music for healing

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Music for Healing

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Music not only soothes the savage beast – and the civilized human – it can also heal. Music Therapist Yael Barak works with cancer patients at Rambam Health Care Center (RHCC), using music to ease the symptoms and side effects of disease and treatment.

Music can get us up and moving or calm our frayed nerves. What we may not know is that music also has healing affects, says Yael Barak, a music therapist who volunteers with cancer patients at Rambam.

With a BA in biology and mastery of the piano, flute and guitar, Yael has always made a strong connection with and between music and science. “I have a scientific view of music, which for me, does not lie only in the emotional realm,” says Yael. “In music there are tones, intervals, scales, instruments and rhythms. Each affects specific organs. For example, the liver reacts very strongly to music, and percussion instruments affect metabolism.”

A long-time music and movement therapist, Yael first worked with cancer patients during at the Lukas Clinic in Switzerland. This oncological clinic takes an anthroposophical approach, combining conventional with alternative therapies.

Breathing, for Yael, is the building block of treatment. To attain ‘balanced’ breathing, which almost immediately counters stress and anxiety, she generally works with an updated version of the ancient lyre. “You don’t need to know how to play the instrument, just pass your hand over the strings and you get beautiful harmonies that have a curative effect,” says Yael. “The patient plays one lyre and I play mine and the dialog between them helps support the breathing – and ultimately the healing – process.”

Singing exercises also deepen breathing. Unlike in yoga, where you consciously control your breathing, in music therapy it happens to you, explains Yael.

After breathing, the next stage of therapy is more individualized, determined by the patient’s specific problems. Yael will often work on side effects of disease, like loss of memory, which she says can be reversed. Another common symptom is neuropathy, nerve damage resulting from disease or treatment that can cause loss of feeling in extremities. This problem, which can prevent patients from performing the simplest activities, is currently not treatable. According to Yael, reverberating tones can reduce feeling loss, along with sleep difficulties and depression.

Music therapy has both palliative and curative effects. It strengthens the immune system, says Yael, and can warm cancer patients, who often feel chilled. Of course, playing and hearing music cause emotional release, and a renewed sense of equilibrium. “Patients are amazed how effective this is,” says Yael. “From the beginning, they feel they are filling themselves with something positive and healing.”