Newsletter-Archive-01

May 2011

FLYERS for Upcoming Conferences
European Netherlands 2011 Conference (in Dutch)

European Netherlands 2011 Conference (in English)

Northeastern USA Burlington, VT 2011 Conference

Canadian Vancouver 2011 Conference

Southwestern San Diego 2011 Conference

 

While you browse our site, here is an MP3 Shadow Spirit for you to listen to.

If you would like the sheet music to this song, please Click Here: Shadow Spirit (Int.).

IHTP NEWS from Christina

This is a new format for our Newsletter. Soon, you will be able to BLOG in your news and it will be released on a monthly basis. For now, I am submitting the news and articles that have come to my desk.  This is where you make a nice cuppa tea and enjoy articles, inspirations and find out who needs a bit of support during trying times.

Upcoming Events

Check out the BLOGS for each of the conferences. Post your information if you are planning to come and also if you would like to share rooms or provide or request transportation! Click on BLOG

IHTP Family News

Check out the new Canadian Therapeutic Harp Site!  Great job! HERE

I just got a call from our local hospital where a donation has been made in honour of my services to a family and the monies are to be used specifically for my harp services to families in need. I have patiently waited years for this….
Anita Leschied, Certified Therapeutic Harp Practitioner
Email
WEB

Tina, I am having a very exciting month. Another donation was given to our Hospice for a 6 month trial of 3 hours per week of harp therapy to be supervised or monitored by a senior social work student for research purposes. They had requested more but this is another start and knocking down doors. I meet with those involved next week.  Anita Leschied, Certified Therapeutic Harp Practitioner

Hi Christina, Thought I would just update you on progress in harp therapy in Ireland.
After a lot of persevering on my own and being mistaken as a well-meaning (but completely crazy) volunteer, I am finally making some inroads in Cork.  In January, after 10 months at the hospice, the palliative care consultants eventually agreed to meet me.  I handed them reports of every session I had done since the beginning and told them of their own patients’ experiences of harp therapy.  After that, everything changed.  The staff began to treat me like a professional service giver and I was given the opportunity to give staff education sessions, which were very well received.  Since that, I am being sent to the patients who really need harp therapy, which is of more benefit to the hospice and more rewarding for me.

I am also working in elderly care – with individuals mainly, and also dementia care – with people with severe dementia who have very poor quality of life because of the extent of their illness.  While I can notice the effect of familiar music bringing patients into the real world, the real benefit, I feel, is how I can communicate with them through music at an emotional level, in a way that even their family cannot.  The harp is an excuse to sit down with someone for a full half an hour, giving them your full attention and care for that time.  That is a very unique opportunity for someone with severe dementia.

One of the nursing homes that I work with recently hosted a public seminar on Music In Healthcare.  I was one of the two speakers and I talked about my work and the harp therapy approach.  Again, it was very well received.

My work is funded by the Irish Health Service Executive Arts Office.

Best wishes,
Orla Busteed

TV NEWS REPORT. Here is a great television news report on Tinky Timmons from North Carolina!  Excellent! LINK Here is a great CBS report on Therapeutic Harp anticipating the outcome of the study of harp music to reduce stress. Hear the Christina Therapy harp being played! LINK 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Tina, Somehow at the end of 2010 I had a sense that 2011 was going to be a great year…I just cannot  believe it! I have just joined forces with an Art Therapist and we are offering HarpArTherapy…we had our first  workshop last Saturday and it was incredible…the journeying those women did in just one afternoon, emotions released etc. With this same lady we are also going to offer x2 / month Rainbow Healing Harp Circles; essentially it is a guided meditation with me playing . People are sitting or lying down in a circle and I am in the middle creating the cradle of sound while the other lady is guiding them. Sooooo exciting! I will be at the Wellness Expo this week-end (yearly event) with my various services…Had to tell you…you are responsible for that! Love, Laurence
Laurence Marie
Email
WEB

NSBTM Site Offers Helpful Information to Certified Therapeutic Musicians

By Stella Benson, Chair, NSBTM

Many certified therapeutic musicians are in the throws of collecting continuing education units (CEU’s). The National Standards Board for Therapeutic Musicians (NSBTM) has regular updates on its Events page that hosts NSBTM-accredited- program-approved onsite workshops and online webinars for CEU’s. The Events page is the one-stop place to come to when looking for events that offer CEU’s to those graduates of accredited programs; International Harp Therapy Program, Music for Healing and Transition Program, Clinical Musician Home Study Program and any one else wishing to augment their practice.

