Re: Joy and Therapy (March 2)

Posted

Thank you for printing the article “Bringing Joy and Therapy to Hospice Patients through Jewish Music.”

We were very happy to see the well-written piece, making more people aware of the therapeutic power of music to uplift, energize or console people in difficult situations, even in cases where nothing else works. 

My husband, Fishel Bresler, has been doing this serious work for 30 years, at places like children’s hospitals, clinics, adult programs, special needs schools, etc., playing both Jewish music and popular tunes according to the interests of whomever he was working with. He has seen wonderful responses, and we have been blessed with administrators at Hasbro, The Miriam, Slater and other institutions who DO see what music does for their patients, as well as staff and families!

Unfortunately the value of therapeutic music in our larger society is greatly underrated or not understood, leading to severe struggles and shortages of funding and/or lack of interest in providing such professional music services, especially to our elders. Maybe more articles like this will inspire the creation of more uplifting programs.

Elianna Bresler

Providence, RI

Music Therapy, Letter to the Editor