Music Healing Certification
I’ve discovered a new resource that I want to share with you, especially those of you who practice healing with sound and music. The Music for Healing and Transition Program , MHTP for short, is a national certification program preparing musicians to provide live, healing music at bedside.Their mission statement reads, in part, The Music for Healing and Transition Program (MHTP) is a course of study which, in recognition of music as a therapeutic enhancement to the healing process and the life/death transition, prepares musicians to serve the ill, dying, and to all those who may benefit, by providing music as a service to create healing environments. Our graduates are Music Practitioners. To advance our student interns in the development of their skills, we affiliate with health care facilities and community organizations.
The certification program is well-developed, and aimed specifically at musicians who believe that music helps heal both the body and the spirit. The designers of the curriculum and the program differentiate between themselves and those who practice ‘music therapy’. They state plainly that graduates of the program may not call themselves ‘music therapists’, but rather ‘certified music practitioners‘. The core competencies include both music practice (including building a repertoire of music performances within a particular area) and the study of illness, dying and healing.
The focus of the MHTP is on those who want to (or do) provide music at the bedside in nursing homes, hospitals, private homes and hospices. I found a lot of information on their web site, but it was what I found in their newsletter that really made me smile and decide this was a resource that I wanted to share.
Their latest newsletter (titled The Music Practitioner) contains a wealth of love, sharing and information, much of which I’d not found anywhere else. The director of MHTP, for example, is compiling a list of hospitals and nursing homes that employ CMPs, and reaching out to the community for information - which she will share as a database for those seeking employment in the field - but what a valuable resource for so many others!
Imagine seeking a good placement for an ailing parent, where their humanity will be respected and they will be treated with dignity by a staff that respects all forms of healing and comfort. Could a nursing home that is enlightened enough to employ those trained to provide comfort and healing through music be anything but respectful of their residents?
Among the other things shared in that newsletter was an article where practitioners shared specific suggestions of musical pieces that work well for them in particular situations. It was fascinating to read comments from musicians who work face to face with those in need of healing about which musical selections help, and in what ways. Some of those comments:
I find that doing slowed-down sort of-calypso island music, such as Harry Belafonte’s Jamaica Farewell and Day-O, as well as Yellow Bird, brings in a lot of sunshine when a group are largely shut ins. It brightens them up.
Also, poignant-memory songs such as Try to Remember that Day in September, Today While the Blossom Still Clings to the Vine, It’s a Wonderful World, The Way You Look Tonight, Some Enchanted Evening, and O Sole Mio are powerful touchstones to memories held in the deep heart, and they offer a temporary trip to heaven.
J o a n n e C a v a t o r t a
What wonderful suggestions! My own heart was lifted just reading the titles and being able to hear the music with my inner ear. Reading what these wonderful musicians have to say about the music that brings healing reinforced my own belief and feelings that folk music - those loved tunes and melodies that are at the heart of so many of the songs the healers named - is a fundamental base to much of the healing that music can accomplish.
Many of my CDs are compilations of traditional folk music along with my own compositions that follow the traditions of folks music from around the world. In Celtic Quilt, Celtic Fantasy, Going Home Again and World on a String, I touched on the traditional music of many different cultures. This beautiful music is a sharing of the most precious kind, a sharing of humanity and love and peace. Please click on the link to enjoy a selection from World on a String as my gift to your morning (or your evening, or your midday relaxation).