The NSBTM site also offers a page titled News, Research & Articles for those wishing to keep up with the therapeutic music industry. This is a great place to find research papers, and news articles of practitioners in the US and around the world.

Please go to http://www.therapeuticmusician.com/index.html to access these very helpful sites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Places that would like to have interns.

If you are interested, please contact our office and we will help you set up time at these places. We ask that they provide you housing and local transportation in their area.

I have been playing harp in the ICU units at Swedish Hospital, Cherry Hill campus, for a little under a year now.  Over this time, the response has been “huge”, so I am told, and I am being asked to play more often and in more locations, including First Hill campus in their ICU unit.

Since I am a volunteer and can only offer so much time, I thought I would ask if you have any students looking for a site to do an internship or a student/graduate who is looking for volunteer work in a hospital.  The staff wants to get more musicians in these units and I have been encouraging them to ask for trained individuals because of the gravity of illness of patients and staff stress.  It has been wonderful to see therapeutic music making such a positive impact for well being in these units.  I would be sad to see it undone if an unknowing musician unintentionally created more stress by improper use of music.

Contact Barbara Broderick via Email HERE

 

 

I have also had requests for interns to go to the following places. Please contact me if you are interested.

What a wonderful program! I was thoroughly impressed and feel harp music would provide incredible benefits in long term care. I currently work at a long term care skilled nursing facility with 112 beds. If you ever have a student who would like to do their “hours” in Omaha, NE please feel free to give them my contact information. I know myself and the other recreational therapist as well as our resident would be THRILLED!

Blessings,
Heather Holmes, CTRS
Director of Recreational Therapy
Good Samaritan Society-Millard

Julie Whelan, Dir. Integrative Services, Marin General Hospital, (right outside of San Francisco) is seeking certified therapeutic musicians to staff her new department. She asked how she can find practitioners for hire in her area. Could you please take a moment to help her. Perhaps you would be interested in putting it in your newsletter.  (Contact me if you would like to be in touch with her. Christina)

 

Nancy Kelly wrote:

Christina, I am looking into starting a therapeutic harp music program at our local hospital. Currently I play there as part of my duties as a chaplain. If all goes well, I will be looking for 3-4 trained people from Baltimore/Washington/Annapolis, MD. Do you have any graduates of IHTP from the Annapolis area? Nancy Kelly, CMP, grad of MHTP. Thanks.    (Contact me if if you would like to be in touch with her – Christina)

 

R. Gasch
AseraCare Hospice
Bloomington, MN

CHECK OUT OUR USED HARPS (at the bottom of the page)

Prayers and Intentions

Many of you will remember Amy Camie who gave such a wonderful presentation at our 2009 Conference. Please watch this WEB video – this is powerful, amazing and she needs our thoughts and prayers. You can send her (and all people needing prayers and assistance) your emails.
Email
WEB

Dear Tina, Our country has been facing devastating disaster of big earthquake and tsunami which hit vast are of mainland Japan.Furthermore, people in Fukushima prefecture is now facing the nuclear plants crisis which have severe damage. Please pray for the people in Tohoku and Tokyo area. Kumiko

Steve (Johnson) spouse of our mentor Cynthy Johnson – is planning to undergo surgery for a condition called Superior Canal Dehiscence.  It is a delicate surgery. Cynthy will keep us posted about the surgery day, meanwhile, let’s send our thoughts their way.  Cynthy Johnson and Steve – Email

Our thoughts are with Beverly Tyack who has just undergone an appendix removal. Speedy recovery Bev! Email

Alison Ware writes that her son had a collapsed lung. He is still unwell  in hospital and may need further surgery. Please send good thoughts and music his way!!! Alison Ware Email

 

Dear Christina, I have a “sister of the heart” who is very ill. She has endured a period of prolonged suffering with an illness that took forever to diagnose.  She is debilitated and has preexisting problems from previous injuries.  I feel so helpless because she is so far from me.  She resides in Texas and her name is Becky.  But then I remembered that I belong to this wonderful family now –IHTP.   I am asking our family to please play their harps for her with the intent of sending her a positive healing energy.  Could you please send this message to our worldwide family, that as they play they might think of Becky and send her love.  Thank you so much.
With love and gratitude, Jan Hirsch: Email

Deahn Johnson is in need of some support – her husband has suffered a series of strokes. They recently made a trip to Russia where they met with a specialist in stem cell research. For those who know Deahn, she keeps an on-going diary through Caring Bridge.  Please contact her at:  Email

 

 

Recent Graduates

Our recent Graduates from the IHTP. You have persevered and worked hard over the past couple of years. May your journey be blessed as you go forth and serve!
CONGRATULATIONS!

