LOCAL musician Mary Keily has been inspired by the outcomes of therapeutic harp playing for the sick and vulnerable.
She is raising money to buy her own instrument and hopes to study an International Harp Therapy program to be accredited to play in hospitals, homes, hospices and places of care within the community.
The purpose of the therapeutic harp service is neither to entertain nor to give a performance, but to provide a quiet space for rest, reflection, connection and wellbeing.
The training includes learning how to improvise, work with modes and elemental music, and useful repertoire for different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
The player also learns how to work intuitively with patients and clients, weaving familiar songs together with the unfamiliar, as well as improvisations.
The training also covers areas necessary for working in the healthcare field including deepening perceptual awareness of self and others.
A Boambee resident, Ms Keily recently retired from nursing after 37 years at Coffs Base, the Linked to Life Home Health Care Service and the old Macksville Hospital.
As a piano accordionist in French gypsy swing trio “Miss Paris”, she has seen powerful connections to music.
“People often say how much they love our music because the nostalgia touches them,” she told News Of The Area.
“One day at a cafe in Urunga where I was playing [the] very old tune ‘Moon River’, an elderly man with dementia got up and danced with his granddaughter.
“I learnt he hardly talks or walks but this music ‘really moved him’.”
Ms Keily cites another example of the therapeutic power of playing music.
“In the stroke ward, during my training, I encouraged a man to bring in his Walkman and share his earbuds with his unconscious wife.
“They both loved Country and Western music [so] he lay beside her and hummed to the music.
“He felt so helpless, yet this was a small joy he could share with his wife.”
Ms Keily has set up a GoFundMe page to purchase the harp – it can be found by going to the website and searching her name.
By Andrea FERRARI
You can help your local paper.
Make a small once-off, or (if you can) a regular donation.
We are an independent family owned business and our newspapers are free to collect and our news stories are free online.
Help support us into the future.
