As a board-certified music therapist, Iowa State University Assistant Professor of Kinesiology Elizabeth Stegemöller said she usually has to tell people her work does not entail simply listening to music.
“There are places that allow musicians to come in and play music for people in a hospital; that’s not music therapy,” Stegemöller said. “Music therapy is to use music for non-musical behavioral changes.”
For Stegemöller, her therapy utilizes music as a way to improve things such as speech, swallowing or respiratory control. And she has been applying this therapy to those with Parkinson’s disease, who will put on a music festival in Ames next weekend.
“I’m using music to control those kinds of behaviors,” Stegemöller said. ”(The therapy) also helps things where medication doesn’t really have an effect.”
The concert will be at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday at First Baptist Church of Ames.
Stegemöller began treating Parkinson’s patients during her Ph.D. program at Northwestern University. But it was not until she began her post-doc work at the University of Florida that she began combining music therapy with Parkinson’s patients.
“I met with some folks in the speech and languages departments there at UF, and they were really interested in swallowing and Parkinson’s disease,” Stegemöller said. “They were like, ‘Do you think singing could help that?’ and I was like, ‘Well I don’t know, but we could look at it.’”
Prior to coming to ISU, Stegemöller received a grant to proceed with her research and then transferred the grant once she accepted a position in Ames. When she came to ISU in 2013, she brought the grant with her, and by the summer of 2014, she had a group of around eight people using singing and music as a form of therapy. Since then, she has established groups in Waverly, Rockwell City, Des Moines and Storm Lake.
“To be honest, it’s not what I thought my line of research would be,” Stegemöller said. “When I got the grant, I thought I’d do the research and be done, but the powers that be won’t let me. And I think that the participants and I enjoy the group so much, and then to see the positive results, it’s like no we should keep going with this.”
Stegemöller said she recently received a second grant to continue the work; however, she said apart from grants, funding for this type of research is hard to come by. This is where Stegemöller said she got the idea for a concert, to sort of raise awareness for the program and also to build the confidence of those in the groups.
Though the patients will showcase the songs they sing in groups, Stegemöller said the goal of the concert is more to build confidence than for performance.
“What music therapists do, is they don’t really perform. You can’t let the music get in the way because it’s a therapeutic relationship,” Stegemöller said. “We manipulate the music to reach certain goals.”
n addition to improving areas such as posture, swallowing, and breathing with Parkinson’s patients, Stegemöller said these groups have also brought people out of their shells to interact with others in similar situations.
“When you start singing with people, walls break down, barriers break down, and they’re much more supportive of each other,” Stegemöller said. “That’s the one thing they report themselves, that they enjoy most about the group is the camaraderie.”
Stegemöller said the Ames group, which now has more than 20 members, ranges in ages from the late 50s to 80s. She said everyone in the group treats each other like a family, even attending the funerals of those who have passed away.
“I think that they’re suffering together, and that helps,” Stegemöller said. “If you ask them, a lot of them like coming to these groups because they’re positive. They get tired of hearing all the negatives about the disease and want to do something positive and uplifting.”
According to Stegemöller, those positive reports about the group are what helped bring in a second grant, and she hopes that these concerts will help bring awareness to the research and also bring in donations to help keep this therapy going for those who have benefited from it.
“I think everyone knows that music affects certain behaviors,” Stegemöller said. “It’s just a matter of knowing how to use that.”
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WHAT: Parkinson’s therapy concert
WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 12, 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: First Baptist Church of Ames, 200 Lynn Ave.
COST: FREE
http://www.amestrib.com/news/20170805/concert-brings-new-therapy-to-parkinson8217s-patients
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