Irene Rieser Switzerland	Shirley Howard Calfornia	Cynthia Golfus Washington
Sonja Grace Austria	Cathy Curby Alaska	Rachel Christensen Minnesota
Liu Hsiu Kuo Alaska	Yukiko Shimura Japan	Yoshiko Sato Japan
	Orla Busteed Ireland

Interesting Articles

Benjamin Creighton Griffiths

Benjamin will be performing at the World Harp Congress in Vancouver this summer. Many of you have heard of the amazing child prodigy Benjamin Creighton Griffiths. He started playing the harp when he was 4 and pretty much went from beginner to seasoned pro in just a few years. In his short career, the South Wales resident has won numerous competitions, performed in more than 175 events, been featured on BBC, performed in Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands and Brazil –  and has pretty much impressed the world.

His 2005 You-Tube performance (when he was 8) of Deborah Henson-Conant’s Nataliana has inspired harpists around the world — both young and old. LINK

In 2008 Benjamin won first prize in the Concours Junior (Under 16) of the Concours de harpe Lily Laskine. Last year, at the age of 14, he recorded Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols with the Girl Choristers of Llandaff Cathedral.

When he was 9, Benjamin won the Under 25 Solo Instrument Class at the Abergavenny Eisteddfod.

Benjamin is delighted to be making his North American debut this July in Vancouver at the age of 15. He will perform in the hotel atrium at noon on Tuesday, July 26.

On another note, Benjamin is too young to qualify for a Welsh Arts Council travel grant, so he is funding his trip to the Congress with sales of his DVDL’arpa in villa. Check out his web site HERE

Here is a link to Benjamin’s performance of This Little Babe on his recording of A Ceremony of Carols.

 

Dusty Strings Seattle Folk Harp Symposium

 

At the 2010 Dusty Strings Seattle Folk Harp Symposium, Dave Taylor (harp enthusiast and comic talent extraordinaire) presented his proposal for a new, highly affordable line of folk harps. We hope you enjoy his presentation as much as we did.

Dave Taylor at 2010 Harp Symposium

 

You may not know someone going through chemo, but someone on your email list might. Please forward! LINK

Here is an article that Rachel Christensen sent our way: LINK

Brigham Young University TV made the lovely 4 minute documentary about Music Gives Life. LINK

Sarajane Williams of the Harp Therapy Journal sends us this interesting clip to watch: HERE

PLEASE watch this musical extravaganza. It’s totally amazing!   Julie Smith – Alaska
Just look at how many hours this took to create… and we play this sort of stuff for fun!!! LINK

The following article was written by Dr. Richard McQuellon’s son-in-law.

He sends it on to us to read: LINK
and the accompanying video (super cool): LINK

Science Daily Articles

Study Links Emotional and Neural Responses to Musical Performance: LINK

Music Relieves Stress of Assisted Breathing (Dec. 8, 2010) — Patients who need assistance to breathe through mechanical ventilation may benefit from listening to music, a new review shows. The researchers found that music listening may relax patients, …  > read more

Background Music Can Impair Performance, Cites New Study (July 28, 2010) — For decades research has shown that listening to music alleviates anxiety and depression, enhances mood, and can increase cognitive functioning, such as spatial awareness. However, until now, …  > read more

Music Thought To Enhance Intelligence, Mental Health And Immune System (June 22, 2006) — New research examines how humans process music and its positive effects on our health and …  > read more

Feeling Chills in Response to Music (Dec. 8, 2010) — Most people feel chills and shivers in response to music that thrills them, but some people feel these chills often and others feel them hardly at all. People who are particularly open to new …  > read more

Music Reduces Stress In Heart Disease Patients (Apr. 16, 2009) — Listening to music may benefit patients who suffer severe stress and anxiety associated with having and undergoing treatment for coronary heart disease. A new review found that listening to music …  > read more

