Ep. 033 | Music Therapy & Spiritual Care

Today, we chat with guest, Meg Harmon, a board-certified music therapist, about the importance of tending to the human spirit.

RESOURCES

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by A. Gawande

Awakening the Creative Spirit: Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction by Paintner & Beckman

Man's Search for Meaning by V. Frankl

On Being Podcast by Krista Tippets

TRANSCRIPT

Erica: Welcome, friends! You’re listening to The Feeling is Musical — as presented by the Snohomish County Music Project. My name is Erica Lee, and today, we are talking about music therapy and spiritual care, with board-certified music therapist, Meg Harmon.

Meg is the creator of Collective Harmony, and a practicing board-certified music therapist. She received her BA in music therapy from Seattle Pacific University and is currently pursuing her masters in spiritual direction from Portland Seminary. Her notable work in hospice care, memory care, and with the Seattle Symphony reflects Meg’s passion for making music accessible to all, and aging with grace, dignity, and zest.

[Podcast intro music plays]

Erica: Well, welcome to the podcast, Meg.

Meg: Hi! I’m glad to be here.

Erica: I am excited for this conversation. Um, so, before we get started - just a basic orientation. Um, why are you a music therapist? And how would you describe your therapeutic philosophy?

Meg: So, when I think about why I am a music therapist - like why do I do this work - it’s really because I believe that one of the things that I am most uniquely gifted at is in creating spaces for people to connect with their truest selves. And whether that is elders with dementia, who is my primary client group, with kids, or with adults in wellness programs - wherever I’m at, I really try to create spaces that allow people to find and connect, for a moment, with their true identity. And that just - when you get that - when you get that moment of flow when you’re together making music, it just is really special. And now, being 5 years into clinical practice, which is wild, I have kind of come and really focus and hone in on the concept of spiritual care in music therapy. And with that, leaning into like holistic, and existential, and humanistic paradigms of what does it really look like to come to therapy with the concept that I am witnessing - baring witness to another person’s humanity, regardless of how they present that. So that’s kind of where I’m exploring right now in my stage of practice.

Erica: I love that baring witness to someones humanity. That is - that feels like such a p- a place of like honor and privilege —

Meg: Mmm —

Erica: TO sit there - and like what a cool thing to get to witness.

Meg: It is. It’s very sacred.

Erica: Yeah. So, let’s talk about spiritual care. For the context of this conversation, how are you defining spiritual care?

Meg: Yes. And that was really important thing to think about, because spiritual care - I think we kind of talk around it or talk about it. But we don’t really know how to actually address it, as like professionals, because it’s a little less like cut and dry clinical. It’s a little harder to grasp. But in this conversation, and in my context as a music therapist, I really focus in on that spiritual care is all about creating meaning in human becoming. So in helping people make sense and connect with themselves, and also to help that self to grow and to become more free.

Erica: Mmm.

Meg: And that, as I’ve experienced and tried to - you know, finding my space and defining that, because it’s been a fun kind of bridging of worlds for me, in finding music therapy and spiritual care together… Normally, I find myself most readily functioning under domains of like quality of life - that’s kind of where I think spiritual care often gets put. And I think that’s important and a really easy place ot start, right —

Erica: Mmm —

Meg: Like when I show up, and I’m working with a group of elders with dementia, like, I’m really working on quality of life. We might be working on like motor control or memory or things, but like, really, I think my primary goal is to like lift their human spirit, and to like help them connect with themselves. But I do that by addressing, you know - by stimulating their brains, and using other domains of music therapy. SO, I really feel like spiritual care and the spiritual domain isn’t a separate subject, but it’s more an orientation that permeates everything that we do.

Erica: Does spiritual care overtly come up in the work that you typically do?

