provided. Certified music practitioners play beside the patient, catering to their specific needs,” Haslem said.
Certified music practitioners play for the elderly, sick, dying, women giving birth and patients awaiting surgery.
Haslem focuses on the patient, carefully watching their response to the music being played. If the patient shows signs of being restless or unhappy, adjustments are made to the music and how it’s being played. The ultimate goal is to have the patient calm and relaxed.
“It’s the neurochemical response of the brain allowing the body to relax and heal itself,” Haslem said.
“In the beginning members of the medical profession were skeptical about the music, but changed their minds when they found their patients’ blood pressure dropping, patients relaxing and some even falling asleep.”
Haslem says research has shown live acoustic music at the bedside can stabilize heart rates, affect respiration, decrease muscular tension, relieve anxiety and stress, increase endorphin levels and foster a sense of safety and well being.
Other benefits identified by research include: sharpened mental focus, provision of a distraction, help with the transition of death, masking of unpleasant sounds and feelings, equalization of brain waves, and the provision of companionship.
Haslem continues to volunteer on a weekly basis at the Fordwich facility and also provides therapeutic sessions to patients on a paying basis.
Therapeutic music sessions can be arranged for homes, nursing homes, hospitals, and hospice or palliative care facilities.
For more information on therapeutic music or to book a session visit www.dulcetones.ca, email dulcetones.ca@gmail.com or call 519-998-8346.
