Therapeutic Harp
By
Ann Bewley, Ph.D.
Music as a Therapeutic Modality
The beneficial relationship between music and healing has been well established for centuries. Documents dating back to 1500 BC depict Egyptian physicians employing music for healing the sick. In ancient Greece, Pythagoras taught his students ways in which certain musical notes, chords, and melodies could induce physical responses in the body. Twelfth-century abbess and physician Hildegard von Bingen employed treatments that are much like those now advocated by modern practitioners of holistic medicine.
The use of music as a tool for healing continued in Europe through the 17th century until it began to fall out of favor during the dawn of the Age of Reason. However, current scientific research into the effectiveness of complementary therapies is providing new evidence that music can assist and effect healing. Music can alter brain and body chemistry and affect physiological rhythms such as pulse rate and breathing. It can regulate cortisol levels, facilitate relaxation, and improve immune system functioning. Specific vibrations have been shown to alter DNA and generate healing responses at a cellular level. Music impacts the autonomic nervous system and directly stimulates external nerves in a way similar to acupuncture.
The Harp as a Therapeutic Instrument
Historically, the harp has been a symbol of relief and comfort. In Hebrew Scripture, the young poet and musician, David, used the harp to heal King Saul. Medieval religious art portrayed angels, considered messengers of God, holding harps. In Early Celtic culture, the harp music was played for three purposes: to facilitate sleep, to support mourning, and to bring joy.
Because of the harp’s construction and its acoustical properties, it produces music that has unique healing properties. The vibrating strings generate high quality resonance across a wide range of pitch. They produce a unique tonal color, distinctive timbre, and clear overtones.
Acoustical and Musical Factors
Music is healing because of its acoustical and musical features. The underlying principle is the idea that everything has natural frequencies at with it vibrates. Therapeutic harpists seek to find and play sounds that match the natural frequencies of their listener, creating resonance between and in them. Therapeutic harpists also match the mood of the listener with different qualities of music, particularly the musical mode, i.e., what we think of as “major” and “minor” plus five other modes based on different starting points on the traditional western (Pythagorean) scale. When we match the resonant frequency and provide modal music that matches the listener’s mood, we communicate empathy and direct healing energy to the listener. Through the principle of entrainment, we can induce change in a listener’s experience from a less to a more desirable state.
Therapeutic Harp Practitioners
Therapeutic Harp Practitioners support listeners’ emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual healing and wellbeing. They work in institutional or clinical settings such as an emergency room waiting area where harp music soothes and relaxes patients and family members. Therapeutic harp practitioners provide important and effective complementary treatment in such places as hospices, oncology infusion units, bone marrow transplant wards, intensive care units, palliative care units, and pediatric wards. They assist patients preparing for surgery and those in post-operative recovery. They may play in a labor and delivery unit where music supports the rhythm of childbirth. They are active in senior care facilities where music assists memory recall, social interaction, and community building. They also provide support to children with special needs in hospital, school, and residential settings.
Therapeutic Harp Practitioners serve in hospice and palliative care units where their music supports those who are dying and comforts loved ones. There, they offer patients and family members comfort and help diminish their anxiety, loneliness, fear, and physical and emotional pain.
Many therapeutic harp practitioners are licensed or trained in other disciplines such as counseling, nursing, medical practice, ministry, massage, occupational, physical, and rehabilitation therapy. They find effective ways to bring together their skills as therapeutic harp practitioners and their mastery of their primary discipline in their practice (see application to psychosynthesis below).
Training and Certification
Certified Therapeutic Harp Practitioners have met and adhere to the standards of the International Harp Therapy Program (IHTP) and participate in ongoing professional development through national symposiums with the IHTP.
The one-year training program educates harpists in principles of counseling and psychology, music therapy, and resonant kinesiology. The program provides practical knowledge of a wide range of study including interpersonal skills and special needs of both acute and long term care patients. Practitioners gain proficiency using the small harp to utilize the healing energies of sound vibrations and become comfortable using the instrument in health care settings. They build a substantial repertoire and cultivate their improvisational and other technical and musical skills as harpists, and are certified as therapeutic harp practitioners upon meeting the requirements for successful completion of the program.
Harpists may also undertake the Music for Healing and Transition Program, becoming Certified Therapeutic Musicians upon completion of training. The work of CMPs is comparable to that of CTHPs. The advantage of this training is its structure (five weekend modules) and the fact that musicians of all sorts – vocalists, guitarists, cellists, clarinetists, mountain dulcimer players, flutists, etc.) join harpists in this training, making the learning experience and exchange of ideas more “interdisciplinary.”
Application to Psychosynthesis
Therapeutic harp music can play a part in the balance and synthesis of apparently opposing subpersonalities. If each subpersonality has its own resonant frequency (my theory), conflict between them could be viewed as a dissonant or disharmonious energetic “chord” (i.e., two or more notes sounded together). Matching each frequency separately in the process of bringing subpersonalities into greater harmony with one another can lead to a more consonant and harmonious “chord.” Instead of making energetic music “against” one another, subpersonalities that balance and synthesize can sing together.
For more information about harp music for
healing and transition please contact:
Anne Bewley, Ph.D.
58 Holderness Road
Center Sandwich, NH 03227
About Anne R. Bewley
Anne R. Bewley Ph.D., LCMHC is an associate professor of psychology at Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH, where she teaches courses on the fundamentals of helping interaction. With over 15 years of experience in counseling, consulting and education, Anne is a dynamic speaker who conducts seminars for helping professionals on topics such as interpersonal communication in healthcare settings. An accomplished harpist and Certified Therapeutic Harp Practioner, Anne has recorded several CDs of therapeutic harp music and provides music at the bedside of hospital patients and hospice residents in Concord, NH. Anne is also author of Meta-Recovery: A Journey Beyond the Twelve Steps. Her latest book, At the Heart of the Matter: Communicating Care in Helping Relationships, is a resource for caregivers who wish to cultivate effective verbal communication skills to optimize their work with others. As a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, Dr. Bewley puts into practice what she teaches.
If you are interested in learning about Anne's Music please follow the link below:
http://www.uniuniques.com/Music/Bewley.htm
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