Meg: Occasionally. So, kind of working with affluent, suburban elders, there is a - just a greater comfort, I think, just around religion in particular. And so, spirituality comes up a little bit more readily in that context, just because - sometimes, you know, I have one person in one of my groups that will just start singing: [sings] amen, amen. Like off the cuff like all the time —

Erica: Mmm —

Meg: And so we all start singing it. And we have a great time. And there’s like this moment of connection - and direct, maybe like feeding a spiritual need. But most of the time it’s not that direct. And as I talk about just creating meaning, and helping people find those moments of connection to themselves and connections to other, I really feel like that is the heart of spiritual care. That it goes beyond like religious need - or kind of the boxes that we all put around those like spiritual needs - that it really is just helping people create moments that matter. And music is such a powerful way to do that. And I think we’ve all seen that in work as music therapists - when you have those moments where people just suddenly like - like they take a deep breath. And we’re coming together - we’re meeting on an equal playing field, as like human to human, and less as therapist to client. And that’s - uh, I like to talk about the magic of music therapy - I think that’s - that’s the magic sauce that we get to bring to the table.

Erica: Mmm.

Meg: I uh have worked with the Lullaby Project with the Seattle Symphony for a while - and for those of you that don’t know, the Lullaby Project is out of Carnegie Hall, and the Seattle Symphony has kind of adopted it, and now has kind of moved into making it their own. But we work with parents to create lullabies for their children. And we work with Seattle Symphony musicians, and it gets arranged, and they record it -we have like this release party.

My first year, I’ll never forget: I sat next to a woman and she - like even just in the intro she was already writing. She was ready to write this lullaby.

Erica: Wow.

Meg: And I ended up getting partnered up with her. And she literally - like had the song already like pretty much written —

[Erica chuckles] —

Meg: I didn’t do very much, other than just encourage her and like put some chords underneath it on my guitar. She had been a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. And she shared her story with the group, and it actually became part of the recording that we released —

Erica: Mmm —

Meg: In the dedication of just how special her children were to her. And, what she had to offer in that song was just so powerful and deeply spiritual to her. And there was this moment of like - that baring witness - like, it was all her, but I was there, and I had the privilege of baring witness to her just speaking from her heart and getting a moment to like share that with the world.

Erica: That is super cool. Yeah, I think song writing can be so powerful, but it also requires other things of you. And I think that’s one of the great things about working with a music therapist, particularly - is that music therapist has that training —

Meg: Mmhmm —

Erica: To help walk alongside you through that process.

Meg: Mmhmm.

Erica: So it’s not just you by yourself trying to forge through something.

Meg: Yes. We need helpers —

Erica: Yes —

Meg: In the process of becoming.

Erica: Did your education and training to become a music therapist include content about providing spiritual care - or guiding that process - or —?

Meg: I would say —

Erica: What was that like for you?

Meg: Some of that just comes to who I am, as a deeply spiritual person - as someone who’s always been pretty rooted in like practicing within that domain. So I would say, some of that came with who I am: that as I - as a person and in my own spirituality - my skills as a music therapist were also developed in that. And that, largely, also attending Seattle Pacific University had some correlation with that.

But then, I would say the greatest development of that happened in my internship - because I did my internship in hospice, which is probably, of all of the kinda like work places, the the most integrated I’ve ever experienced when it comes to spiritual care. It is just as important as nursing care and as all the other cares. And so getting to work side by side - I worked really closely with the chaplains, and we would often do like co-visits together. And so I learned a lot from them about the nature of spiritual care like within healthcare… Although, the word that comes to me there is just human care - it doesn’t just have to be health - but that’s our technical term. So I learned a lot from, and from really leaning in. I really took those 6 months - I was in Colorado - to really dive in - and I did a lot of reading. So, that really was my kind of greatest experience.

Erica: Last week, we had an episode released about hospice care. SO, in your internship with hospice care and through that development - because hospice includes so many stages —

Meg: Mmm —

Erica: What do you practically do if a person is no longer able to articulate to you what they need or what they’re feeling - practice that self expression?

