Musical Motivation: "The Healing Wings of Music" by Michael Ballam

I am very interested in becoming a music therapist in the future so I have looked up several wonderful books from the library lately.  One audio book that I came across during my search was especially inspiring: " The Healing Wings of music" by Michael Ballam.  He told of several experiences where his talent of singing a song for someone at a hospital or rest home, greatly helped individuals with their varied challenges,  and some very dramatically had their lives changed.   I will paraphrase two examples he relates which I found especially moving:
        
 During a performance at a rest home, he was warned of the very unpredictable, often disturbing, behavior of a particular individual who would be present to hear him sing. He thanked them for their warnings and decided to continue singing.  When he came to a particular song, (which I don't remember what song it was) the man who he had been warned about suddenly began to sing along.  Michael continued to sing with him and when the number was finished the man clapped and clapped and was responding to people around him in a way that had never happened since he been brought to the facility.  That was a turning point in the man's life and he was able to function much better after that experience.

The next experience happened when Michael stopped into a hospice center to ask if there was anyone he could visit with during a break in his concert schedule while out on tour.  He was sent to the home of a woman whose husband was in a coma in her living room and had been for several weeks.  He was not expected to recover. Michael visited with the woman and listened to her and before leaving he offered to sing a song for her.  She was from another country and was certain he would not know any songs she knew, but he insisted that he did and performed for her.  They heard a sound from the living room and it was the husband who awoke from his coma and began to describe the memories associated with the song which he had heard.  The woman was so thankful for the chance to again talk to her husband and see him in a coherent state before he died.

I was so inspired by these and the many other experiences he shared.  It is so wonderful to learn more about the many ways music can empower and bless each of us.

Be Inspired,