Keywords: music, harps, Healing Muses, healing <\/p>\n
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Music has been used as a healing modality since ancient times. The Greeks viewed music as a curative tool, incorporating therapeutic music in their healing temples to treat mental disturbance, induce sleep, and aid in digestion. Egyptian physicians incorporated musical incantations for healing. In modern times, numerous scientific studies have demonstrated and documented the efficacy of music as an adjunct to healing. One such is a recent study of the use of music therapy with advanced cancer patients, indicating that it is highly recommendable in these cases: \u201cEffectiveness of Music Therapy in Advanced Cancer Patients Admitted to a Palliative Care Unit: A Non-Randomized Controlled, Clinical Trial\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 by Planas Domingo et al. Music & Medicine<\/i> (2015). Another which references therapeutic harp specifically demonstrated that fatigue, anxiety, sadness, relaxation, and pain were significantly improved among the ninety-two patients participating in the trial: \u201cApplication of Therapeutic Harp Sounds for Quality of Life Among Hospitalized Patients\u201d<\/a> by D.M. Schneider et al in Journal of Pain and Symptom Management <\/i>(2015).<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Oakland-based Healing Muses is one of the Bay Area’s foremost organizations dedicated to therapeutic music. I joined the organization in 2013, and it has been my distinct pleasure to serve along with my fellow Muses, professional harpers Patrice Haan and Shira Kammen. Since 2019 I also serve in the capacity of Administrative Director. Healing Muses was founded in 1999 by Eileen Hadidian, a renowned flautist and recorder player for whom music provided great strength and support during her battle with cancer. Our mission is to provide live harp music in hospital wards, lobbies, cancer centers, hospices, and other care facilities to aid the healing process by lowering stress, blood pressure, and heart rate and to lift morale. Harps prove particularly effective instruments in these situations, as they resonate in a range that does not compete with the human voice nor the communications between medical staff members. Our most recent service locations include the Contra Costa Regional Health Center, UCSF Medical Center, Women’s Cancer Center of the East Bay, and the George Mark Children’s House, the nation’s first freestanding pediatric palliative care center. Past locations have included the intensive care unit, cardiac ICU, neonatal ICU, and maternity wards at Kaiser San Francisco, and many other facilities. Our Muses are all professional musicians who record and perform frequently and are well known in the Bay Area music community.<\/p>\n