At Sutter Davis, music soothes body and soul

There is nothing inherently uninviting about the Sutter Davis Hospital infusion center. It is a calm, quiet and peaceful place with a lovely staff.

But it’s not a place people generally want to visit. After all, this is where they come for chemotherapy and other infusions needed to treat illnesses or to counter the side-effects of treatment.

Some patients come in with a lot of anxiety, notes infusion center manager Lynnette Messex, often feeling the loss of control or stress related to a medical condition or diagnosis.

And while Sutter Davis Hospital does an excellent job helping those patients physically, CEO Jennifer Maher says, treating the emotional condition is just as key to the healing process.

That’s why Sutter Davis last year introduced pet therapy, with trained dogs and their handlers regularly making the rounds to visit with patients and staff. The simple act of petting a dog, after all, has been associated with lowering blood pressure and improving well-being.

And now, here in the infusion center, the hospital has introduced music therapy.

On Monday, Tara McConnell, a board-certified music therapist and owner of McConnell Music Therapy Services, was sitting beside patient Barbara Smaystrla in the infusion center, softly playing a guitar and leading Smaystrla through deep breathing exercises. Afterward, McConnell pulled out a Hapi drum — a small steel-tongue drum played with a mallet — for Smaystrla to try out.

“I can see little kids loving this,” Smaystrla exclaimed as she gently hit the drum.

Later, she and McConnell sang “You are My Sunshine” together.

“This has been so great,” Smaystrla said afterward.

Looking on was Daniel Beseda, a board-certified music therapist who works for McConnell and now visits the Sutter Davis infusion center every Wednesday. When he arrives, Beseda checks in with the staff first to find out who in the center might be interested in some one-on-one music therapy.

He’s not there to entertain everyone, he notes; rather, it’s an interactive experience aimed at elevating mood and decreasing anxiety and also teaching breathing and relaxation exercises that patients can do at home.

Beseda meets each patient where he or she is right then — figuring out through observation and conversation what is needed.

“There’s a lot of give and take,” Beseda explained. “We’re working with them in the moment.”

That might mean playing a favorite song on the guitar while the patient sits back, eyes closed, practicing deep breathing; or it might mean singing aloud or playing the instruments together.

“It’s definitely more than a feel-good thing,” Beseda said, noting that studies have shown that music therapy has ongoing impacts on stress, anxiety and pain management.

Beseda’s weekly visit to the Sutter Davis infusion center is free to the patients thanks to philanthropic donations.

It’s something Maher has wanted to introduce here since she arrived as CEO two years ago, having seen how effective music therapy is at other Sutter locations in the Sacramento area. McConnell’s team of music therapists work with patients in pediatrics, oncology and many other departments throughout the Sutter medical system, and Maher hopes to expand the service at Sutter Davis as well.

“We’re starting small,” she noted, “but we want to grow it.”

She doesn’t think it will be too hard to convince Sutter Davis’ generous donors.

Music therapy, she said, “really resonates with them.”

And it benefits staff as well as patients.

According to a study published in Music and Medicine, a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal, music therapy not only showed positive effects on stress level in patients and caregivers in infusion centers, but also alleviated compassion fatigue and stress in oncologists, nurses and other health professionals.

Sometimes, McConnell said, doctors and nurses will join in on a session, singing along with the patient, and in doing so, changing the relationship among all of them in a fundamental way.

“It changes their entire outlook,” Messex noted.

And she’s not immune to the power of music either.

“I just had tears in my eyes,” she admitted after hearing McConnell and Smaystrla singing “You Are My Sunshine.” “I used to sing that to my kids.”

Sometimes the songs patients want aren’t uplifting, McConnell said, because sometimes patients are feeling blue and need the music to serve as an outlet for their feelings.

“Sometimes we use very sad songs,” she explained, but that may leave a patient feeling less alone.

And the end result is positive.

According to patients surveyed in the Music and Medicine study, music therapy eased anxiety and soothed them, took their focus off the treatment itself and changed their moods for the better. Patients described the therapy as “uplifting” and “relaxing.”

“Neuroscience is catching up to what we have always known as human beings — that music affects our brains,” McConnell said.

And in a hospital setting, she added, “you can really make a difference in (patients’) health care.”