As Prescribed: The healing power of music

“To give you a picture of what a session looks like in music therapy… we have a vast amount of instruments that are accessible to all, that anyone can engage in... whether it's percussion, keyboards, guitars, ukulele – no one has to have any musical training to use them and have a satisfying experience,” explained Maya Charlton , senior music therapist with UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland Music Therapy Program .

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She spoke with KCBS Radio’s Bret Burkhart on “As Prescribed” about the 16-year-old program.

Research has shown that music therapy can help a broad range of patients, from newborns to people recovering from surgery and even grieving family members. UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals were the first pediatric facilities in the Bay Area to establish a music therapy program for children.

“Every music therapist in our program is a board-certified music therapist with a degree from an accredited training program, our training is intensive, including a 1,200-hour clinical internship where we get to really refine our clinical skills,” said Charlton. “And all five of the music therapists at Oakland have specialty training in the medical setting, which itself is so unique.”

Music therapists at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals provide individual and group sessions in consultation with patient medical teams. These sessions are specially tailored to patient needs, and can include musical improvisation, therapeutic drumming, singing, songwriting or simply listening. Charlton said live music can be particularly helpful, but that listening to a favorite recorded album can also help patients.

“Whether it’s doing some writing [a song] with a patient to help them express what’s going on and how they’re coping with being in the hospital, or what their hopes are, what their fears are, all of that can be expressed through a song,” Charlton told Burkhart.

Listen to this week’s “As Prescribed” to learn more. You can also listen to last week’s episode to learn about UCSF leading research on Gould Syndrome, a rare disease, here .

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