Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/77424
MUSIC AS MEDICINE JEN HARTLEY'S STORY As a child, two things were prominent in my life—burn rehabilitation surgery and music. One I loved, and the other I grew to respect. When I was 15 months old, my 17-year-old mother was giving me a bath in the kitchen sink when she stepped away from me briefly, leaving me to splash around while she went to the door. During her absence, I bumped the hot water faucet and changed my life forever. I received third degree burns over the lower 56 percent of my body and thus started myself down the seemingly endless path of skin grafts, Z-plasties (a surgical procedure to repair constricted scar tissue), and, what I felt like as a child were, barbaric physical therapy regimens at the Shriners Burn Institute in Galveston, Texas. As a child, I always associated touch and physical therapy with pain, fear, and trepidation. Walking up and down hallways and steps, and being made to bend my scarred legs seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. I envied the kids who had burns to their hands because their physical therapy involved playing catch or video games. I loved and respected my physical therapists, but there was nothing fun about my therapy. The only bright spot of my day was when Dawn, the music therapist, would come to visit. My dad had started teaching me to play the guitar and Dawn wanted to make sure I had time to practice. She would sit with me for hours, teaching me guitar chords, strumming patterns, and generally playing some really hokey songs, but I loved it because it helped me forget I was in a hospital. The pain of the day diminished as the sound of the music filled the room. If there weren't any other children at the hospital that played the guitar, Dawn would leave the instrument in my room so I could play anytime I wanted. At times, I would practice a song she had been teaching me the day before while the nurses were changing bandages or even removing stitches—it was a huge distraction from whatever was being done to my body. Little did I know that I would one day have the opportunity to combine what I learned firsthand about physical therapy for burn survivors with what I was taught by that music therapist. In 2004, I graduated from the Augusta School of Massage. I soon became an instructor there, and later taught at the Georgia Academy of Massage. I took my firsthand knowledge as a burn survivor and combined it with what I had learned from some of the "rock stars" of massage, like George Kousaleous, James Waslaski, and David Kent, and created my own burn scar massage therapy protocol. This course concentrates not only on the physical wellness of burn survivors, but their emotional state as well. My practice partner, Chris, and I have used every opportunity to share and promote our knowledge with others. Our biggest opportunity came at the Phoenix Society's 2007 World Burn Congress in Vancouver, British Columbia. There, after listening to Nicaraguan burn survivor Vivian Pellas share her story of living through a plane crash in Honduras, I briefly shared my story at open mic time and stressed the importance of massage therapy for rehabilitation. Senora Pellas approached me later and said she would like us to train the staff at her burn unit for children in Nicaragua at Aproquen hospital. Chris and I agreed and in the summer of 2008, we spent a week training 10 therapists from three different area hospitals in burn scar massage. We were always looking for ways to expand our efforts to reach the children on a more personal level. We found that opportunity during our return trip in 2010 when we met Jose. Jose is a 3-year-old survivor of a trash fire that left him with third degree burns over both legs, abdomen, and parts of both arms. Physical therapy for Jose was excruciating because he was forced to bend his burned and damaged legs. I could almost feel what he was going through, and his cries echoed through me as I remembered my own childhood therapy. Chris and I were able to gain his trust and massage his legs for him, which he enjoyed, but it was later that we saw the true miracle through music therapy. As we entered Jose's room a second time to play and sing to him, the staff had already begun his physical therapy. The child was screaming and refusing to get up and walk. We sat across the room from Jose and began to play the first song. He continued to scream as they moved him from the bed to a child-sized plastic chair. During our second song, which was more upbeat, Jose began to pay a little more attention to us and less to the physical therapists working on him. The third song we did was "Amazing Grace," and that is exactly what we saw. My hands trembled as I tried to play the song; across the room, Jose reached for his pint-sized walker and made the long and painful trek over to Chris and I. I was fighting back the tears as the boy held onto my guitar and swayed and tapped his feet to the rhythm. I have no idea how Chris was able to continue singing while Jose stood in front of her dancing, not realizing he was doing the therapy they wanted for him all along. Upon completion 70 massage & bodywork january/february 2011