Music Therapy at Kline Galland
June 21, 2023 | Benaroya Community Services, Hospice
Kline Galland is pleased to welcome Music Therapist Ivan Caluya, MT-BC, to our Kline Galland Hospice team! We sat down with Ivan to learn more about Music Therapy and the wonderful work he is offering Kline Galland patients.
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
My family moved from the Philippines when I was a child, so I am first-generation immigrant and speak fluent Tagalog. I studied Music Therapy at Marylhurst University and I have worked as a hospice music therapist for eight years in Salem, Oregon and NE Iowa.
How would you describe Music Therapy to someone who is not familiar?
When someone hears of music therapy for the first time, they may think, “of course, I listen to music all the time and it is very therapeutic.” I admit it is true, like listening to a playlist of your favorite songs can be fun and comforting. However, music therapists define their clinical practice within a therapeutic relationship. In a hospice music therapy session, through live recreation of music, existential distress or spiritual distress may arise or a need to make meaning to create an aesthetic legacy through song, amongst many others. Hospice music therapists build a rapport with the patient and family for that intimate space within the end-of-life continuum, to provide a musical container for verbal and emotional processing, for the “heartstrings” of emotions and subjects within the end of life.
How did you found your calling to Music Therapy?
My family ran and operated an adult care home sometime after I graduated high school. I developed a relationship with our residents who gradually became my surrogate grandparents. My father was a cruise ship musician prior to this and I think I was expected to be a musician as well with piano, guitar, and cello lessons as a child. When our residents died, I would prepare for the funeral directors and speak to them about their profession. Soon, I became a licensed funeral director and embalmer and did so for a few years. Then I was about music therapy by my multi-instrumentalist bandmate. They told me about their plan to study music therapy and suggested I would do well with hospice since I appear to be comfortable within the end-of-life continuum. So I went back to school and here I am.
What are some important roles Music Therapy can play as part of Hospice Comfort Therapy?
I would say three things, although there’s always room for more. First, music therapists address goals through non-pharmacological interventions via the creative modality of music. Second, music therapy may address pain non-pharmacologically. Third, music therapy can be a time of respite and creativity for patients and families.
Is there anything else you would like for people to know about Music Therapy?
Yes, three equally important things:
- Music therapists are professionally trained. They are required to earn a minimum undergraduate degree plus 1,200 hours of supervised practicum, and are certified by a national board. Washington State will soon require a music therapy license.
- Music therapists are not the “music man” or “music lady.”
- Music therapists are not music practitioners or music thanatologists, which provide different services and have different training. As a music therapist, I hope to provide avenues of communication for those who can find it difficult to express themselves in words.
Kline Galland Hospice is lucky to have Ivan on our Hospice team. You can learn more about Music Therapy and Kline Galland’s Hospice Services by contacting us at (206) 805-1930, or on our website.
