Music therapy ministry aims to be Resounding success

Music Therapy Ministry Aims to Be a ReSOUNDing Success
Some 30 volunteers from two churches in northern San Diego County began meeting one night a week in March to learn some basic principles of music therapy and brush up on counseling skills. By April, they were reaching out to shut-ins and the elderly, bringing not just words of spiritual hope and encouragement, but an appreciation for the hope and consolation brought by music as well.

ReSOUNDing Faith Ministry is a new outreach of Calvary Lutheran Church in Solana Beach. It has grown out of the work of Dr. Barbara Reuer, a professional music therapist for more than 25 years and a member of Calvary. Reuer runs MusicWorx, a music therapy practice based in Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla.

The effort was spurred on by $38,000 grant from Wheat Ridge Ministries, the independent Lutheran charitable organization that provides support for new church-related health and hope ministries. It gained further momentum and an ecumenical slant when members from nearby St. Brigid’s Catholic Church became interested in participating, thanks in large part to St. Brigid’s member Theresa Chardos, a certified music therapist and a graduate of Reuer’s MusicWorx internship program. Of the first 30 volunteers, 20 are from Calvary, and 10 are from St. Brigid’s.

Healing Ministry
ReSOUNDing Faith calls itself a healing ministry utilizing recreational music-making. The plan is to train lay church members (nonprofessionals only and even those who consider themselves nonmusical) in a limited number of music therapy techniques to enable them to reach out to those in need, then to develop a faith-based training manual for music therapists to use in congregations. Volunteers are asked to commit to at least a year in the program, so clients can be fully tracked.

Northern San Diego County has become a hub for retirees, but there will be no typical client. Many will be sought out from the older community, “who may be lonely, lacking the type of environment that provides them with encouragement, hope, joy, and creativity,” as the grant states. But younger people, usually shut-in by illness or accident, are also among those who will be receiving therapy.

Volunteers spent time learning how to use simple rhythm and music instruments like drums, but they also learned about and will utilize devices like the QChord, a deceptively simple guitarlike electronic machine. While the program has the luxury of the Wheat Ridge grant, it is far from fully funded. Reuer and Chardos are looking for donations to buy hardware, such as new QChords, and hope to raise an additional $12,000 to do so.

Benefit Concert
To help accomplish that goal, participants in the program recently did something many of them had experience with: They put on a benefit concert. Musicians, from beginners to a professional with record contract, offered up their best to appreciative crowd on Feb. 29 at Calvary. Most were from among the volunteers; some were interns and former interns of Dr. Reuer. A few were clients. By fervently offering a sample of something so close to their hearts, they also provided a revealing glimpse of one of the great mysteries that is at the center of this ministry: the ability of music to inspire, heal, and renew.

Music therapy began during World War I, when musicians of all types visited veterans’ hospitals to perform for the thousands suffering physical and emotional war traumas. The notable patient responses to music led doctors and nurses to request hospitals to hire musicians, but hospitals soon realized that musician required training. The first music therapy degrees were offered in 1944. Today there are some 4000 U.S. board-certified music therapists.

The nature of faith-based music therapy has yet to have been fully explored. Dr. Reuer said she hopes that ReSOUNDing Faith may offer part of the answer.