Music therapy
Children and teens may have trouble expressing their thoughts and emotions regarding their illness. That’s why we offer high quality music therapy to provide a safe outlet for them to express themselves with guidance from our board-certified music therapists.
Your child may receive music therapy in conjunction with other therapies we offer such as pediatric physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy to reinforce goals and objectives. They might receive therapy on their own or in a group setting. Oftentimes, music therapy is offered in a one-on-one setting where your child has an opportunity to experience independence, control and mastery in a creative setting. Our music therapists build individualized treatment plans catered specifically to your child’s needs to better serve them while they are in our care.
Benefits of music therapy
Your child’s participation in music therapy is just what the doctor ordered to help them improve physically, mentally and emotionally.
Music therapy can help:
- Release tension to promote pain and stress management
- Facilitate developmental progress
- Increase range of emotional expression and communication
- Support processing of traumatic experiences associated with illness or injury
- Improve quality of life and quality of care
- Enhance child and family coping with hospitalization
- Integrate families into their child’s care
- Improve response to sedation
- Stabilize vital signs such as heart rate, respiration rate and oxygen
- Soften the environment during palliative care, bereavement or end of life
For premature or medically fragile infants, research shows that music therapy increases babies' weight gain and improves their sucking and feeding behaviors. Music therapy also supports brain development and enhances preemies' bond with their parents. Our music therapists help return some of the instinctual caregiver role back to parents in a setting that can at times feel unfamiliar, stressful and overwhelming.
Music therapy internships
Our music therapy interns observe, co-lead and eventually lead music therapy sessions on both an individual and group basis. Interns participate in daily rounds and are integrated into our interdisciplinary team of art therapists, chaplains, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, child life specialists and social workers.
In addition, our Park Ridge interns may deliver services on the Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health Unit, while our Oak Lawn interns will gain experience working with children on the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.
We are not currently offering internships at our Park Ridge campus. For more information, email Victoria Vitale at Victoria.Vitale@aah.org.
In Oak Lawn, applications are due Feb. 1 for a September start. For more information or to request an application, email Julie Przeslicke at Julie.Przeslicke@aah.org.
