Music Therapy and Laryngectomees
The unifying power of music
I wrote about an experience I had in a previous blog post about speaking at an Atos webinar. The webinar was an international event, and I had the opportunity to talk with and hear from people around the globe who have experienced or who have been impacted by someone who has had a total laryngectomy. It was an unbelievable experience, largely because the topic of the event was the power and impact of music on each speaker’s life and recovery process. Every laryngectomee who spoke at the event shared a musical number: some sang and some played instruments. It was an amazing experience.
Music is powerful. It impacts our lives. It impacts our culture. It is a key ingredient in every life celebration big and small: weddings, funerals, listening to it while driving, moving to it while exercising, you name it. Whether we choose to call ourselves musical or not, we can’t deny that music is an integral part of our lives, culture, and world.
Music therapy goals and interventions
Music therapy is about using music as the tool to accomplish goals in the therapeutic process. Music therapy is effective in a variety of settings and with a variety of populations. I work primarily as a hospice music therapist, so my work centers on end-of-life goals and music interventions for pain management. Patients who are on hospice care often struggle with the challenge of losing their independence, having to rely on others solely for their care. Another common challenge with my hospice patients is depression and/or anxiety. I use music to increase comfort and decrease depression and anxiety. Another common use of music in hospice care is music-assisted life review to gain greater life closure and positive coping strategies.
Bill Brummel pictured above (first row, second from the right)
Though I have no experience working with a client who has had a total laryngectomy, I believe that music therapy could be an effective treatment method in conjunction with the other much-needed therapies in the recovery process. I learned from laryngectomees who spoke in the Atos webinar that they could relate to each other when describing the intense and challenging emotions that they all experienced leading up to and following the laryngectomy procedure, some of which included depression, hopelessness, isolation, loneliness, and fatigue. Each of them testified to the power and necessity of music in their recovery process.
Bill Brummel, director and producer of the documentary Can you Hear my Voice?, knows and understands the journey of going through cancer treatments and a total laryngectomy. In response to the common statement in obituaries about people who “lost the battle to cancer,” Bill says that “victory should not be measured by how long we live but by how well we live.” Music therapy helps support Bill’s sentiment. When hearing from laryngectomees, most will say that the physical challenges are great, but the emotional and mental challenges are greater. Bill talks about his feelings of denial, which led to fear, depression, and hopelessness. His wife encouraged him to join a support group, and when he finally did, he experienced the significant impact of being in community with others who truly understood how he felt.
“Victory should not be measured by how long we live but by how well we live.”
More research to be done
Music therapy can and does address the numerous mental and emotional challenges that laryngectomees face. Group music therapy would be an effective form of treatment because of the supportive, empathetic qualities of a support group. Lyric analysis would be an effective music intervention for encouraging and engaging discussion on the various emotions that clients are experiencing. One of the benefits of music therapy is that it allows for nonverbal communication and processing. This might be exactly what a person who’s had a total laryngectomy needs in processing her/his emotions.
In the study “Effect of singing training on total laryngectomees wearing a tracheoesophageal voice prosthesis,” the authors found that singing training seems to have a favorable effect on the quality of tracheoesophageal phonation and on singing voice (see citation to study below). Not only is music therapy an effective treatment method to address the psychosocial/emotional challenges after a total laryngectomy, but it can also address the physical challenges in the recovery process.
Having no experience working specifically with clients who have undergone a total laryngectomy, I would find it informative and helpful to collaborate with a speech therapist in order to understand how to best work on strengthening vocalization and the respiratory muscles. A member of the Shout at Cancer choir says that singing helps you learn how to breathe in, which allows you to “talk better and join in with other people.” Another member of the group says, “I didn’t want to know anybody, but slowly I got the confidence to be with them and share the joy of being able to sing.”
Connection. Community. Support. Music therapy cultivates these fundamental needs that we all share as human beings. As Bill Brummel states, it is not about length of life, but quality of life. Music brings us together. It evokes emotions and ignites joy. Music therapy is an essential tool on the road to recovery for total laryngectomees.
Research article referenced above:
Onofre, F., Ricz, H. M., Takeshita-Monaretti, T. K., Prado, M. Y., & Aguiar-Ricz, L. N. (2013). Effect of singing training on total
laryngectomees wearing a tracheoesophageal voice prosthesis. Acta cirurgica brasileira, 28(2), 119–125. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-86502013000200006