Ben's Father's Treatment

We wanted to help

Ways we helped him

Massage and touch

He didn't use medication

I played the harp

How music helps

How music helps

We know that it releases endorphins and those help in terms of dealing with pain. I guess for myself, as a person who had dealt with pain for a several year period of time, there were certain pains that I would experience, like muscle aches, that seem to disappear after I had been playing the harp a while. Some people talk about runner's high. There is also a musician's high. There's also certain music that just is really soothing to you and tends to help soothe the muscle tightness, the physical pain and I guess I would have to say, "this real pain." A lot of the patients on the Oncology Ward seem to relax better with the harp music. Some of them actually went to sleep while I was playing. Traditionally, that was one of the skills that a harper had to master, is to be able to cause people to slumber in addition to causing them to dance and sing.


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