Music Therapists Can be Part of the Healing Process

Music therapy can help heal a broken relationship, it can help someone recovering from a stroke and it can make someone’s end of life experience easier.  Leslie Jones, clinical supervisor at Drury University’s Music Therapy Clinic, says music therapy can benefit anybody that enjoys music and with any type of problem…

"I love it because it's fun.  It's different every single day.  I'm doing different music with different people, and we can reach certain milestones that other therapists will just try and try and try, and they just can't quite get there.  But music, sometimes, it's just that magic touch to turn the key and open the door to new possibilities for certain clients."

Jones works with older adults, children with developmental disabilities, cancer patients and survivors and with those struggling with substance abuse…

"We use a lot of drumming to let out aggression 'cause a lot of those people are having to cope with the loss of the substance, and, so, there's a lot of anger, there's a lot of denial, there's, you know, frustrations, and so we use drumming a lot.  We also use it to help with the group cohesion to help the people that are all there together within the facility it helps them bond and become friends because music's a natural friend-maker."

Jones started out at Truman University as a flute performance major, but after two years she began to rethink her career path…

"I was not feeling much fulfillment from just playing my flute all day long in concerts, and  I read about music therapy over at Drury, and I was from Springfield and so I just decided, 'hey, I'm gonna come back and try out this degree.'"

So, she enrolled at Drury, finished her undergraduate degree, completed a six-month internship in San Diego, then returned to Drury to earn her Master’s in Music Therapy.  After that, she was hired at the clinic.  She also has her own business—Musical Bridges and serves as the music therapist as St. John’s Resource Center.

Unlike Jones, Natalie Wlodarczyk, a professor of music therapy at Drury, was perfectly happy on her career path to becoming an elementary education teacher.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from Stetson University in Florida and thought she would end up teaching…

"And probably would have been quite happy with that life.  I'd never heard of music therapy back then--this was back in 2000, and Stetson did not offer the music therapy degree.  Right at the end of my senior year, a music therapist named Ron Borzon who teaches out in California at Cal State-Northridge, came to Stetson, actually for a guitar conference, but, because he was a music therapist, Stetson asked him to give a presentation on music therapy.  And, my guitar instructor called me in and said, 'I really think you should go to this presentation on music therapy.  I think that you would love it.'"

He was right—Wlodarczyk says she was “blown away” by the presentation.  She had worked in nursing homes in college and had always been interested in psychology and healthcare but couldn’t give up her love for music.  So, for her, music therapy was the perfect blend of all that she loved.  She got her Master’s degree and PhD in music therapy from Florida State University…

"I feel fulfilled.  I feel that, you know, I'm doing something that truly makes a difference  and that I'm using all of my skills together."

Although Wlodarczyk teachers full-time at Drury, she still practices music therapy as a volunteer.  She works with Hospice and Palliative Care of Springfield, co-leads a children’s bereavement group, and she’s started an intergenerational rock band at Drury, which pairs Drury students with residents of a local assisted living facility…

"To rehearse and prepare a concert  with classic rock music.  We had them performing songs like "My Generation" by The Who, "We Will Rock You" by Queen, "Old Time Rock and Roll," and the really neat thing is that neither group knew the music.  The seniors were too old to know that music , the college students were too young to know that music, and they were learning classic rock songs together."

Wlodarczyk is a firm believer in the healing powers of music therapy.  And she has personal experience to back that up.  Once, while practicing in music therapy in Florida, she worked with a young mom in Hospice who was dying from cancer.  Her 16-year-old son was involved in a gang and was in and out of trouble.  The sicker his mom got, the more distant he became.  Wlodarczyk says songwriting allowed them to express their feelings for each other…

"About three days before she died,  we got these two in a room together, and we sang the gospel song with her words for him and then played a recording of the rap  that he had done for her, and there was no verbal exchange , there was no conversation.  They listened to each other's songs.  They started crying, they smiled, they hugged, and that was the reconciliation that everything that needed to be said between those two was said in these songs that they had written.  And it was one of the most beautiful and powerful things I've ever witnessed."

She tries to instill in her students the realization that they truly can make a difference through music therapy in a way that they can see almost instantly…

"I hope that when I talk about my experiences, they can, I think they do, see it in my face, just how much I love music therapy and how much I love to talk to people about it.  I want them to be that excited about it and take that into their sessions with their clients."

Wlodrarczyk looks forward to getting even more involved in helping people in the community through music therapy.