When Music Is Medicine

This therapy is gaining credibility as it shows real results

- Anicka Quin

THERE'S ONE PATIENT that SarahRose Black still thinks about. Back in 2019, the nursing team in the palliative care unit at Toronto's Princess Margaret Cancer Centre asked if she could reach out to a patient who had been there for about a week. The man was struggling, and unwilling to engage with staff or be part of any activities. "They told me, 'He's short and grumpy with us, and we wonder if you might have an in."

Black isn't a doctor or a nurse. Since 2013 she has played an important role for patients as Princess Margaret's on-staff music therapist. On any given day, she might see one person who's anxious about an upcoming procedure, another who's undergoing chemo and in need of a soothing moment. Or, like the man in the palliative care unit, it might be someone who doesn't yet know they need her.

So, on a wintery Wednesday afternoon, Black approached the patient's room and introduced herself. She asked if she could sit, and offered to play some music. In an effort to convince him, she said, "If you don't like it, you can tell me to leave," she recalls.

After some gentle urging, the 70-something man, who had lung cancer, told her a few classical composers he liked and then turned away to look out the window. But as she started to play one of his favourites, Bach, on her portable keyboard, a change came over him. He unfolded his arms, turned toward Black and started to cry.

She stopped playing. "Do you want me to continue?" she asked.

"Absolutely," he said through tears.

"It was as if the music went places that nothing else could," recalls Black. "He shared with me afterward that he'd been holding in so much and had been unable to talk about anything-but the music showed up at a moment when it felt like a hug."