Feeling Chills in Response to Music (Dec. 8, 2010) — Most people feel chills and shivers in response to music that thrills them, but some people feel these chills often and others feel them hardly at all. People who are particularly open to new …  > read more

Background Music Can Impair Performance, Cites New Study (July 28, 2010) — For decades research has shown that listening to music alleviates anxiety and depression, enhances mood, and can increase cognitive functioning, such as spatial awareness. However, until now, …  > read more

Listening To Music Can Change The Way You Judge Facial Emotions (May 7, 2009) — It is possible to influence emotional evaluation of visual stimuli by listening to musical excerpts before the …  > read more

Listening To Pleasant Music Could Help Restore Vision In Stroke Patients, Suggests Study (Mar. 25, 2009) — Patients who have lost part of their visual awareness following a stroke can show an improved ability to see when they are listening to music they like, according to a new …  > read more

Using Music To Explore The Neural Bases Of Emotional ‘Processing’ In The Autistic Brain (May 14, 2008) — Researchers will use music as a tool to explore the ability of children with ASD to identify emotions in musical excerpts and facial …  > read more

Why Musicians Make Us Weep And Computers Don’t (July 10, 2008) — Music can soothe the savage breast much better if played by musicians rather than clever computers, according to a new study. Neuroscientists looked at the brain’s response to piano sonatas played …  > read more

Exploring The Sounds Of Silence (June 24, 2007) — Silence in music is not really silent. Research by a University of Arkansas music theorist, Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, reveals how context affects listeners’ experience of silence in music. When a …  > read more

Language Of Music Really Is Universal, Study Finds
(Mar. 20, 2009) — Native African people who have never even listened to the radio before can nonetheless pick up on happy, sad, and fearful emotions in Western music, according to a new article. The result shows that … > read more

The Sounds Of Learning: Studying The Impact Of Music On Children With Autism
(July 21, 2009) — The power of music affects all of us and has long appealed to our emotions. It is for this reason that researchers are using music to help children with autism spectrum disorders, for whom …  > read more

Adolescents Involved With Music Do Better In School
(Feb. 11, 2009) — Music participation, defined as music lessons taken in or out of school and parents attending concerts with their children, has a positive effect on reading and mathematics achievement in early …  > read more

 

Babies Are Born to Dance, New Research Shows
(Mar. 16, 2010) — A study of infants finds they respond to the rhythm and tempo of music and find it more engaging than speech. The research suggest that babies may be born with a predisposition to move rhythmically … > read more

Positive Mood Allows Human Brain to Think More Creatively
(Dec. 15, 2010) — People who watch funny videos on the Internet at work aren’t necessarily wasting time. According to new research, they may be taking advantage of the latest psychological science — putting …  > read more

Simply Listening To Music Affects One’s Musicality
(Aug. 13, 2008) — Researchers have demonstrated how much the brain can learn simply through active exposure to many different kinds of music. “More and more labs are showing that people have the sensitivity for …  > read more

Musicians Have Biological Advantage In Identifying Emotion In Sound
(Mar. 5, 2009) — Looking for a mate who in everyday conversation can pick up your most subtle emotional cues? Find a musician, scientists say. They have provided biological evidence that musical training enhances the … > read more

Genes For Musical Aptitude In Finnish Families Located
(May 19, 2008) — Researchers from Finland and USA have identified one major and several potential loci associated with musical aptitude in the human genome. The results raise an interesting question about common …  > read more

How Music ‘Moves’ Us: Listeners’ Brains Second-Guess the Composer
(Jan. 16, 2010) — Have you ever accidentally pulled your headphone socket out while listening to music? What happens when the music stops? Psychologists believe that our brains continuously predict what is going to … > read more

Music: Mirror Of The Mind
(June 15, 2007) — The long supposed connection between mind and music has been further demonstrated by an international collaboration of physicists. A statistical analysis reveals a remarkable similarity between the …  > read more

Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music : Nature Neuroscience LINK

 

ASCAP On Board to Improve Musical Instrument Carry-on Provisions

LEGISLATIVE ALERT – ASCAP has been involved in the quest for a uniform policy supporting airline carry-on provisions for musical instruments since shortly after 9/11/01. This quest has grown into a coalition of organizations representing over a million musicians, songwriters and composers. There is currently a Senate FAA reauthorization bill that needs your immediate support to give you the right to carry your musical instruments safely On Board. Click this link for the details and to send Senator John Rockefeller an email of support for this bill.