UPDATE: Unfortunately my wife’s clips were cut from the segment that aired, but it is still worthwhile watching.
Here is their website url: http://abcnews.go.com/WN
The Segment is called: Person of the Week: Celebrating All Music Therapists
*****
ABC World News Tonight every Friday has a segment devoted to people in the news. It’s a feature story – not a hard news segment. Tonight the feature is supposed to air a segment about Gabby Giffords and her treatment with music therapy to aid in helping her recover from the traumatic brain injury she suffered when she was shot by a lone gunman back in January, 2011.
As part of that segment, video clips of my wife’s work with a music therapist in Rochester, NY, will also be shown. My wife has been working with a music therapist to help with her loss of cognitive function that resulted from her chemotherapy treatments for pancreatic cancer in 2006. If you have the time, please watch the show, which airs on the East Coast at 6:30 PM EST.
My wife has made a great deal of improvement since she began her work with a music therapist two years ago. If you know of anyone – family member, friend, loved one – who suffers from a traumatic brain injury, dementia and/or Alzheimer’s disease, autism, mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression, or any of a number of other other brain disorders, I strongly urge you to watch and then do some research on whether music therapy may be right for them.
That’s exciting.
I never thought these two things would come together like this.
I’m sure many people will benefit from getting this information.
After my sister graduated from HS in 1979, she went to Potsdam University – NY State public college near Canada, that specializes in music.
She told me that initially, she was going to study “Musical Therapy.”
In my typical wise-ass manner, is asked her what that major was – ‘Fixing sick music?”
When she told me, I felt like an ass – and not for the first or last time.
She only lasted a year in that major before turning to majoring in piano.
Dealing with mentally and physically handicapped people can be very taxing.
She sometimes regrets not continuing. But, a major like that is tough on young people in their late teen’s and early twenty’s.
I’d never heard of the concept of music therapy until a few years ago when my sister told me that’s what her ex had started doing. Sounds like it’s been great for him, much steadier work than he’d ever had as a performer.
It is a very small world at times, is it not? Congrats to your wife for staying with it over these past years, best wishes to you both.
congratulations! very interesting, very important topic. great!
That’s wonderful, Steven. We don’t have tv, but maybe I can find a clip on the tubes. My sincere thanks to your wife for being in such a helping profession. I’ll bet some benefits of it have rubbed off on your whole family too.
We don’t have tv,
Is that why we’re often on the same page?
At any point in time there’s usually two or three shows that are worth watching. Would have a TV if I could get only those shows and at a cost of $10/month or less.
Heh – quite possible. I dumped that addiction over 7 years ago – no regrets. Also, you can add Mad magazine addict at an early age and a bit later, union agitator.
Never had a TV addiction to break. If not for intermittent social pressure to get one, might never have purchased one at all. Even when I had one, cable was a luxury I refused to purchase. Should have been a clue that a relationship with a video engineer was doomed.
Wasn’t Mad magazine more of a guy thing? Was never fortunate enough to have any direct experience with unions, but I did favor business proposals from companies that employed unionized labor.
For the tv free among us, I think this is the clip Steven is talking about.