As a child, I remember admiring my Nana in her kitchen. Arms dusty with flour up to her elbows as she rolled out the dough for her famous lemon meringue pie. With hair white as snow, her shrill, boisterous Irish voice and bigger-than-life personality made up for her short stature. She had become a fiercely ambitious, independent and self-reliant woman after she lost her husband decades earlier. Along with her ability to talk about anything and everything, I marveled at her quick wit, ability to memorize faces, and of course, her quirky yet functional sense of fashion. I looked forward to our visits and I remember fondly listening to her stories of ‘The Good Ole’ Days.’
My Nana was one of the smartest, most outgoing, and sassiest people I have ever known. I idolized her and believed she would somehow always be a foundational force of influence in my life. Despite these child-like beliefs and desires, I watched my Nana ever so slowly begin to forget names of life-long friends. With confusion, she could not recall the recipe for her pie crusts, if she had brushed her teeth, or what a telephone was. Once enjoyable activities, places, and relationships became a source of anger, distrust, frustration and resentment. Her infamous sense of style was diminished by a woman who could no longer dress herself or comb her curly white hair. Nana was still very much physically present, yet somehow the essence of who I knew her to be was so very far away. Dementia had begun to ravage her brain; the grief I felt the day she couldn’t remember my name was deep and devastating. I longed for a way to reach her.
If you have a loved one who is struggling with any stage of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, or other forms of progressive neurological or cognitive decline, you’re probably wondering, How can I help? How do I reach and connect with them? What can be done to improve or sustain their positive quality of life?
Music therapy is a research and evidenced based therapeutic method that has been scientifically proven to benefit clients experiencing symptoms related to dementia. Music, when implemented by a board-certified therapist, has been proven to be highly effective because musical memories are often preserved in dementia. Key brain areas linked to musical memories remain left undamaged by the disease.
It is an honor and privilege as a board-certified music therapist (MT-BC), to use music interventions to help transform a client’s experience. They go from feeling confused, overwhelmed, isolated and incapable to regaining a sense of familiarity and recollection. A sense of agency, competence and connection.
Individuals diagnosed with dementia experience effects of the disease in a variety of areas including cognitive, mood, behavioral, muscular and memory. Music Therapy can be helpful in all of these areas because of the strong connection between memory and auditory systems in the brain. In essence, listening to a familiar song, playing an instrument or participating in a musical activity can evoke memory and stimulate parts of the brain related to the areas above which are otherwise inactive, damaged or disengaged. This is because music transcends a person’s cognitive abilities and reaches places in our memories and emotions which are otherwise inaccessible. Music therapy offers ways to manage and reduce anxiety caused by confusion and disorientation, provides a non-verbal way to express emotions, and facilitates life-affirming and reconnecting social interactions, to name just a few of its benefits.
During a music therapy session, therapeutic music experiences (TME’s) can be utilized to target the following areas:
Cognitive:
- Expressive speech production (stimulates vocabulary, reduces jumbled speech or ‘word salads’).
- Receptive communication (listening to and understanding what others are saying).
- Mental engagement (playing along to a song, engaging relationally with music therapist, following directions, sense of success in completing a task).
- Setting orientation (identifying the place, people and situations of the here and now)
Mood:
- Reduce loneliness.
- Manage anxiety.
- Stabilize mood swings.
- Coping tool to soothe nervousness or combativeness.
Behavioral:
- Soothe restlessness.
- Manage need to wander resulting in getting lost.
- Supports orientation skills (counteracts disorientation).
- Allows for engagement which reduces irritability due to confusion.
Muscular:
- Rhythmic entrainment exercises to encourage stable walking and balance.
- Instrument playing can support range of motion in limbs and upper or lower body.
- Music can encourage sustained movement to help prevent atrophy and loss of muscle tone.
Memory:
- Orientation to time, place and people.
- Supports strategies to engage in activities of daily living such as making a meal, dressing, personal hygiene, etc.
- Invokes memories of loved ones (names, relationships, events, connections, sense of self)
While there is no miracle cure for these progressive diseases, music therapy is one therapeutic method that can improve quality of life as well as provide powerful opportunities for awareness, recognition, and most of all, connection with those we love.
At LiveFree, we are committed to providing hope and healing to people of all ages. I welcome an opportunity to support you and your loved one in ways that are both effective and also deeply connecting.
Learn more about Music Therapy or schedule a therapy appointment with Brooke Patterson or one of our licensed therapists at LiveFree Counseling. Please call 720.465.6180 for more information.
