More Than a Song: The Impact of Music Therapy in Patient Care
The Wyatt family uses music to help them cope with Brett’s care and treatment. Pictured left to right: Chris Wyatt, Carla Wyatt, Brett Wyatt.
Brett Wyatt is an 18-year-old who loves to make people laugh. He has a positive attitude and a warm smile for everyone he meets. His faith is deep, as is his love of family.
Others describe him as witty, sweet, smart, and determined. Brett describes himself simply as “ruggedly handsome.”
Watching Brett joke with his dad, Chris, and lean on his mom, Carla, it is easy to see the bond that they share.
It is a bond that became stronger in some of the worst times imaginable. And it is a bond that is now often celebrated with music.
Heard and remembered
Brett was 13 years old when he was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. On the day of diagnosis, his brain hemorrhaged (bled), and he went into a coma.
“The doctors weren’t sure exactly what he could hear,” Carla says, “but they encouraged us to play things he enjoyed.”
Chris went to his phone and played songs he knew Brett loved. When he got to the end of his playlist, he added more songs. Songs from Brett’s favorite artists. Songs filled with worship. Songs that filled the family with joy.
Seven days later, Brett came out of his coma. He had lost his vision. He had trouble moving, he struggled to speak, and his short-term memory was gone.
“But somehow he knew the lyrics to entire songs,” Carla says. “So even when he struggled to find the words to say something, he could still sing.”
Celeste Douglas used music therapy to help Brett Wyatt regain his speech and mobility.
Building a care team
According to Celeste Douglas, a senior music therapist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, what Brett and his family experienced is not uncommon.
“The general theory is that patients can hear while they are incapacitated or sedated,” Douglas says. “So, playing music that is meaningful, whether it’s familiar to them or important to the family, can be really beneficial. It can make that patient feel more comfortable.”
Waking up from the coma was the beginning of a long, hard course of care and treatment for Brett and his family. This treatment included multiple surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation, and a bone marrow (stem cell) transplant. His care team included doctors, nurses, a social worker, physical therapists, and occupational therapists.
Activities like playing a piano or strumming a guitar can help improve mobility.
Choosing music therapy
Brett’s family also asked his care team about adding music therapy to his care.
“When Celeste would come in,” Carla says, “he’d be excited. It wouldn’t matter what had happened that day or how difficult of a time it was. He was so happy to see them. He would pep up and sing along.”
Music therapists do a lot more than just play music and sing. They are specially trained to help patients reach non-musical goals.
“We use our knowledge of music to help adjust something that’s going to be familiar and preferred into something that’s also going to be therapeutic,” Douglas says.
The hospital can be scary. The lights are bright, the people are strange, and the machines are noisy. Music therapists can help. Instead of ignoring or covering up hospital sounds, music therapists use the noises to help patients feel more at ease.
“We can incorporate different sounds into the music that we’re providing,” Douglas says. “For example, there’s a noise associated with a ventilator that’s kind of rhythmic because it’s helping a patient breathe. We can listen to that ventilator, listen to the tempo it’s playing at, and then play something in that same tempo.
“I’m making the ventilator part of the music.”
Music therapists can also help with pain management, early childhood development, and mobility. They can work with patients to build a playlist, play an instrument, or write a song.
“We work with the medical team to meet the patient where they are,” Douglas says.
Brett Wyatt loves to share his love of music, as well as his smile, with others.
Healing continues
Even though Brett has finished most of his treatments, music and music therapy are still a big part of his life. One of his favorite things to do is tell Douglas about a new song she has never heard. And Douglas is more than happy to learn and play that song for him on her guitar.
Sometimes Brett can be found at the piano, next to his mom, playing music together. Other times, he croons out classics with his dad.
Music lifts Brett’s spirits, grounds him in the moment, and brings joy to those around him. It helped him learn to move again. It helped him learn to speak again.
For Brett and his family, music therapy is not just part of the past. Music therapy is part of healing.
