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REBECCA O’CONNOR Senior Music Therapist at the Na
tional Rehabilitation Hospital, Dún Laoghaire Thirty years ago, when Rebecca O’Connor graduated with a degree in Nursing from a London-based University, music therapy was finally registered as a profession in the United Kingdom by the Health and Care Professionals Council. Ireland is still awaiting the same statutory recognition from CORU, our own health regulator. Shortly after, O’Connor combined her passion for music - she sang in choirs and played piano and flute from a young age - with a qualification in nursing. Before moving to Ireland eleven years ago to introduce a music therapy pilot programme in the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) in Dún Laoghaire, where O’Connor holds the position of Senior Music Therapist, her patients ranged from premature babies to end of life patients. She also worked extensively as a researcher and lecturer in the field. Throughout our conversation, O’Connor enthusiastically detailed the work she does with patients at the NRH. We discussed the effects of music therapy and how this is a particularly fruitful time with a number of exciting research projects proving how it works. Since O’Connor began practicing as a music therapist, she has noticed a positive response to music therapy across her patients. “Music stimulates everything,” she told me. “As you’re playing an instrument, the motor-side of the brain is engaged with the cognitive part because you need to think about what you’re playing. Concurrent to that, the communications side of the brain is stimulated, too. It’s powerful because all of these areas are impacted.” Before O’Connor arrived at the NRH, the only rehabilitation resource of its kind in Ireland, there were no music therapy services available. For over half-a-century, the hospital has treated a wide range of patients. There’s a pediatric unit for children with brain and spinal injuries, limb absence units for adults, a facility for people in a disorder of consciousness, as well as brain and spinal injuries amongst adults. Due to the highly adaptive nature of this form of therapy, O’Connor is able to work with all of these patients. Each session is catered to the specific needs and recovery goals of the patient. O’Connor and a revolving cast of clinical professionals – music therapist, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, speech therapist, psychologist, and nurse – work together with music acting as a glue. The reaction music elicits in someone suffering from a disorder of consciousness, as described by O’Connor, is astounding. “Through clinical improvisation – where you make a connection through spontaneous play – I’ll match the rhythm of their breathing with a melody on the flute. Sometimes, they realise that there’s a connection between their breathing and my playing. They might stop breathing and then the music will pause briefly before they take a deep breathe and the tune starts again. That’s the beginning of them understanding that they’ve formed a connection with somebody through breathing.” Lyric writing is another useful method of using music to enhance a patient’s recovery. As children in school, we’re taught the alphabet and the number of days in a month through rhyme and song; reeling off information without consideration. The same process is hugely beneficial for patients with memory loss resulting from a brain injury. “There was a young girl who struggled to remember directions because the memory-part of the brain had been severely damaged. However, she could easily recall words of songs. We wrote a song full of directions to help her make her way from the music room to the coffee shop, for example. It shows us that there are so many ways that you can facilitate treatment through music.” ➝ 23