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2024 Election Coverage

The healing power of music

Kerry Devlin is the Senior Music Therapist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Music and Medicine. She's pictured here with the instrument cart used when working with children at the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children's Center of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Credit: Provided by CMM
Kerry Devlin is the Senior Music Therapist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Music and Medicine. She's pictured here with the instrument cart used when working with children at the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children's Center of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Credit: Provided by CMM

Music can soothe, motivate and stir feelings. Can music heal? Dr. Alexander Pantelyat, who runs the Johns Hopkins Center for Music and Medicine, develops therapies and conducts research with patients who have Parkinson’s disease and other ailments. He says it’s not one-size-fits all, and can be tailored to each patient just like other medications.

Plus, Senior Music Therapist Kerry Devlin, who works with adults and children, says that using music for healing may not be the right fit for everyone, but for many:

“It’s an experience that brings something different into their care. It feels really different from some of the other therapies that they move through because of the ways in which it holds space for their experiences, their music and their personhood.”

Links: The Johns Hopkins Center for Music and Medicine, Where to find a music therapist.

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.
Melissa Gerr is a Senior Producer for On the Record. She started in public media at Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minn., where she is from, and then worked as a field producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland. She made the jump to audio-lover in Baltimore as a digital media editor at Mid-Atlantic Media and Laureate Education, Inc. and as a field producer for "Out of the Blocks." Her beat is typically the off-beat with an emphasis on science, culture and things that make you say, 'Wait, what?'