Meg: I sometimes describe myself uh as a musical detective, because it just feels like the most true for like most of the work I do. In hospice care, and in my work - I’ve worked fulltime in memory care and also in my own private practice - you just don’t always get very many answers. And I think, especially around spiritual needs, like you might get a like check box: religious or like not religious, or maybe Christian. That’s maybe all you get. And that’s not very much information, because there’s just so much spectrum within religious practice, and just human experience in general.

So, I would say, most the time my job is - as a musical detective - is to kinda like - 1: maybe what music do they connect to. I think it’s a similar process right, like if I come in and somebody can’t articulate to me, I’m gonna try a bunch of things - I’m gonna use information, right like I might kinda guess on their age or what I might know about them - just a place to start. That doesn’t always work, you have to be careful with assumptions, and I’ve definitely learned that in the not so fun ways uh of life. But, you know, you kind of do that, and then you - slowly as you get to know them through that - I mean, I can really, truly get to know these people without words. And part of that is just the willingness to listen, and to observe, and to pay attention, right. Like, that moment when there’s like a spark in the eye, or they suddenly smile and make eye contact with you, or they’re suddenly, you know, just tapping their toe. SO in the same way that we do that just for whatever our goals might be, I think spiritual care is very similar.

Erica: What do you think music inherently possesses that is able to connect with people in a spiritual sense? Because a lot of art mediums I think can —

Meg: Mmhmm —

Erica: Visual art, dance, etc all have that power. But there’s something at least different, I think, about music. You can manipulate it, and it’s so flexible, to reach whatever you need it to reach, or do whatever you need it to do.

Meg: Like, some of the oldest artifacts we have found in the world have been like flutes - have been forms of music. Like, music is part of our human experience - like from the beginning, something about sound drew us in. And I think part of it’s - it - music has the ability to tell our stories, and to do that without words. It can do it with words and it can do it without words. And I - I think just that connection I think - like, thinking historically, the ability of music to connect people with each other —

Erica: Mmm —

Meg: Right. Like, when we’re sitting around - just in song, or in drumming, or whatever it might be, like, there’s just this deeply compelling human to human connection that can happen with music. And I also - again to go back to just some of the magic: I’m sure there’s wonderful science behind this.... When I am like really stuck, like with a decision or I’m anxious and I just don’t know what I’m feeling - when I’m overwhelmed, listening to live music - and for me, particularly, going to the symphony, it literally - it’s like, all of my upper faculties suddenly are paying attention to something. And it’s like my heart can suddenly, actually, recognize what it feels or what it wants. Those like greatest moments of clarity - of like, oh, this is what I want, or this is the choice that needs to be made - have happened to me in the context of music.

The Seattle Symphony - actually on the side of their building - has a quote from Aaron Copland - it says: “So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music, in some living form, will accompany and sustain it, and give it expressive meaning”. So it kinda comes back to that meaning making. Whatever we’re feeling, music has an ability to affirm and make sense of it.

Erica: Mmm. I really love that - that’s so cool. I love that music is the affirmation of.

Meg: Mmm.

Erica: That’s really cool. Okay, so, all this talk about spiritual care and like how great music is, and how they - the 2 work together - why is addressing spiritual care, or thinking about it as a music therapist, important?

Meg: Mmm. So, for me, I have decided that it is of utmost importance. And we all have different things that we bring the table, and I know that this is my unique perspective on the situation. I think if we aren’t affirming humanity, and helping individuals grow more fully into who they truly are, like, then what are we doing? Like, we might give them the ability to speak, or the ability to like, I don’t know, like hold impulse control or whatever - you know, all of our non-musical goals might be. Uh, but if we aren’t - if it’s not bettering their wellbeing, then it’s - what’s really the point?

So for me, spiritual care is the point. As music therapists, I think this is really inherent to who we are - the creative side of u - music’s like mystical element… I think this is - just comes with - it comes with the gig. But, I think by drawing attention to it, and for me, I think even going through my own periods of burnout, it was when I really leaned into this that I found the sustainable I needed to really show up.

Erica: Mmm.

