Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/53439
www.louisville-redcross.org A housekeeper, food service worker or nurse can request music therapy if they see a pa- tient who can benefit from it. Patients who are not inclined to ask for a chaplain will open up to a music therapist, says Brasler. "It is amazing to see — they just light up." Branson has created ways to assist patients with a variety of needs. She provides calm- ing music before joint-replacement surgery, upbeat tunes for rehab and soothing arrange- ments for heart patients. She sings softly at the bedside of a respiratory patient to ease anxiety when coming off a ventilator and en- courages Parkinson's patients to vocalize as a way to exercise their facial muscles and lungs. For Reeves Hitch, a former Navy pilot and IBM salesman disabled by Parkinson's, his weekly music therapy is a welcome way to stimulate his mind and body. "It gets my blood moving. Gives me something to shoot for," he says. During a December session with Branson, his baritone voice rarely faltered as he sang holiday songs while keeping time with rect- angular tambourines in each hand. Te sing- ing and the movements he performs during the therapy require deep breathing and the use of muscles on both sides of the body. Te exercises are designed to improve mood, vo- cal stability and cognition. Typically, a therapist consults with the patient, the patient's family, nurses and doc- tors to understand how music might help the individual. A bored patient may be happily distracted with an iPod loaded with country music, while a depressed patient may benefit from uplifting gospel music and an anxious pre-surgery patient might find solace with Gregorian chants. (Pre-surgery patients can request an iPod custom-loaded with his or her own selections.) Te library has it all — from Jehovah's Witness hymns and Islamic prayers to Broadway show tunes and the Carter Family, from jazz to rap to reggae, including Bob Marley, who once said, "Te good thing about music is, when it hits you, you feel no pain." Under Branson's direction, the music li- Did almost 100,000 affluent readers see your last ad? [40] LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 2.12 They would if you advertised in Louisville Magazine. brary and therapy program has been a de- light to its original benefactor. "My idea was, 'Wouldn't it be great if people had medita- tion tapes?' It turns out people want Johnny Cash and other music," Lerman says with a laugh. "Tis has grown beyond anything I ever thought." Every week when she volunteers at the mu- sic library, she sees the benefits of the therapy provided by Branson and her team. Lerman recalls an elderly woman who was dramati- cally more cheerful after a therapy session for patients with chronic pain. "She told me, 'It cleared all the whirligigs out of my head,'" Lerman says. Q