{"id":5429,"date":"2016-06-11T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-06-10T22:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/?p=5429"},"modified":"2016-06-10T14:20:44","modified_gmt":"2016-06-10T04:20:44","slug":"behind-the-scenes-music-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/behind-the-scenes-music-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Scenes: Music Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WARNING<\/a><\/p>\n

To celebrate 25 years of Music Therapy at the RCH we\u2019re taking you Behind the Scenes with Children\u2019s Cancer Centre Music Therapist, Lauren.<\/p>\n

Through music, Lauren provides treatment support, mental health support, and neurodevelopmental support to the oncology patients here at the RCH.<\/p>\n

Lauren\u2019s primary instrument is the violin, however at the RCH she is known for using her voice, a guitar, keyboard and drums to engage patients in music. She\u2019s part of a team of six music therapists who provide 147 hours of services to the RCH every week. Funding for 76 per cent of these hours comes from generous donations from the public to the RCH Foundation.<\/p>\n

We asked Lauren some questions about her work; here\u2019s what she told us:<\/p>\n

What does your typical day look like? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA typical day for me begins in the Lumbar Puncture and Bone Marrow Aspirate clinic, where I provide music therapy to the oncology patients waiting for their procedures. Engaging patients in music therapy while they\u2019re waiting provides opportunities for a child to refocus and participate, and helps them cope with fasting for the procedure, reducing anxiety, and establishing long-term coping mechanisms for future procedures and any hospital stays,\u201d Lauren said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the morning clinic I head onto the ward, including the Bone Marrow Transplant unit, where I work with patients and their families. Every day and every patient is different and unique, so day-to-day the work can be quite varied. I work with children of all ages, so I have days where I will be using lullabies to settle an infant or nursery rhymes to actively engage children; assisting with treatment support; development, coping, and normalising the hospital environment. I can also use a young person\u2019s song choice, which so far has included a wide array of repertoire ranging from Dolly Parton to Eminem, to provide support during treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you enjoy the most about your job? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoy getting to know my patients and their families through their use and connection with music. I feel that through the use of music I truly get a sense of the patients and their \u2018healthy selves\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

What made you pursue music therapy? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that I wanted to work with music, but I wasn\u2019t interested in performing or teaching. I\u2019d heard about music therapy, and upon learning more, I\u2019ve never consider pursuing anything else. The way in which the human brain responds to music, and the therapeutic applications that that response can elicit continues to inspire and inform my clinical practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tell us a fun fact about yourself! <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI am a massive fan of The Muppets. Fozzie Bear is my favourite. I recently saw that The Muppet band \u2018Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem\u2019 are doing some upcoming live shows at festivals in the USA; it\u2019d be a dream to see them perform live!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet Lauren, one of our talented Music Therapists. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":5410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5429"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5432,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5429\/revisions\/5432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}