Music for Healing is a program designed by Healing Muses to create a peaceful sound environment for hospitals, clinics, hospices, convalescent homes, retreat centers and homebound individuals.

Using a combination of Medieval, Renaissance, Celtic music, American folk tunes and spirituals, Music for Healing promotes relaxation and reduces anxiety during stressful hospital stays and procedures. Patients and staff experience the power of music to calm and soothe in a noisy, high-anxiety environment.


Healing Muses Mission Statement

Medical research as well as the musicians’ experiences have shown the benefits of therapeutic music in soothing patients, alleviating anxiety, and managing pain. Healing Muses is a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization whose professional musicians offer this kind of healing music, played on harp and flute, to Bay Area hospitals, clinics, hospices, convalescent homes and other institutions providing care for the sick, handicapped and elderly.


Philosophy

The professional musicians of Healing Muses draw on a diverse range of music from classical, folk and various world traditions to create a peaceful sound environment conducive to the well-being of patients and staff. Their extensive experience allows them to choose music appropriate as a healing tool to promote relaxation, diffuse pain, and reduce stress during hospital stays and procedures. Both patients and staff experience the power of music to calm and soothe them in this noisy and tense environment.

The people we serve include in-patients on hospital floors, long-term residents who need round the clock care, out-patients in hospital lobbies and clinics, cancer patients receiving treatment, and many other groups.

History

Healing Muses started as a pilot project in 1999. During the Christmas season, flutist Eileen Hadidian and harpist Natalie Cox played on the surgery, medical and intensive care floors, and in the hospital lobby, of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland, CA. Since then, the musicians have expanded their services to other local hospitals, including Kaiser Permanente sites throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Alta Bates/Summit Medical Centers in Oakland and Berkeley, UCSF/Mt. Zion Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, and Highland Hospital, Oakland. In 2002, Healing Muses incorporated as a nonprofit organization; Celtic harpists Patrice Haan and Maureen Brennan and Diana Rowan have since joined the team.

Goals

The purpose of Healing Muses is both charitable and educational:

1. Charitable
Healing Muses main project is providing music which ministers to the sick without direct cost to patients.

2. Educational
Members of Healing Muses offer lectures and workshops on the healing effects of music, and have been interviewed about their work in several journals, including the Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, on National Public Radio, and in the Journal of the San Francisco Medical Society.

We have also recorded three CDs which specifically contain selections from the music used in their work. They are:

Dolce Musica, a Contemplative Journey

Reflections, Music to Soothe and Uplift the Spirit

Garden of Healing, Soothing Heart and Spirit

Some CDs are donated to spread healing music beyond hospitals to individuals in need. Some are sold to raise money to fund Healing Muses’ activities.

We have also produced a collection of healing music called Heart's Ease: Music to Uplift the Spirit and Chase Away Pain, Discomfort and Stress. It is sold to share our researches and contains music playable for medical facilities and senior centers.

Through our performances, recordings and lectures, we endeavor to:

• Raise public awareness and educate hospital administrators and staff about the beneficial effects of music to their constituency;

• Research and develop a diverse repertoire of healing music from many cultural traditions which appeal to a wide audience. This is an ongoing activity and is continually evolving as the musicians explore different types of music and how they effect the listener. Currently we have a repertoire of Celtic, Renaissance and medieval melodies, American folk songs and spirituals, as well as music from various world traditions;

• Generate enough funding to enable the musicians to offer healing music as a community service to sites and organizations which have few or no resources to provide quality of life for their patients.

How to help

Healing Muses relies on broad-based support received mostly from individual members of the community as well as gifts, grants and contributions from various public and private sources.Fees collected for our services also support our mission.

If you would like to help, we welcome your tax-deductible donations and greatly appreciate our generous supporters. Your gifts enable us to continue offering our healing music to individuals and organizations in need.

Please click on this link to make a donation.

Or click on the Donate button below:
"A fragile tiny woman in her blue hospital gown, she sat with her husband at her feet, his arms embracing her, both with eyes closed, rapt in the sound. When she was returned to her bed, the man came to speak with me. Teary-eyed and deeply emotional he said, 'I want to thank you.  The music is such a comfort. When my wife is well, we always go out to hear live music and it means so much to us. But no one has ever brought us music before.' "

—Patrice Haan, Muse
Read what they said about us and the healing power of music in these publications (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) :

Common Ground.
Healing Muses is supported, in part, by a grant from the Alameda County Arts Commission.
Healing Muses has also received support from the Society for the Arts in Healthcare in the form of a consultancy service to assist in developing, re-imagining, or sustaining our arts in healthcare program.
Most of Healing Muses' income comes from donations like these and individual contributions.
Most of the donations to Healing Muses goes to providing services
"I was immediately met by two staff, a nurse and a maintenance person.  'We've missed you!  Why don't you come more often?  When will you be back?  You should be here every week.  We need you. Everyone is happier and calmer when you are here.' We are so blessed to do this work."

—Patrice Haan, Muse