Meg: Uh, it was kind of unlearning what I learned in college, right. Which is like, we scaffold, and we make progressive things, and we’re working towards greater health and wellness. But, when you work with elders and in hospice, that’s not —the case —

Erica: Mmm —

Meg: It’s how do we maintain quality of life and all these other things that - I think we can add to whatever population we’re working with. But just recognizing the humanness behind the challenge.

Erica: Absolutely. And I think, anyone is working with humans - if you’re going to be affirming the personhood, you have to like do work to really understand the person. And so, there I see a real deep intersection with trauma-informed care —

Meg: Yes —

Erica: And doing um anti-racist work, and doing disability justice, and all of those things - they really matter if you’re really  going to reach the spirit of a person.

Meg: Mmm. Yeah. I agree. I think trauma-informed care is spiritual care. Because we we are affirming like the narrative of a human, and we are like seeking to meet them - I really love the Music Project’s emphasis on anti-oppressive practice. Because it’s that same concept of like, I am not coming in because I am here to fix you.

That term of like baring witness, to me, just means so much. Because I am here as a human, and you are a human. All the conversations around trauma-informed care and all the other movements in healthcare, and within like healing professions, is caring for the person as a person.

Erica: Mmm.

Meg: And, you know, we talk about like our racial biases and all of our biases - and traumas, right - there’s so many different forms of traumas that we are now like able to identify. And spiritual trauma is an important one to also recognize.

Erica: Mmm.

Meg: Because we can’t walk into um like spiritual care thinking - 1: that your particular world view or thought is the only one or the best. We have to know our bias in that - we have to know why we think the way we do, and how other people might see and think differently - like, we have to know that in order to be able to affirm that in the other person.

And we also need to be aware of the spiritual trauma that can exist in a person’s life. And that might be direct - you know, things that were done in the name of whatever belief system someone subscribes to that is harmful, or it can also just come more in more like in the physical abuse or emotional abuse, right. Like, um, you know, just survivors of whatever kind of abuse might be, like the spirit underlines all of that. And so it’s really important to recognize that when we come to a session, um or into an individual, is to kind of identify like: how does this person see the world? How can i use music to help just connect with that, right - if it’s something that’s been positive or meaningful. Or how do I not do harm —

Erica: Mmm —

Meg: By - by just understanding our own spiritual biases and experiences - can help us just know how to navigate that when we encounter it.

Erica: Mmm, that’s a really good point. We’re running to the end of our time for today. But before we go, do you have any resources that you can share with our listeners about all things spiritual care?

Meg: Uh, so during the past few minutes, I’ve kinda spoken to 2 like specific people that have kind of helped framed my language around spiritual care in the context of I guess healthcare. The first would be Atul Gawande, who wrote a book called Being Mortal. I definitely recommend that book, especially if you work with elders at all - or for any students. It is just a super powerful book about making sense of the end of life. And so he kind of speaks to the meaning making ,and upholding dignity.

And also, Victor Frankel, the father of logo therapy and an important figure in existential therapy. He talks about making meaning - his whole therapeutic lens is humans need to have meaning frameworks, otherwise, we suffer. And that comes from his experience as a survivor of the Holocaust. So, that’s a real deep book, but I definitely recommend it.

And then if you’re just interested in how the arts can help with the more explicit spiritual goals or spiritual needs: Awakening the Creative Spirit. It’s for like spiritual directors to like incorporate the arts into their work. But I, as a music therapist, literally inhaled it - they actually consult music therapists in the book. And, uh, the authors are local, so that’s kinda fun.

Erica: Oh, that’s awesome.

Meg: Yeah.

Erica: All the resources will be on the website and in our episode notes. Our website is S as in Sam, C as in Cat, Music Project dot org (SCMusicProject.org). You can also follow us on all social media @SCMusicProject. If you enjoy the podcast, we encourage you to follow, subscribe, leave us a review, share it with your friends - your family - anybody in your circle.

Thank you, Meg, for being here and chatting with me today.

Meg: Thanks for having me.

Erica: And thank you, listeners, for listening. And we will talk to you next time.

[Podcast outro music plays]